Home Info - Society for Oncology Massage

Time 2020-09-12 08:04:40

Web Name: Home Info - Society for Oncology Massage

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Slide2 S4OM, Recalibrating our Direction When COVID-19 began, our interpretation of risk revolved around one thing: infection. Now, a few months later, we are realizing that there is another element of risk to consider: the risk of isolation and separation. Not only are people not receiving massage and the therapeutic presence and touch that goes with it; they are also not seeing their families, kids, or grandkids. They are avoiding going to places of worship and missing their supportive spiritual communities. They are not going to exercise classes, book clubs, and the theatre. There are so many aspects of connecting in our lives that are gone for now. The impact of this isolation and loneliness is potentially immense. People report feeling more depressed, more anxious, more hopeless, and may be experiencing more pain and other symptoms as a result. In other words, quality of life is significantly reduced as a consequence of social distancing and other COVID-prevention measures.We are hearing stories from many perspectives: massage therapists and clients who are hyper-vigilant and prefer to wait it out; clients who are missing their massage treatments in many ways; and practitioners who are unsure about how to manage the risk/benefit ratio as they weigh all of these elements. Ultimately, decisions must be made on a case-by-case basis. Some massage therapists are rethinking their chosen profession; some have changed direction; and some are continuing in practice, albeit differently. All of these choices are valid and require patience and adaptability.COVID-19 may go on for an indeterminate number of years, which begs the questions: How do we live our lives in a meaningful way? How do our lives include safe delivery of massage therapy? How do we balance the risk of infection with the risks of lack of touch? What are current best practices when integrating massage into a care plan in these unprecedented times?How do we shift our understanding of the risk/benefit ratio for massage therapy? On one hand, there is a risk of infection with massage because we cannot maintain social distancing. But on the other hand, there is a biopsychosocial risk associated with isolation and lack of touch. Looking at determinants of health is a way of understanding the immune response and its relationship to social connection, touch, sleep, healthy food, physical activity, and a positive mental state. The care massage therapists provide can decrease pain, improve quality of life, improve sleep, and generally make life more bearable. Does this make us less susceptible to COVID? We do not have data to answer this question, but a holistic view of health says that all of these factors contribute to a healthy immune response.Bottom line: we, as oncology massage therapists, must consider many variables as we navigate this complicated moment in time. We are contending not only with a global pandemic, but with financial hardship, the surfacing of racial bias, and civil unrest. It is more important than ever that we listen deeply to our clients, keep our hearts open, and shift our gaze away from the crises and back to each other.We plan to explore the following questions over the next few months:How can S4OM support our members and community as they navigate these moments in time?How will oncology massage evolve due to this pandemic?How does oncology massage education adapt to these times?What is the role of S4OM in this confounding time?How do we hold space for one another in a deep and meaningful way?Our focusS4OM is here to support our community. The following resources are intended to assist in adapting best practices during this pandemic, keeping in mind that this is a moving target. Clients, practitioners, and educators should interpret this information with consideration for their personal circumstances, state or local requirements, and the ever-evolving scientific data.Suggested Resources – Science Regulatory Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Get the Facts about Coronavirus (COVID-19), 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2Findex.html OSHA, Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19, https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3990.pdf World Health Organization, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2Findex.html Local public health departments where you are located or where continuing education courses are being offered Local Regulatory Agencies for Massage Therapy where you are located Suggested Resource - Massage Practice Education ABMP, COVID-19 Updates for the Massage Profession https://www.abmp.com/covid-updates AFMTE, COVID-19 Resources for Massage Therapy Educators, https://www.afmte.org/covid19/ AMTA, COVID-19 Resources for Massage Therapists, https://www.amtamassage.org/about/news/covid-19-resources-for-massage-therapists/ FSMTB. Massage and Bodywork Guidelines for Practice with COVID-19 Considerations, Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards, 2020, https://www.fsmtb.org/media/2319/fsmtb20200519guidelinesforpracticecovid-19.pdf Massage Magazine, Coronavirus (COVID-19), https://www.massagemag.com/coronavirus/ Massage Mastery Online, Preventing Disease Transmission in a Massage