I'm a believer in the health benefits of massage. A National Institutes of Health newsletter lists some reasons you might consider getting one, including stress reduction, relief of sore muscle pain, relaxation and to ease anxiety or depression. Those symptoms are common for hospital patients.

Nancy Rogers, a Mayo Clinic massage therapist, has seen how transformative and restorative massage can be for patients in the hospital -- whether they just had surgery, delivered a baby or are fighting cancer.