1. Mindset: You should have a correct understanding of your condition and the side effects during treatment, be sure to maintain an optimistic and cheerful mood, and firmly believe that you will be able to overcome the disease. Only by adjusting your mindset, building confidence and actively cooperating with the treatment can you mobilize your body’s internal anti-disease mechanism; negative pessimism is very detrimental to recovery.
2. Diet.
A. After discharge from the hospital after esophageal cardia surgery patients pay attention to eat less and more meals, according to the need for 5-8 meals per day, chew and swallow slowly when eating. Do not avoid eating, all kinds of food as long as it is light, fresh, rich in nutrition, easy to digest can eat, do not eat spicy and stimulating food, prohibit smoking and alcohol. Body position: do not lie down to eat, do not lie flat immediately after meals, you can take a proper walk for about 30 minutes before resting. Try to avoid eating 2-3 hours before going to bed, and sleep with your upper body padded 30 degrees, trying to sleep towards the side of the surgery. Ma Husai, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Qinghai Red Cross Hospital
B. Patients with lung surgery maintain a normal diet, do not avoid eating, all kinds of food as long as it is light, fresh, rich in nutrients and easy to digest can be eaten, do not eat or eat less spicy and stimulating food, no smoking and alcohol.
3. Discomfort: If you feel a pinprick-like pain and numbness in the surgical wound, it is related to the nerves in the chest wall that were cut during the surgery, you have to be patient, and the discomfort will slowly subside only after several months.
A. Patients after esophageal cardia surgery if you have acid reflux, easy fullness, choking and coughing discomfort, you do not need to be nervous, because the removal of the cardia, coupled with the gastrointestinal emptying function is weakened, so the gastrointestinal food and gastric juice sometimes reflux into the esophagus to cause discomfort, after the above-mentioned dietary and postural adjustment measures, generally can be alleviated, such as still can not be alleviated, you can take some drugs such as omeprazole, morphine, etc. To control. If you have diarrhea, it is often related to gastrointestinal dysfunction after surgery. In addition to paying attention to clean food, you should avoid eating greasy food to avoid aggravating diarrhea symptoms, after dietary adjustment, if you still cannot control diarrhea, you can take some anti-diarrheal drugs.
If you still have some irritating cough, you do not need to be nervous because after lung resection, the bronchial stump may cause coughing during the healing process, and you should pay attention to coughing out the phlegm in time. If the phlegm is sticky, you can take some expectorant drugs such as Mucosolvan; if the cough is more serious and affects your rest, you can take some cough suppressants.
4. Follow up: You should insist on long-term regular follow up. You should review every three months for two years after the operation, then every six months, and after the fifth year, it can be extended to once a year. Your doctor will review your chest X-ray, chest CT, abdominal ultrasound, etc. Other tests such as whole body bone scan and MRI may be performed as needed. If you have any other questions, you are always welcome to come in for a consultation. If you are a tuberculosis patient, you should take anti-tuberculosis drugs (isoniazid 0.3, rifampicin 0.45, pyrazinamide 1.5 1/half hour after dinner; heparin 2 tablets, vitamin B complex 2 tablets 3/day) as ordered by your doctor, and review your liver and kidney function at least twice a month. If you are a worm patient, you should take antihelminthic drugs (albendazole tablets 20mg/kg, divided into 2 oral doses, the course of treatment for 1 month, generally need 6 courses of treatment, the interval of treatment is 7-10 days) according to the doctor’s orders, if you have obvious discomfort in the process of taking drugs, please promptly consult the relevant departments of the hospital.
5. Chemotherapy: If you need to receive post-operative chemotherapy, it usually starts 3-4 weeks after surgery. Before each chemotherapy, blood test should be done to check the white blood cell and liver and kidney function. If the white blood cell or liver and kidney function is abnormal, chemotherapy should be temporarily suspended.
6) Radiotherapy: If your doctor tells you that you need to receive radiotherapy, you should follow the arrangement of the radiotherapist and adhere to radiotherapy daily, usually starting 3-4 weeks after surgery, and the course of treatment will take about 2-6 weeks.
7. Chinese medicine: You can take Chinese medicine, including proprietary Chinese medicine and Chinese herbal medicine, at the same time of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. It is recommended that you take the medicine under the guidance of an experienced herbalist, and do not take some so-called secret recipes or partial prescriptions to avoid the danger of toxic side effects. Please note that it is completely wrong to say that Chinese medicine has no side effects. If necessary, you can also apply some immunomodulatory drugs and biological products such as interferon under the guidance of your doctor to enhance the anti-cancer mechanism in your body.
8. Tonic: You can take some health care products to speed up the recovery, improve the immunity and reduce the toxic side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, please note that the market of health care products is confusing at present, so please do not believe in the false propaganda of some unscrupulous manufacturers and be cautious of being cheated. If you need to take certain health care products, it is best to seek the advice of your doctor beforehand.
9. work: Because of the large trauma of surgery, postoperative treatment is often supplemented by chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which requires a period of recuperation and recovery. After these treatments are completed, rest for 2 to 3 months, depending on your physical condition, you can gradually return to work and generally be able to perform any work except for heavy physical labor.
Qinghai Red Cross Hospital Thoracic Surgery Department Wish you a speedy recovery!
Address: 17F, Surgery Building, No. 55 South Street, Xining 0971-8267224, 8267017