Swedish Hospital’s Integrative Cancer Care Program Helps Ana Through Her Cancer Journey

The Integrative Cancer Care Program provides a personalized care plan to support patients through their journey. This can include support from a collaboration of people working with the patient such as social workers, chaplains, integrative health practitioners, integrative and functional medicine physicians, an acupuncturist, massage therapists and personal trainers. By connecting people to services they need, the health care team makes the process easier on a person’s emotional and physical well-being.  

Ana learned about the program in the oncology clinic at Swedish Hospital and is very happy with the positive impact it has had on her. She’s sharing her story to help others learn about this valuable program and excellent staff that provided support for her journey.

“It felt wonderful to experience the sincere care of all the people I got in touch with at the center,” said Ana. “It helped me tremendously in dealing with the accompanying symptoms of the disease.”

She is appreciative of the support she received and wants others to know that help is available.

“When the navigator from the Swedish Hospital cancer center told me about the program, it immediately appealed to me,” Ana said. “It means so much for a person going through such an experience to know that there is a whole community at the cancer center and Galter LifeCenter that cares about what you’re going through and genuinely does everything possible to make you feel better.”

Ana worked with several Galter LifeCenter experts to help ease her symptoms. Following her sessions, she has not experienced any more nausea, sleep issues or anxiety.

“Terri (acupuncture) and Peter (health education) are two amazing people that help you feel at ease with the daily struggles,” she said. “The structure of the whole program is astounding and it gives newly diagnosed patient lots of information they can’t find by themselves. I believe that I just felt better knowing that such humanity exists and there are individuals who care about cancer patients and survivors.”

Ana’s outlook includes a positive attitude and she is very thankful for the support she has received on her journey. “I greatly appreciate being a part of this program because it has helped me emotionally, physically and financially,” she added.

Learn more about the Integrated Cancer Care Program. 




By Bill Ligas | Published March 27, 2018