Willow Moon Healing, LLC

Willow Moon Healing, LLC I help people feel peace and ease with massage therapy, CranioSacral Therapy, Reiki and BodyMind Coaching. I joke that I won the unluckiest lottery!

I help you start to step out and show your authentic self to the world so that you can feel good even if it brushes up against social norms. For the past 3 years I've been living with Ocular Melanoma, a rare eye cancer, which occurs in 5 people in a million, with a 50% chance of metastasis and a not-so-rosy prognosis. Navigating this process helped me show up and embrace who I am and now that's what I help people with.

This week has been very overwhelming. I was in Philly to begin my new immunotherapy treatment since the previous one did...
02/06/2026

This week has been very overwhelming. I was in Philly to begin my new immunotherapy treatment since the previous one didn’t work.

This one is considered “standard of care” and involves two drugs: ipilimumab and nivolumab, aka Yervoy/Opdivo, aka ipi/nivo. They are administered via IV and it took a little over 1.5 hours. It made me very sleepy.😴

For my type of cancer, it has about an 18% chance of being effective. It’s also known for causing nasty side effects. 😬 Just like my previous 2 treatments, it’s a game of wait-and-see how my body will respond. I’m to get weekly blood work done to monitor that. The protocol is to get the combined drugs every 3 weeks for 4 cycles and then switch to nivo only every 4 weeks. I will get scans in about 6 weeks, after 2 cycles, to see how my tumors are responding.

My oncologist said there are a couple of trials potentially coming soon but they don’t know the eligibility requirements yet. So for right now, this is my ONLY option for treatment. 😳

And today, marks 2 years that we first found out I had mets (the cancer had spread) in my lungs from my routine, annual chest X-ray. 🩻 AND this month marks 8 years since the primary tumor in my eye was discovered during a routine eye exam. 🤯 My life has changed drastically since then, more so since I got mets. So much time has been taken up by appointments, traveling to those appts, scans, not feeling well due to side effects and the mental toll. It’s been incredibly difficult on my family as well. I’ve almost forgotten what my life was like before mets, when I could run marathons, work a day of up to 6 clients, go out with my husband or friends for as long as I wanted. I’ve had to adjust my “new normal” many times. I’ve lost many friends along the way. And as much as I wish sometimes people could understand what I’m going through, deep down, I don’t truly want that. Because that would mean they have this too and I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.

So I’m just trying to do the best I can which looks different depending on the day. Some days I’m laughing. Some days I’m crying. Some days I just feel numb. But I’m still here.

I finally have an update since my scans on 12/30. There’s good news and bad news. 🫠I had 2 rounds of immunotherapy calle...
01/14/2026

I finally have an update since my scans on 12/30. There’s good news and bad news. 🫠

I had 2 rounds of immunotherapy called Opdualag. We wanted that to fail so I could enroll in a new clinical trial called Rogi. I got what I wished for and my chest CT showed growth in my existing lung tumors (nodules) and also a couple of new ones have appeared (bringing the total to ~10, with the largest 2.4cm). The bad news is that the Rogi trial has closed for enrollment. 😭 So that is no longer an option. It seems I missed it by about a week.

My liver MRI showed a “perfusion anomaly” which means there is a spot of uneven blood flow. I was worried it could mean that the cancer has finally spread to it, however, my oncologist is not concerned at the moment. That is good news. 🙂

Since there has been growth in my lung tumors, and the new trial is now closed, the new plan is for me to switch to a different combo immunotherapy called Ipilimumab and Nivolumab (referenced as ipi/nivo for short, or brand names of Yervoy and Opdivo). It also has a low efficacy rate of about 18% and is known to have nasty side effects in about 40-50% of patients (diarrhea, colitis, adrenal insufficiency, hyper/hypothyroidism, hepatitis, the list goes on). This treatment is very common for patients with my stage/type of cancer. The scarier thing is that unless another trial opens up, there are no other options for me at this time. 😳

My first infusion is tentatively 2/4 (provided no delays due to insurance). Some people have had their tumors shrink and tolerated it fairly well. Only time will tell how I respond. Right now, I’m scared yet also numb. F**k cancer. 💙🖤🦄🏴‍☠️

And here’s a cute pic of Freya to counter all that 🙃

12/10/2025

Email and website are up and working! 😊

12/09/2025

Email and website are down right now. Please call/text/DM if you need to contact me.

