Women’s Health
(Sponsored) Since Breast Cancer Awareness month began in 1985, October has become the time of year to shed light on women’s health issues. Learn about some of the new and innovative ways O‘ahu healthcare providers are helping women look and feel their best.
Reduce or Eliminate Pain with Physical Therapy
Since its opening in 2001, the Queen’s Women’s Health Center has offered a variety of services, including physical therapy geared specifically to women’s health-related diagnoses. For example, 65 percent of women who have had breast cancer have shoulder problems for many years to follow, up to 40 percent have lymphedema (swelling) in their arm or chest wall, and 70 to 100 percent have fatigue, which can occur years after treatment.
Other women come to Queen’s Women’s Health Center for pain associated with pregnancy or post-partum, or sexual relations; others have bladder problems—going to the bathroom all the time, getting up two or three times a night to urinate, or leaking urine when they cough, sneeze, or laugh.
Women often think these problems are normal, although it affects their quality of life in highly negative ways. These issues often keep women from doing everyday activities such as taking care of their children, working, exercising, or doing household chores. When they come in for physical therapy, Queen’s Women’s Health Center evaluates each woman individually to discover what’s not working, what’s causing the problem and why. Its staff then designs a personalized care plan, which often includes specific exercises to address weakness, manual therapy to address joint stiffness and trigger points and education to enable them to know what to do to help themselves.
Although women’s health-related problems are common, they are definitely not normal—something can be done about them! Physical therapy is about empowering people to enjoy life more.
To address your physical therapy needs, call 691-4960.
Photo: Thinkstock
Benefit from the Latest, Safest Technologies
Through the use of today’s safe laser technologies and minimally invasive surgical techniques, Hawai‘i’s women are receiving advanced, comprehensive healthcare. At Pali Women’s Health Center, as many services as possible are performed in-office, including permanent birth control to treatment for heavy menstrual bleeding.
These in-office procedures also include body sculpting, and help to remove unwanted fat from abdomen, hips, legs, arms, neck and chin. Called Smartlipo, this technology also tightens skin. Smartlipo is minimally invasive and an awake procedure with local anesthesia.
Pali Women’s Health Center physicians also use another innovative laser treatment, MonaLisa Touch, to relieve vaginal dryness and painful intercourse. Especially useful for patients who have had breast cancer and are unable to use estrogen, MonaLisa Touch is a painless, five-minute treatment that requires no anesthesia and no hormones.
Dr. Susan Chapman founded Pali Women’s Health Center in 1984. The Center has locations in Kailua and Lā‘ie, where O‘ahu’s women receive compassionate, friendly care in a spa-like setting. The collaborative, all–female team of OB/GYN physicians, nurse midwives and a physician assistant partner with each patient to provide patient-customized care—from honoring birthing plans to addressing sensitive gynecological issues.
To learn more about the Center’s OB/GYN services and laser procedures, call 261-6644.
Personalized Medicine: The Future Standard of Care in Hawai‘i
Photo: Thinkstock |
Whether it is screening to prevent their own cancer, managing their own disease or dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of a loved one, cancer places an enormous burden on the women of Hawai‘i.
To address this burden, Hawai‘i Pathologists’ Laboratory has partnered with The Queen’s Cancer Center to deliver next-generation genetic diagnostics to a comprehensive care team of M.D. Anderson certified doctors, nurses, navigators and clinical trial specialists. The job of this team is to tailor the patient’s treatments to the individual’s genetic blueprint and, most importantly, the patient’s desires and expectations.
Our program consists of three important elements:
1. Meeting with our pathologists at The Queen’s Cancer Center. The pathologist is responsible for reviewing your case, irrespective of where the diagnosis was made. One out of 71 patients are misdiagnosed, roughly 1.4 percent of patients. Given that there are approximately 6,400 new cancer cases a year in Hawai‘i, we must make sure that each patient’s diagnosis is accurate and the type of cancer is clearly communicated to the care team. The pathologist will discuss the biologic nature of the cancer and the various genetic testing options to tailor patients’ treatments. The pathologists will be responsible for helping to present cases to the comprehensive care team.
2. The Queen’s Cancer Care team involves surgeons, oncologists and radiation oncologists. Customized treatments may involve one or all three of these specialties, coordinated by a dedicated Patient Navigator, who will guide patients through the treatment process. The pharmacists and pathologists work together to ensure accurate medication dosing and delivery, while radiologists and nuclear medicine experts use advanced imaging to track the patient’s progress. When standard treatments are either not optimal or have failed, we can select new targeted medications based on the cancer’s genetic blueprint. Sometimes, this will involve enrolling a patient in a national or local clinical trial, to get the most advanced medications to the patient as soon as possible.
3. Cancer survivorship. To go through cancer treatment is the fight of you and your loved one’s life. It is a life-altering event that requires constant vigilance and continued care. The Queen’s survivorship team provides you and your physician with a care plan after your cancer treatment to help you lead a healthy and cancer-free life.
To begin your personalized medicine plan, call 691-4271.
