Integrative Medicine: A Patient's View

When Barbara Lee Epstein was diagnosed with a rare form of appendix cancer, she got the best that high-tech medicine has to offer: treatment at a world-class cancer center and a government-funded, experimental therapy that involved infusing heated chemotherapy into her abdomen. "I had this very experimental, cutting-edge clinical trial," she says.

But Epstein needed so much more. She needed relief from nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy. She needed help with anxiety that kept her from getting to sleep. And she needed the emotional strength to keep fighting in the face of a life-threatening illness that struck not once,

While she was undergoing surgeries, hospitalizations, and chemotherapy sessions, Epstein surrounded herself with a battalion of nontraditional healers: acupuncturists, reflexologists, therapists trained in meditation and guided imagery, and a medical doctor who prescribed medicinal herbs.

"I have a tremendous support system," says the single, 53-year-old New Yorker, a former magazine advertising sales representative.

The Appeal of Integrative Medicine

Epstein's story highlights the appeal of integrative medicine, in which patients draw from the worlds of conventional medicine and alternative therapies to minister to their bodies, minds, and spirits.

Epstein knows what it's like to feel rushed and ignored in today's medical environment. In 2003, when she was 50, she was dragging herself through the day. "I was extremely tired." But she says she felt dismissed when she complained of overwhelming fatigue to her internist.

"He told me, 'Everybody's tired in New York City.' He didn't really take me very seriously. But I think I'm very intuitive about my body and I really had strong suspicions that I had cancer. I couldn't have told you where it was located, but I knew something was wrong."

Eventually, Epstein developed severe abdominal pain, which lead to extensive medical testing. "It was a rough three months," she says. "It took a long time to get the diagnosis." The conclusion: mucinous adenocarcinoma of the appendix.