My name is Wendy and I am a licensed massage therapist and full time nursing student pursuing my bachelor’s of nursing degree. Why endure the widely known tortures of nursing school? Simple: I want to become a nurse who helps cancer patients.
How did I get from massage to nursing? Before I was a nursing student, I was a massage therapist for ten years. Very early in my career, a dear friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her doctor recommended massage for symptom relief, and so she asked me. This struck terror in my heart. At the time I went to massage school our book had one paragraph about cancer patients that made it seem like touching them would be tantamount to personally delivering cancer throughout their body. I always pictured it as dislodging little chunks of tumor that would float down the blood stream causing metastases the whole way through. This reflected the lack of research that had been done on the subject. Intuitively, I knew that if I significantly decreased my pressure and stayed attune to my client, I could provide safe and effective relief. Of course I still felt superstitious about it, so I pursued training in outpatient oncology massage.
Many years later the research finally caught up to what I had instinctively known-massage for cancer patients can not only be safe but beneficial! I’ve never read a study that said massage could cure cancer, so that is definitely not what I’m saying. BUT research has confirmed massage can do some very amazing things for cancer patients: Decrease pain, increase sleep, increase gastrointestinal motility, decrease the amount of pain medications needed, decrease stress (which is directly linked to immune system efficacy). Advanced techniques applied by a certified practitioner (such as myself) can also reduce scar tissue, reduce lymphedema, improve range of motion, and even reduce the symptoms related to chemo-induced peripheral neuropathy (study on effects is currently in progress)!
After receiving my clinical oncology massage certification from William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan I worked in an outpatient cancer center for two years and I loved every minute of it. Although homeopathic treatments such as massage are slowly transitioning from “alternative” to “complimentary”, so much work still needs to be done to get oncology patients the evidence based and open minded treatment that could completely change their experience. When I realized I could do more for cancer patients from within as a nurse, as opposed to from without as a massage therapist, I enrolled in nursing school.
This blog is for all nursing students, particularly for those who want to focus on oncology as a specialty.
This blog is for all nurses, particularly those who want to share their knowledge to help others.
This blog is for all people affected by cancer, particularly those who are seeking a safe place to learn and share their experiences.
This blog is for all people, particularly those who are black sheep seeking thoughts about health that unabashedly question the status quo.
P.S. Full disclosure: I love (parentheses), CAPS, run on sentences, and having way too many opinions- Enjoy!
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