Occupational Therapy - Round 1

One morning, several months after surgery and radiation were done, I woke up and stretched. You know, like everyone stretches while trying to wake up? That morning, however, I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my side when I stretched. What the heck was that?!? The pain was so sharp, and so unexpected, that I gasped and grabbed my side. Damn, that hurt! Initially I shrugged it off, thinking maybe I had slept in a weird position or pulled a muscle somehow. But the pain continued for several days, so I called my doctor.

As a cancer patient, you tend to worry about every new pain. Has the cancer returned? Has it spread? Is this something new? As much as you try not to worry about unknown aches and pains, these thoughts are always in the back of your mind. Thankfully, my doctor didn't find anything of concern. What she suspected we were dealing with was scar tissue from surgery that had become tighter and more tough due to radiation treatments. Remember when I called radiation the "gift that keeps on giving"? My doctor recommended physical therapy to help loosen the scar tissue and decrease the pain.

When I first met with the Physical Therapy clinic I was assigned to an Occupational Therapist for my specific issue. During the initial consultation it was discovered that the tightness of the scar tissue was also causing loss of range of motion in my arm, something we would address during the OT sessions to follow. For several weeks I went to OT 2-3 times per week. The wonderful staff there helped with gentle stretching of my arm, my shoulder, and my chest muscles to loosen the scar tissue and improve the range of motion I had lost. The two treatments that helped the most though, were treatments called blading and cupping. The therapist carefully performed the blading treatment on the more painful areas multiple times and each time the pain level improved. The cupping technique was also performed several times to loose.ln the scar tissue. Over the several weeks of exercising, stretching, cupping, and blading I began to feel better slowly but surely. Of course, there were some setbacks. The therapist called it "peeling an onion".... one issue improves and another shows up. Fun, right? :/

Along the way we were challenged with swelling of my arm, shoulder, and chest area, irritated incisions, lots of pain, as well as muscle damage from radiation. I am happy to report that patience and consistent treatment led to pain relief. I was once again able to lift my arm over my head without extreme pain! Small wins, right? Lifting your arm over your head seems like such a minor thing, until you can't do so without pain. Who knew that OT would be a key component in my recovery? I certainly did not see that coming, but it was helpful beyond my expectations!