Life After The Surgery

After the initial tests, diagnosis, and surgery, recovering cancer patients may find it difficult to return to normal life. To aid in this transition back to everyday routine, I created this list of tips. Whether it was just the surgery, or radiation therapy also, patients may feel exhausted and changed. There are ways to help and relieve these postoperative symptoms.

Life After Cancer Surgery

When diagnosed with cancer, surgery is likely to be the first stage of the treatment, especially if the diagnose is established early. Cancer patients may face more treatment in the near future, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and possibly drug or hormone therapy, but in terms of recovery, the period after surgery is important. So I advise cancer patients to use that time to rest, breathe, and heal.

Cancer patients often say that the weeks or days between initial tests, diagnosis and surgery seem almost surreal, from dealing with the initial shock of diagnosis and the complex emotions that accompany it, to pre-surgery assessments and tests and coping with what feels like information overload, and then the surgery itself.

Once The Treatment Is Over

After the cancer treatment, as a cancer survivor, patients are eager to return to good health and their lives. But beyond the initial recovery, there are ways to improve long-term health so that recovering patients can enjoy the years ahead as a cancer survivor. The recommendations for cancer survivors are no different from the recommendations for anyone who wants to improve his or her health: Exercise, eat a balanced diet, maintain a healthy weight, get good sleep, reduce stress, avoid tobacco and limit the amount of alcohol you drink. One can make their recovery at home go a lot smoother if they take a little time to plan ahead. I recommend to patients to ask their doctor about the things they won't be able to do at first while healing up. Also, they should ask for help from friends and family to prepare the living space.

Recovery

Recovery right after surgery depends on many factors, including health before the operation and how extensive the operation was. The health care team will probably try to have patients move around as soon as possible after surgery. They may even have them out of bed and walking the same day. While this may be hard at first, it helps speed the recovery by getting the digestive tract moving. It also helps circulation and keeps the blood clots from forming in your legs. The health care team may also encourage patients to do deep breathing exercises. This helps fully inflate the lungs and reduces the risk of lung infection.

Adjusting To The Changes

Once they’re eating and walking, cancer patients may start hearing about plans for going home. Of course, this will depend on other factors too, such as the results of the surgery and tests done afterward. Patients will get pain medicine while still in the hospital and will be given a prescription for pain medicine to take at home if needed. If in pain, patients should let their health care team know. If family members or friends are unable to do all that’s needed, the health care team may be able to arrange to have a nurse visit patients at home for a while.

Other parts of recovery might take longer. Wounds heal at different rates in different people. Some operations, like a breast removal (mastectomy), could lead to permanent changes in patients body. Others, such as having an arm or leg removed (limb amputation), might affect how the body works, and patients may need to learn new ways of doing things.

Transitioning Into Survivorship

Fully understanding the likely result of the operation before it’s done is an important part of helping cancer patients adjust to the changes that have been made to their body.

But for cancer survivors, the following strategies have added benefits. These simple steps can improve patients quality of life, smoothing the transition into survivorship. Here's what everybody can do to take care of themselves after cancer treatment:

Exercising

Regular exercise increases one's sense of well-being after cancer treatment and can speed up recovery.

Eating a balanced diet

Varying diet to include lots of fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains.

Maintaining a healthy weight

Some patients may have gained or lost weight during treatment. Trying to get the weight to a healthy level is advised. I suggest patients talk to their doctor about what a healthy weight is for them and the best way to go about achieving that goal weight.

Reducing stress

As a cancer survivor, a recovering patient may find that the physical, emotional and social effects have taken a toll on their psyche. Though there's no evidence that managing stress improves chances of cancer survival, using effective coping strategies to deal with stress can greatly improve quality of life by helping relieve depression, anxiety, and symptoms related to cancer and its treatment

Quitting smoking

Kick the habit once and for all. Smoking or using chewing tobacco places its users at risk of several types of cancer. Stopping now could reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and also lower the risk of developing a second type of cancer.

While patients may worry that it will take an entire overhaul of their lifestyle to achieve all these goals, I advise to cancer patients I’ve worked with in my medical practice, to do what they can and make changes slowly. Easing into a healthy diet or regular exercise routine can make it more likely that they'll stick with these changes.