Phoebe Oncology Wellness Center
The Phoebe Oncology Wellness Center is an extension of the Phoebe Cancer Center. The center is a dedicated place for Phoebe cancer patients to heal, recover, and enjoy survivorship while focusing on the wellbeing of their mind, body, and spirit.
Phoebe Oncology Wellness Center’s mission is to provide quality programs in combination with traditional medical care that improves quality of life and promotes health and wellbeing from diagnosis and beyond.
The center hosts a variety of oncology wellness programs and resources including:
- Support groups led by members of the Phoebe Cancer Support Team including social workers, nurse navigators, registered dietitians, oncologists, and pharmacists
- Individualized exercise programs and classes designed by a certified cancer exercise specialist to help patients: improve range of motion, improve balance, increase stamina, increase strength
- Resources for overall health & wellness
- Gloria Tongol Integrative Medicine, including elements such as:
- expressive arts (music, journaling, crafts)
- educational classes to learn techniques to continue at home: massage, stress reduction, meditation, and yoga
Staying Active In Your Cancer Journey
Being active during and after a cancer diagnosis is an important way to reduce fatigue, increase strength, and ease depression. Regular physical activity, including aerobic activity and strength training, can help you manage some side effects of treatments, such as fatigue and pain.
Physical activity is important while living with, through, and beyond cancer.
Stretching can help restore flexibility in joints that have lost range of motion due to surgery or radiation.
Other benefits of physical activity for cancer survivors include:
- Improves symptoms of depression and anxiety and helps you sleep better
- Helps maintain or improve physical function (your ability to perform activities of daily living at home and at work)
- Improves your immune system, appetite, muscular strength, range of motion and simply helps your body and brain function better
- Helps with lymphatic drainage for those who’ve had lymph nodes removed or radiation
- Decreases your risk of cancer coming back
Benefits of Support Groups
A support group offers its members a safe environment full of members who share a common experience. This often means they have similar worries, feelings, everyday concerns, treatment decisions or treatment side effects. Participating in a support group connects Phoebe’s cancer patients with others who are on a journey themselves and can truly relate to shared concerns and experiences.
Support groups can help cancer patients in a variety of ways, including:
- Sincere feeling of connection with people who understand
- Reduce stress and anxiety by talking openly
- Building a support team and increasing motivation throughout the patient journey
- Building a sense of empowerment
- Learn from each other and lean on each other
- Improving understanding of their cancer and the experience with it.