Massage therapy can offer pain relief for children

The toxic drugs meant to banish 13-year-old Eric Creson's leukemia bring a pain all their own. Just days after each monthly treatment drips into his body, excruciating muscle spasms and cramps flare up. They last a week or two, sometimes continuing all the way up until the next treatment.

Even as the chemotherapy nips away at his blood cancer, he must take a jumble of pain medications and muscle relaxants to endure the side effects. A new program at the Medical University of South Carolina Children's Hospital, however, offers him an added tool for pain relief: therapeutic massage.

"He was laying there on the table, and he looked completely relaxed," says Jenny Creson, Eric's mother, of his first experience having a massage at the hospital. "With any kind of illness that is so draining and takes so much time and effort, something like this just for the relaxation could be very beneficial."

Massage's worth is well-documented in studies examining its impact on patients from premature babies to adult cancer patients, who reported a decrease in treatment side effects such as nausea and exhaustion. Researchers say the technique helps people relax and sleep better, which sometimes helps bed-bound patients gather strength to move around.

Among children, studies have found that massage may offset some of the problems associated with chronic illness and lifelong disability. One 2005 study, for instance, found that massage therapy reduced muscle spasticity and improved flexibility and motor function in children with cerebral palsy. White blood cell counts increased among a group of children with leukemia who got daily massages, and benefits even extended to their parents, who reported a decrease in depression a month after the therapy began.

Another newcomer to massage is 11-year-old Micah Evans, who got his first taste of the treatment last week while hospitalized for complications of Crohn's disease, a severe inflammatory bowel condition that makes it hard for patients to absorb nutrients from food.

Licensed massage therapist Steve Jurch slowly moved his hands over Micah's belly and lower back, following the clockwise path of the large intestine in hopes of providing some relief from the unrelenting pains that plague Micah as his battered intestines struggle to do their work. Micah, a sixth-grader at Sangaree Middle School, lay still in his bed, draped by a sheet at his waist and chatting with Jurch about which areas felt most tender.

As he sat near Micah's side, his father, Brian Evans, said he hoped the massage would provide his son similar pain relief to the techniques his wife used to cope with natural childbirth.

MUSC's pediatric pain management coordinator, Sheri Stewart, says patients' initial massage experiences are encouraging and inspiring. She watched, for instance, as a young patient's heart rate slowed to more normal levels on monitors during her massage. An irritable baby who'd been hospitalized for its entire life was visibly calmed, and a parent reported a "remarkable change in movement" following his child's session.

The findings aren't new: Some studies, such as those showing that massage helps premature babies gain more weight and become more socially responsive — resulting in quicker hospital discharges and treatment savings — date back to the 1980s. But the pediatric massage program at MUSC is the only in-patient service of its kind in South Carolina, and Stewart says families have had trouble accessing similar services in the community because insurance doesn't cover it and most spa-based therapists are unfamiliar with serious children's illnesses.

The program is funded by a $2,650 grant administered by the Coastal Community Foundation, but only two months after the hospital kicked off the service, so many patients have taken advantage of the treatment that the money is almost gone. Sick kids and their parents have come to rely on the massages as bright, restorative spots in their hospital visits, but Stewart isn't sure how she'll find the funds to continue it.

For now, the service is mostly limited to patients with certain illnesses and developmental delays such as cerebral palsy, but Stewart finds doctors are asking for massage consultants for patients with other types of pain, such as headaches. On her wish list: Expanding the program so that every Children's Hospital patient could receive the service, and launching research projects to evaluate its benefit for patients with conditions like cystic fibrosis. She would also like to bring therapists in to teach classes to parents, staff and other caregivers.

If parents are interested during their child's massage, Jurch already instructs them about techniques they can use at home or in the hospital to soothe their children. That bit of instruction might even enhance family bonding — especially important when so much of a sick child's human contact comes with needle sticks, cold stethoscopes and bright lights.

"A lot of times parents are scared to even touch their own child because they don't want to hurt them, or they don't understand what's going on," says Jurch, who owns the Center for Therapeutic Massage in Charleston and teaches in MUSC's physical and occupational therapy programs. "Maybe if the parent sees this and then they can do more of it, maybe there's some bonding."

Creson hung around and asked Jurch for tips during Eric's first massage. At home when he hurts, she and her husband often rub him until their own hands ache. Now, she looks to the therapist like another member of Eric's medical team: someone with specialized expertise that might help her son feel better.

"I really like the idea that the massage therapist has access to his medical records and can understand what the whole situation is," Creson says. "He's fragile, and it's just reassuring that this is someone who has an idea of what's happening with him."

For more information about the massage program at MUSC's Children's Hospital, call 792-8158.

Reach Holly Auer at 937-5560 or hauer@postandcourier.com.