What is massage and how can it help?
Massage therapy is useful for many breast cancer related benefits. Receiving massages during treatment can help alleviate nausea, headaches, muscle pain, edema, achy joints, and stiffness resulting from surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. If you are experiencing these symptoms, you may want to talk to your doctor about getting a referral to a specially trained massage therapist. 

Regular massage can also help manage and diminish general stress that accompanies life changes due to cancer.  Therapeutic massage for people living with cancer is gentle and comforting, it isn’t deep and it won’t cause one to be sore afterward.

 Lymphatic massage can be very helpful in treating lymphedema, a condition that can occur after lymph node removal. Lymphedema is excess accumulation of fluid and protein in the tissues.  This may be caused when lymphatic vessels are damaged from chemotherapy, blocked by scar tissue following radiation treatment, or become swollen when the normal flow of lymphatic fluid cannot be processed after lymph node removal.  Lymphedema can be painful, so directing lymph flow away from the affected site with light massage strokes can bring tremendous relief. 

 Gentle touch through massage can help diminish nausea, fatigue, and pain.  Just lying still and stepping away from the routine of chemotherapy, radiation, doctors, and all of the outside stimuli one faces with cancer allows the body to relax and rest.  Muscle tension decreases and fresh nutrients enter the blood and gently circulate throughout the body helping to bring a sense of ease and peace.