“I know where this cancer came from.”
Once I’d received enough Jin Shin Jyutsu training to feel confident as a practitioner, I began expanding the idea of practicing beyond my family and friends by volunteering for hospice. I started by contacting our local hospice provider, Hospice of the Bluegrass at that time, inquiring about volunteering. I was asked to come in for an interview as they’d never heard of Jin Shin Jyutsu. It was easier than I ever expected to have them agree to put me on their volunteer roster. “Send me out to your patients who have requested a massage but who’s bodies are too tender to receive pressure.” They said ok. The patients said yes. One day each week I’d head out with my massage table in my car to patient’s homes. I treated cancer patients. I treated the aged. I learned and grew.
One of my favorite people I worked with was a woman named Midge. Midge had experienced breast cancer for many years but refused chemotherapy or traditional treatments. She never said she “had cancer”. She called what was happening her “irreverent cells.” She utilized nutrition, exercise, massage, meditation and her spiritual life for her condition with great success for many years. Now, heading towards the end of her life she was willing to add Jin Shin Jyutsu to her list of complimentary modalities.
Each week, I’d carry my table up to her second-floor apartment that looked out over the trees and green space between buildings. With her windows wide open, we’d work to the sounds of the breezes and the birds. Midge would drift off into a world of her own, and afterwards share her insights and spiritual knowledge and with me as I packed up. She’d often note a feeling of being more at peace and in less pain. One day the insight was a completely different and powerful one.
Midge sat up with a start at the end of the treatment. “I know where the breast cancer came from. It just came to me.” There have been studies about the relationship between emotions and cancer, looking for a correlation between breast cancer and traumatic experiences such as the loss of a child. The findings thus far have been interesting but inconclusive. However, on this day, Midge described what she was certain was the moment that changed her life and her relationship with her breasts.
She was a pregnant young woman in the 1950s preparing to deliver her first child. She had resolved that she would breast feed her infant, which at the time was contrary to the popular medical advice of the time. She spoke with her obstetrician before delivery to make her wishes clear and he agreed. Most American women at the time were being treated with a milk suppression injection after delivery as the use of formula had become the preferred modern way to care for your infant. Midge felt that breastfeeding was important for bonding with her infant and she was adement with her physician that she would not agree to receive the injection to dry up her milk supply.
The baby was born without complications. The problem was with breastfeeding. Midge struggled for the first few days in the hospital. Her milk production was poor if nonexistent and she was emotionally frustrated that she could not feed her infant. There were lots of tears as Midge realized that for some reason, her body was not producing the milk her new daughter needed for survival. Reluctantly, she agreed to use the formula.
“I asked my obstetrician when he came by to see me about my difficulty with breastfeeding and my lack of milk for my baby.” His response shocked her. “He told me that he felt that breastfeeding was a bad choice, so he had given me the injection to dry up my milk after delivery.” She felt angry, betrayed, and sad. “I was so upset that he completely disregarded my choice. He was so unfeeling, but he was the doctor so I felt I had no voice or recourse.” She recalled this moment in complete photographic detail. “I grieved at the loss of the bonding I so desperately wanted with my child and carried the guilt and shame of this with me my whole life. I know now that the trauma I felt was what gave me this cancer. I felt completely dismissed and powerless.”
We continued to work together for many weeks, including times in and out again from the hospice ward of our local hospital. Midge felt strongly that Jin Shin Jyutsu not only helped her with the pain and anxiety, but more importantly helped her find inner peace with the past and her current situation. I continued to see Midge up until her final days.
Research is inconclusive whether emotional shock or grief can trigger breast cancer, but it was crystal clear to Midge. Midge was not my only patient who described situations of loss where breast cancer followed soon after. It may not be the only reason why women are diagnosed with breast cancer, but it may be one of them.
Read a 2004 research article from the International Journal of Cancer Vol. 110: 763-766 on breast cancer and trauma here. There are many more studies listed in the citations for this particular article. You may also like to read the January 2019 article in Annual Review of Psychology Vol. 70:577-597, Ten Surprising Facts About Stressful Life Events and Disease Risk here.