Treatment plan changeThings have changed since my last post. One requirement to get into the new Rogi clinical trial is ...
12/04/2025

Treatment plan change

Things have changed since my last post. One requirement to get into the new Rogi clinical trial is to fail an immunotherapy treatment first. 😡I’ve never had that. The trial I was in previously was a targeted therapy (a newer class of cancer drugs). So there is a new plan.

Last week, I was in Philly to receive my first infusion of an immunotherapy drug called Opdualag. In 3 weeks, I will have another dose of it and then get scans. If the scans show my tumors have grown, then I can apply to enroll in the Rogi trial. If not, then I will stay on Opdualag (it’s only 5-10% effective for my type of cancer 🫠). Ideally, we want me to fail this drug so I can get into the trial. I know how it sounds backwards! 🤣 The trial is only enrolling 85 patients worldwide for the current phase, so time is of the essence.

The infusion itself, which I’ve never had one before, went well. My nurse was fantastic and we had a private room. The chair reclined and even had massage and heat features! They also had snacks 😋. It took 30 mins to administer the drug and then 15 mins for a flushing (saline to ensure all the drug is used). I felt fine except it made me very sleepy. My husband came with me and he drove us home while I slept most of the way. So far, I’ve been itchy and a little fatigued.

The past 4 weeks, since I first found out that my tumors grew, have been very difficult. Two of those weeks was just waiting for my insurance to approve the drug. I slid into depression as I tried to process the news and what that means moving forward and my own mortality. I’ve isolated myself and it was hard to even work; I didn’t want to “people”. 😞 This cancer is aggressive and relentless and takes so much.

My emotions are up and down and I’m working on giving myself grace while starting this new chapter. There’s been tears, anger, disbelief; ALL the feels. And that’s okay. 💙🖤🏴‍☠️🦄

Difficult newsThis week marked another visit to Philly; this time included scans so it was a longer stay. I had a fun ti...
11/06/2025

Difficult news

This week marked another visit to Philly; this time included scans so it was a longer stay. I had a fun time on Tuesday with my friend and we did a hop on/hop off bus tour. We also toured the Christ Church Burial Ground where Benjamjn Franklin is buried, the Betsy Ross House and the Museum of the American Revolution. All great and very interesting!

Wednesday, I met with my oncology team to go over the results of my imaging. The bad news is my cancer has progressed. 😞 Several of my lung tumors have grown slightly. My liver is still clear, which is good news. While the growth isn’t huge, it’s enough to indicate the cancer is advancing. The clinical trial I’ve been on has kept me stable for the past 20 months. Up until now.

What does this mean? My doctor is recommending I start a new trial, to keep ahead of the cancer and switch things up for a different medication. The trial is new to the US and the drug is called Roginolisib (Rogi, for short). I will need to go back to Philly soon for screening (scans, labs and another biopsy), to determine if I’m an eligible candidate (my doctors are thinking I am but I still have to go through this process). After that, I will be randomized to either receive the study drug or the “standard of care” drugs (two drugs called ipi/nivo, for short). I had to do the same thing for the trial I’ve been on.

In the meantime, I have to go through a 4 week washout period, which means not taking any cancer meds. So I stopped the drugs I was taking as of yesterday. If all goes well, we are hoping I can start the new trial on 12/4. 🤞

There aren’t any other viable options for me at this point. If it weren’t for this new trial, I’d be put on the standard of care drugs anyway.

I’m still processing all of this and it’s overwhelming! Today, I alternate between feeling sad and scared to raging angry. 😡 🥺 If you’d like to send positive vibes, prayers or anything, please focus that I get into the trial and selected for the study drug. And please bear with me as I navigate this news. 💙🖤🦄🏴‍☠️

Our fall decorations are finally up! Love how it turned out for the first time in this space! 🍂🍁🧡🤎
10/06/2025

Our fall decorations are finally up! Love how it turned out for the first time in this space! 🍂🍁🧡🤎

Address

219 E Davis Street, Suite 50
Culpeper, VA
22701

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 7pm
Wednesday 10am - 7pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

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Our services include: CranioSacral Therapy, Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue Massage, Sports Massage, Reiki, Prenatal Massage, Myofascial Release, Facial Treatments, Waxing, and more. Hours are by appointment only. We are also available for outcalls, massage parties, and corporate chair massage.