When Dad felt comfortable being on his side or on his stomach, my sister, Gail, would start up toward the top of his shoulders and just kind of gently knead and roll down his back to his spine, sometimes in the areas that were most tender, I would say over the kidneys, she would be just very gentle and just lightly rubbing. For me, I guess in our community we have a folk version of therapeutic touch where we don't actually touch the patients, but our hands would ride just lightly over the area. And he also seemed, quite honestly, to respond to even the thoughts and our concerns about healing, our prayers and such right then and there.

Additional Medical Information:

• Massage