Hands-on healing with Valley View’s Integrated Therapy program

For many cancer patients, pain, fatigue, neuropathy and nausea can be part of the treatment process as their bodies react to and endure chemotherapy and radiation. At Valley View’s Calaway-Young Cancer Center, there is the Integrated Therapy program, funded by the Valley View Foundation, designed to alleviate some of these negative side effects.

Led by a team of massage therapists and acupuncturists, the Integrated Therapy team works with patients to help them keep up with normal activities. For example, breast cancer patients are often confronted with lymphatic issues, including lymphedema, due to the damage in the lymph nodes, or fibrosis due to radiation.

The Integrated Therapy team uses several different modalities to alleviate the physical and emotional stress of this side effect, including massage, acupuncture, aromatherapy, lymphatic drainage, yoga, fitness classes and tai chi.

Cancer patients at the Calaway-Young Cancer Center can take advantage of these therapies with a referral from the patient’s oncologist. Treatment often takes place every other week, and can continue throughout a patient’s cancer treatment, and recovery.

Brian Collins, a lifelong rancher from Meeker, Colorado, was at first hesitant when his oncologist, Dr. Alexandra Donovan, suggested he receive acupuncture for his chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) which he had in both his hands and feet.

“I had to retire from cowboying because I couldn’t feel my feet in my stirrups,” Brian says, who was running more than 300 angus cross cows at the time. “I couldn’t feel where my feet were. I couldn’t kick free, if I needed to, so I had to retire.”

Brian was paired with therapist Cindy Wallis for a series of acupuncture treatments during chemotherapy. During his first treatment, Brian says Cindy “put as many pins in me as she puts in a horse.”

“I’ve never had acupuncture before,” he says. “I was skeptical at how effective it would be, but after my first treatment I felt a difference in my hands right away.”
It took a few more treatments before a similar result was felt in his feet.

“People were surprised that I did it,” Brian says. “I guess because they figured I was a cowboy and would never do anything like that, and maybe I wouldn’t have until I had cancer.”

“This program is integral to the health and well being of our cancer patients,” says Hans Lindbloom, Director of the Calaway-Young Cancer Center. “This is one more important step on a patent’s road to successful recovery.”

For more information on the Integrated Therapy program at the Calaway-Young Cancer Center at Valley View, visit https://www.vvh.org/calaway-young-cancer-center/services/integrated-therapy/