Integrative Care, All Under One Roof - Why this Philosophy of Care is Especially Important for Cancer Patients and Their Families
If you have your chemotherapy in one facility, and then you meet with a naturopath in his or her office, and then later you drive to your support group downtown, and then the next day you head across town the opposite way to your laughter therapy appointment, depending on where you live you could easily pile on hundreds of miles in a given week. From everything I’ve read, keeping additional stress to an absolute minimum when fighting cancer is really important, and it just seems like going to several different facilities and clinics could be really difficult and use up a lot of time.
So while I love the idea of integrative care, I was hoping to find some places that offer this concept to their cancer patients, only all under one roof. That way you’d only have to drive to the same facility each time you had an appointment, and depending on what you had on your schedule and how you were feeling, maybe a couple of them could even be done around the same time.
I have spent some time researching both integrative care and the “one-stop shopping” method to this wonderful way of treating cancer patients, and I’m very happy to say that I’ve found some facilities that utilize this approach:
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Integrative medicine is the way of the future. Cancer treatments using integrative medicine is cutting edge. Yes scheduling is tough but it can be done. Under one roof helps along with good medical insurance that pays for this kind of care.
My oncologist recommended I try along with traditional care from him, a naturopathic clinic once I asked what could I do to help in my battle with breast cancer. This clinic I can only describe as a sick person's club. They charge a monthly fee that was very resonable, and for that you could get accupuncture 2-3 times a week, Shiatsu massage twice a month and a once a month counsult with the naturopathic docotr. At the clinic they saw only cancer patients, hiv, hep c, and ms patients.
I had reports to give to my MD and reports from my MD to my ND. The 2 practices were with-in 3 miles of each other, and I would schedule out a month at a time. I felt I was being treated as a whole person, not just a woman with breast cancer.
Sheduling, and organization are important with a cancer diagnosis. Family and friends can be asked to help with the everyday routines. Under one roof means one parking, one destination. This can be very helpful for the person going alone to their treatments because fatigue is a very big deal.