Practice, https://massagemastery.online/buy-preventing-disease-transmission-textbook/ Massage Therapy Foundation, COVID-19 Information, https://massagetherapyfoundation.org/covid19/ NCBTMB COVID-19 Updates Official Statements, https://www.ncbtmb.org/recommendations-amid-covid-19-concerns/ Ruth Werner, Massage Therapy and COVID-19, http://ruthwerner.com/massage-therapy-and-covid-19/ Allissa Haines and Michael Reynolds, Financially Surviving COVID-19, https://www.abmp.com/updates/blog-posts/financially-surviving-covid-19 Suggested Resources - S4OM Recognized Education Providers Tracy Walton Associates, COVID-19. Massage Therapy, You, and Me, https://www.tracywalton.com/covid-19-massage-therapy-you-and-me/ Healwell, Back to Practice, https://www.healwell.org/blog/back-to-practice/ Oncology Massage Limited, Latest COVID-19 Newsletter, https://www.oncologymassagetraining.com.au/index.php?content=185 Suggested Resources - Social Media Facebook Group, Massage, Health Practitioners and COVID-19, https://www.facebook.com/groups/covidandmassage/ My oncology massage work, while seemingly devoted to the healing of others, is also a touchstone for my own healing. Time and time again, a client comes in with a body needing massage, a body carrying the intensity of the deepest health crisis imaginable. My job is to put my hands on this body and invite in some ease and some comfort. For each person, I make a humble offering of my own companionship. My hope is that this makes a difference to them. But I am certain it makes a difference to me.Somehow, this routine with my hands and heart has helped me grow and to heal some of my own wounds. Contact with others requires contact between me and myself. I know myself better than I did before I started this work. My affection for myself and for everyone else has grown over the years. And my hands, constantly in contact with the changing waters of clients' experiences, have learned to trust the sacred rhythm of people moving in and through and out of my life.I have learned that the only thing I have to offer sometimes is this deeply cultivated affection. And my companionship. I don't have to think of anything else more helpful, cleverer or in service of a higher good. My presence honors all that my client is, was and will be. It honors everything that goes on in their bodies. To these, it is simple to offer myself. It is all I have and all I can do. And sometimes, sometimes it is enough. My oncology massage work Tracy Walton, LMT While [in oncology massage training] in Arizona, I was assigned to massage a woman who was to receive packed platelets. Her platelet count was so low she was forbidden to brush her teeth because she might bleed out. The only safe massage was to gently move the hair on her skin with a little oil. I found her in a hospital bed in a corner of the infusion room. I could see the anxiety in her face and on her heart rate and blood pressure monitors. After the nurses started the infusion, I pulled the curtain and started to massage her face and scalp, arms and hands, lower legs and feet, and finally, her back. I could feel her become progressively more relaxed and I could see the change in both monitors. By the time I reached the middle of her back, she was sound asleep. What a demonstration of the power of touch and what a demonstration that often less is truly more. While in oncology massage Bruce Hopkins, LMT 2 She is much older than her 9 years, the girl who always accompanies her mom to chemo and radiation treatments. She acts as her translator, interpreting news and information that a young child should not be exposed to. One day, I was walking with the girl when we passed a patient who was very disfigured from a large tumor on the neck. Putting my arm around her, I quietly said, “You are too young to be exposed to so much illness.”She looked at me and said, “It's OK, this is my normal.”Whenever I see her, I bring the girl into my massage room for a few minutes of pampered attention. I became her caregiver. She is such a delight to talk to. You have “hands of clouds” she told me, the first time I massaged her back. She is much older than he Toni Muirhead, LMT 3 A year after treatment, Pat returned to massage. By then the meaning of the sessions had changed. Before cancer, the massages had been an extension of her face paced life. When the sessions ended, she immediately stepped back into the high stress, all relaxation quickly forgotten. Now, time spent receiving massage is sacred and meditative. Pat is in the here and now; she tunes into her body; and touch is an experience that deepens her awareness. These days Pat enjoys the good feelings massage brings to her body and holds on to those sensations as long as possible. Bodywork lets her let go of the tension, anxiety and fear that accumulated over months of treatment. A year after treatment, Pat Gayle MacDonald, LMT 1 Alicia was a long-term client. I worked with her all through her chemo and radiation for breast cancer. Some months after treatment, she was back in the hospital with metastases to the brain. After several tries at curative therapies she decided to go home. Her husband called and asked if I would give her a massage every day until she died. Over the next three days she became less and less responsive, while periodically becoming very agitated. Each day massage brought her peaceful sleep. On the fourth day she was unresponsive and her breathing was a