CarolinaEast oncology massage therapist followed calling [sponsored content] - New Bern Sun Journal

[massage]

Patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy at the SECU Comprehensive Cancer Center at CarolinaEast Medical Center can receive three complimentary oncology massage treatments.

Arnie Smalldridge, a former administrative assistant at CarolinaEast, said she was inspired to pursue oncology massage therapy training after seeing how massaging her mother-in-law’s feet helped to relieve cancer pain.

She also served as secretary to a patient and family advisory where she heard cancer patients talk about what helped to relieve them from pain.

“While we were building the foundation of the cancer center, there were two patients who said massage was the only thing that helped them to handle their pain,” Smalldridge said. “I knew then that I wanted to go back to school. I was just blessed that CarolinaEast opened up this position for me.”

Smalldridge graduated from a massage therapy program at Lenoir Community College in 2017, received an online certificate of completion for oncology massage and in May completed 32 hours of hands-on oncology massage therapy training in Raleigh.

“It definitely was a calling,” she said. “I’ve always believed strongly in the power behind the human touch. Sometimes I have patients in here and they live alone. They don’t really have a caregiver. Just having someone to touch them and soothe them in that manner, that’s all they need. It’s psycho-social, if you will.”

About five patients a day receive 45-minute treatments in her massage room at the cancer center. The low lighting, relaxing music and aroma therapy helps them to relax, she said.

“I sit down with them first and talk with them about their condition to better know what I need to do for them,” Smalldridge said. “When you do oncology massage therapy, you have to be very mindful of your pressure with an oncology patient. If there is a tumor site, you have to avoid that.”

She said oncology massage therapy is different from typical massage therapy in that the therapist must know where the cancer is in the patient’s body, the types of treatment they are undergoing and any side effects they’re experiencing.

“You have to know if the cancer has spread, especially if it has metastasized into the bone marrow,” Smalldridge said. “The bones can be so fragile that you really want to watch your pressure in that area. You want to avoid any tumor sites. But you do want to focus on the tissue in those areas where the pain is and just do a very light treatment on them to try to release those tissues.”

She said oncology massage therapy helps patients to relax and manage their pain better without the use of many pain medications.

“It helps their sleep, improves immune function,” Smalldridge said. “They get peripheral neuropathy relief from massage and they get relief from nausea. They have so many side effects from their medications as far as joint pain, inflammation. Massage helps with that as well.”

Therapy also helps with patients undergoing radiation treatments, she said.

“The radiation treatment targets the tumor site, but it also irradiates tissues around that site,” Smalldridge said. “Breast cancer patients can end up with frozen shoulders. Humans guard themselves from pain. You see this in breast cancer patients. They throw their shoulders forward, which messes up their entire gait.”

Some patients fear the pain they feel means the cancer has spread or metastasized, she said.

“What I do is I help them to understand that these are side effects, that it’s not a metastasized site,” Smalldridge said.

She usually sees patients who are in treatment for cancer, but doctors have referred some patients to her who are three to five years out of treatment.

“What I have seen there is that even in their survivor state, three to five years later, they’re still showing effects of the chemo treatment or the radiation treatment,” Smalldridge said. “They have to get used to the new normal.”