Origins of Red Cupping Clinic

How Cupping and Gua Sha helped Heal me from spinal tumor surgery

Rita (Owner / Sr. Therapist / Spinal Tumor Survivor)

In 2017, shortly after the birth of her first son, Li Ye “Rita” Rawlings had X-Rays taken of her neck and upper body, only to discover she had a tumor in the spine of her neck.  Initial diagnosis by a Seattle-based neuro-spine doctor was, “Let’s wait and keep watching it.” But then it kept growing, as you can see the MRI from Dec-2019. The doctor’s updated prognosis was grim, he told Rita, “You will slowly lose the ability to walk and it will eventually lead to death. The only thing you can do now is pray.” Rita and her family were crushed in grief.

After the initial shock, Rita decided she could not accept that prognosis. She refused to allow her only son to grow up without a mother!  She and her family embarked on an urgent search to find the best possible doctor in this field of spine tumors, surgery or other options.  She found and became a patient of world-renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Langston Holly at UCLA Health.  After reviewing her MRIs over the period of 2017-2019, Dr. Holly had seen tumor growth like this before and he advised Rita to get immediate surgery to remove it.  The risks were high; any time you are cutting into the neck area of the spine you risk losing all feeling in your legs, becoming paralyzed and even death.  Dr. Holly and his team had performed many of these types of surgeries successfully and Rita decided she was going ahead with it. The last week of December 2019, Rita was checked into the UCLA Hospital and prepped for surgery. You can see her with Dr. Holly the morning of the operation.

We knew it was going to be a long a complicated operation, but as the day progressed, it slowly turned into a grueling 13 hours for doctor, patient and Rita’s family. In the end it was successful!  Rita emerged with the tumor completely removed. Tissue tests indicated the tumor was non-cancerous; a huge relief for her and her family. Doctors placed screws and other surgical metal into her spinal bones to hold everything together.  She is eternally grateful to Dr. Langston Holly and his team at UCLA for this miracle operation!

Rita was then faced with weeks of recovery, physical therapy and learning how to walk again, all while being a thousand miles away from her two-year-old son. 

It was more than most humans could endure, but the thought of her only son growing up with a paralyzed mother drove her to endure the pain and frustration of PT.  After two weeks she was walking again without the assistance of a walker. She did not stop there, she wanted to return to Full Health and searched for ways to heal herself further. 

The stresses of surgery and PT had left their marks on her face. She wanted those gone too. Rita talked with Dr. Holly and he okayed her use of cupping and gua sha for Lymphatic System restart and to aid in her healing.

She knew that cupping and gua sha (movement of the cup across the skin) could speed healing to her neck, spine, head and face, but traditional “Fire Cupping” and “Scraping” would have been extremely difficult for her to do on herself. Rita invested in two variable suction cupping machines, shaved her head and started a daily multi-hour regimen of cupping and gua sha on herself to reactivate her Lymphatic System, speed the replenishment of her body’s Qi, and move forward to full health.

Within Two-Months she was back to work running her two businesses (Butterfly Massage Spa and Red Cupping Clinic, LLC) and assisting her patients in speeding their own healing processes!

Cupping, Gua Sha and Lymphatic treatments did wonders for Rita as she recovered from her Spinal Neck Tumor surgery. Imagine what it can do for you too!