death rattle. As I worked, I was sure that a deep and distant part of her knew I was there. She died peacefully a short time later. It is a transcendent experience to stand at the gateway between life and death. Alicia was a long-term Bruce Hopkins, LMT 2 After finding a lump in my right breast, I had a partial mastectomy with no lymph nodes removed. I was scheduled for 33 days of radiation. The doctors told me that radiation would cause my breast to shrink and become hard. Since I was a practicing massage therapist, I requested permission from my surgeon and radiologist to do self-massage to the breast and both were supportive. Three days after surgery, I began gentle massage around the incision. When I saw the surgeon two weeks later, he commented on how well I had healed. I reminded him of the massage - he just laughed.A week later, I began six and a half weeks of radiation. Every day I gently massaged the entire breast without lotion, focusing on the breast being a loved part of my body. After the massage, I sought out the areas that hurt, generally sharp spots of pain at the lower bra line. I set my fingers on the spots and maintained gentle contact - they dissolved in seconds. My massage took two to three minutes, sometimes several times a day.Each week I saw the radiologist. After three weeks he started commenting on the lack of redness - it finally appeared two weeks later. He suggested a lotion for dryness which I began using.Two weeks after radiation was done, I saw the surgeon again. He could not believe the condition of my breast. What he saw and palpated was normal, soft tissue with a very light tan. He said this was the best tissue he had seen in twelve years of cancer surgery. I reminded him that I had performed breast massage throughout the process. He did not laugh this time. The oncology radiologist had similar comments.A month after radiation, to keep the right pectoralis major from binding, I added Myofascial Release for two months. I am now two years cancer-free. I continued the massage for a year and a half before sore and dense tissue stopped appearing - even now I occasionally have to do some touch up. My breast looks and feels completely normal (except for the fact that I am missing pieces/parts). The surgical scar is soft and faint. There is no pain or discomfort and arm motion is completely normal.My surgeon and radiologist are very impressed and are interested in using massage in treatment. I worked with a quiet, middle-aged gentleman on the Radiation floor where I do gentle shoulder, neck and hand massage. Near the close of our 20 minutes, he was in tears - he was so grateful for relief from the pain of treatment. I was so touched, I was in tears. Later one of his family members called me to schedule a full body session for him. She explained that, much to the entire family's surprise, he had no pain that day and told them he felt nourished for the first time in his cancer treatment. She went on to explain that he is not a man who would do anything like this for himself. They were all surprised he took me up on my offer for shoulder massage. When they asked him why he did, he said, “... because she looked at me, right in the eyes, and I thought maybe I was suppose to be touched today.” I worked with a quiet, middle-aged gentleman Meg Robsahm, LMP Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands. Make it your ambition to 1 Thessalonians 4:11 (NIV) When I focus on what is good today, I have a good day. When I focus on what is bad today, I have a bad day. If I focus on the problem, the problem increases. If I focus on the solution, the solution increases. When I focus on what is good today Alcoholics Anonymous A friend is someone who knows the song of your soul and sings it back to you when you have forgotten the words. A friend is someone who Anonymous And finally, a thought for the end of life ..... "I forgive you. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you. Goodbye." And finally, a thought for Anonymous We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. We are what we repeatedly DO Aristotle If you see what you do each day as your way of loving the world and helping it heal, then life gets to be a lot different. The difference between burning up and burning out is the difference between loving what you are doing and not loving it. If you see what you do each day Bernie Siegel, MD It's not about curing the disease, but healing the life; then the physical benefits come. It's not about curing the Bernie Siegel, MD To heal is to unify the physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual selves into an integrated and harmonious whole. To cure is to eliminate a demonstrable disease process. One can be healed without being cured. To heal is to unify the physical Bruce Hopkins, LMT Happiness is a not a destination, but the journey. Dealing with cancer is both destination and journey. Medicine is concerned with the quality of the destination. Massage is concerned with the quality of the journey. Happiness is a not a dest Bruce Hopkins, LMT Massage soothes the body, easing mind and spirit. Mind and spirit, in turn, remind the body of its God given power to self-heal. Massage soothes the body Bruce Hopkins, LMT Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. Though no one can go back Carol Bard Freedom from illness is the foremost good fortune. Contentment is the foremost wealth. Trust