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Masajear la Cabeza
Deirdre* is young. Barely out of childhood young. She has a rare cancer, which, in her body, showed up in an even rarer form. This massage appointment is a gift from people who can’t stop telling me how rare and remarkable she is. She greats me at the door with a knit cap on her bald head, tape over her intravenous chest port, and the biggest, most open smile I have ever seen. She hands me her completed intake form — she is so close to school that she turns it in and asks for feedback as if it were something I was going to grade.
Deirdre tells me the story of her cancer so far. Diagnosis received while out of town for vacation (“I thought I felt sick because of all the partying I was doing.”) Confirmation that her cancer was a very rare presentation (“I guess I’m rare and special.”) Description of how debilitating her first round of chemo was (“I was completely out of it, and it was my birthday. But if I wasn’t in the hospital, I would have gotten wasted on my birthday anyway, so it’s alright.”) She tells me this story with her big, open, gorgeous smile. She apologizes for how much she sweats as a side effect of her treatment.
I talk to her about oncology massage, and I ask her if she wants me to massage her scalp.
She puts her hand to her knit cap. “My scalp? You can massage my scalp?” I nod. I didn’t think it possible — but her smile gets bigger as she…