Medicine Hands: Massage Therapy for People with Cancer [Paperback]

The field of oncology massage is maturing into a discipline with a deeper and deeper body of knowledge. The 3rd edition ofMedicine Handsreflects this maturation. Every chapter contains updated information and insights into massaging people affected by cancer. New chapters have been added to cover each stage of the cancer experience: treatment, recovery, survivorship, side effects from the disease, and end of life. These new chapters and organizational structure will make it easier for the reader to find the information needed to plan the massage session for a given client. In addition, a new chapter has been added that focuses on the Pressure/Site/Positioning framework. This is the clinical framework around which the massage session is planned.Gayle MacDonald: M.S., L.M.T., began her career as a teacher in 1973 and as a massage therapist in 1989. In 1991, she blended her two career paths. Since 1994, she has given massage to cancer patients and supervised massage therapists on the oncology units of Oregon Health and Science University. MacDonald is a frequent contributor to the three main massage journals in the US. Presently, she travels the US teaching continuing education courses in oncology massage.Introduction: Cancer—A Part of Life

Cancer is not a modern disease. The attempts to understand and treat it did not burst onto the scene just recently. Cancer has been observed and described for millennia. Evidence of it has been found in human remains that go back many thousands of years. The famous anthropolo- gist Louis Leakey found the oldest possible tumor in a fossil jawbone in Kenya that dates back 6,000 years. Chinese folklore makes reference to esophageal and throat cancer. Ayurvedic medical books describe tumors and how to treat them. Hippocrates, the Greek physician, de- scribed cancer as a condition of excess black bile, which was one of the four humors. At that time, illnesses were categorized in terms of excesses of various bodily flul1