is the foremost kinship. Seeing what actually exists is the foremost ease. Freedom from illness is Dhammapada 15 We think work with the brain is more worthy than work with the hands. Nobody who thinks with his hands could ever fall for this. We think work with the E.F. Schumacher People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun's out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light within. People are like stained Elizabeth Kubler Ross ...science is confirming what we know in our hearts: that, as psychiatrist James Gordon put it, "massage is medicine." science is confirming George Howe Colt A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. A happy person is not Hugh Downs You may not know that the world needs you, but it does. For no one else can smile your smile, say your piece, shine your light.... you are unique and you alone can fill your place. If you were not here to shine your light, what would happen to pilgrims passing by your empty place in the darkness, without your light to help them on their way? You may not know that the world needs you, but it does. You may not know that the Inspired by an Old Poem Touch was never meant to be a luxury. It is a basic human need. It is an action that validates life and gives hope to both the receiver and the giver The healing of touch is reciprocal. Touch was never meant to Irene Smith No single therapeutic agent can be compared in efficiency with this familiar but perfect tool...the human hand. If half as much research had been expended on the principles governing manual treatment as upon pharmacology, the hand would be esteemed today on a par with drugs in acceptability and power. No single therapeutic age J. Madison Taylor, M.D. 1908 Some say, after we have mastered the wind, the waves. the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in history of the world, man will have discovered fire. Some say, after we have Jesuit Philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin You don't get to choose how you are going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you are going to live. NOW! You don't get to choose Joan Baez Eternity is not the hereafter..... this is it. If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. Eternity is not the hereafter Joseph Campbell Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. Kindness in words creates Lao-Tzu May the work of your hands be a sign of gratitude and reverence to the human condition. May the work of your hand Mahatma Gandhi It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing.... You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result. It's the action, not the Mahatma Gandhi The true voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes. The true voyage of discovery Marcel Proust Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed with the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. Throw off the bow lines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade-winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Twenty years from now you Mark Twain Live with intention, walk to the edge, listen hard, practice wellness, play with abandon, laugh, choose with no regret, continue to learn, appreciate your friends, do what you love, live as if this is all there is. Live with intention, walk Mary Anne Radmacher When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts, the circle of creation is completed inside us, the doors of our souls fly open, and love steps forth to heal everything in sight. When our eyes see our hands Michael Bridge Perhaps we are too embarrassed or to frightened of the consequences of showing that we actually care. But why not risk it anyway? Begin, today. Carry out a random act of seemingly senseless kindness, with no expectation of reward or punishment. Safe in the knowledge that one day someone, somewhere might do the same for you. Perhaps we are too embarrassed Princess Diana I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. I slept and dreamt that l Rabindranath Tagore It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. It is one of the most beautiful Ralph Waldo Emerson Deep peace of the rising star to you. Deep peace of the flowing air to you. Deep peace of the rolling wave to you. Deep peace of the gentle earth to you. Deep peace of the bright blue sky to you. Deep peace of the gentle breeze to you. Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you. May peace fill your soul and make you whole. Deep peace of the rising Saint Columbia Our prime purpose in life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them. Our prime purpose in life The Dalai Lama May you be at peace. May your heart remain open. May you awaken to the light of your own true nature. May you be healed. May you be a source of healing to all beings. May you be at peace The Metta of the Buddha The real hope is not in something we think we can do, but in God, who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see. The real hope is not in Thomas Merton To be "at peace" does not mean to be in a place where there is not noise, trouble and hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things, and still be calm in your heart. To be "at peace" Unknown You can complain because roses have thorns. Or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. You can complain because Unknown

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