Forum Discussion

LadyLace's avatar
LadyLace
Member
8 years ago

Massage

My daughter gave me a voucher for a massage for Mother's Day. I have had 24 weeks of chemo, lumpectomy and axillary clearance on left breast and am two weeks into four weeks of radiation.  My body hurts from being poked, prodded, port-a-cathed, stuck with needles, drugged, scanned, x-rayed, echoed, biopsied, hook-wired, cut, stitched, and now burnt. My shoulders ache, my lower back is tired and sore, I get puffy easily, and have not done a lot of physical exertion since treatment started. In short, I'm tired and sore! 
So, I thought the massage would be lovely!  Alas the "therapist" thought otherwise, and took an obvious step back when I told her about the radiation treatment, even though I assured her I wasn't glowing. She said she didn't want to "move anything around". She contacted a colleague (who advertises herself as oncology massage therapist) who advised her not to massage me, and to tell me I can't have a massage till the same amount of radiation treatment time as passed. E.g: four weeks of treatment plus another four weeks to wait.
So I left there with my tired sore body and unused gift voucher which I returned to my daughter. 
Has anyone else had similar experiences, or has anyone had (god forbid) a massage?? 
Signed:
Tired, sore and fed-up!   :(
  • SoldierCrab's avatar
    SoldierCrab
    Member
    8 years ago
    LadyLace I had massages from before my diagnosis all the way through treatment..... My therapist is an accredited oncology/lymphodema masseur and now that is mainly what she focuses on as she has realised how many of us going through treatment or after who need regular massages. 

    And the numpty as Zoffiel called it is quackers ....because after 6 weeks of radiation  I tried to see if I glowed in the dark but hence I did NOT  ;) :p
  • melclarity's avatar
    melclarity
    Member
    8 years ago
    I haven't heard of that to be honest, although I'd recommend a massage from an Oncology Masseur to start for all the reasons you said. I still at 16months post chemo havent had one, but I have a friend who is an Oncology Masseur who specialises, so Im intrigued by it, Id imagine it would be wonderful!! x
  • Zoffiel's avatar
    Zoffiel
    Member
    8 years ago
    Bollux! If your skin isn't broken and they leave the actual treament area alone there is no reason for them to refuse that I have heard of.

    ' Move anything around' FFS! It's bad enough to feel like you've been dragged backward down the stairs without someone treating you like a leper. Does she think you are radioactive enough to contaminate her? The numpty. If that were the case there would be thousands of people wandering around glowing mysteriously because they'd hugged one of us.

    Get her to refund the money and go somewhere else.