Discharge guidance for patients with esophageal and cardia cancer after surgery includes the following aspects: 1. Mindset: After surgical and other treatment measures, esophageal and cardia cancer is completely possible to be cured, so 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 can definitely overcome the disease. Only by adjusting your mind, establishing confidence and actively cooperating with treatment can you mobilize the internal anti-disease mechanism of your body, and negative pessimism is very detrimental to recovery.
2, diet: after discharge from the hospital, you can continue to semi-liquid diet, such as lotus root powder, steamed egg, cereal porridge, rice porridge, rotten paste noodles, etc., gradually from thin to thick, about a month after surgery can be transitioned to soft food and even normal diet. Pay attention to eating less and more meals, and eat 5-8 meals a day as needed, and chew and swallow slowly when eating. Do not abstain from eating, all kinds of food as long as it is light, fresh, rich in nutrients, easy to digest can be eaten, do not eat spicy and stimulating food, prohibit smoking and alcohol.
3.Position: Don’t eat lying down, don’t lie down immediately after meals, take a proper walk for about 30 minutes before going to bed, sleep with your upper body padded 30 degrees and try to sleep towards the side of the surgery.
4.Discomfort: If you have acid reflux, easy fullness, choking and coughing and other 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 diet and body position 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 disorders after surgery. In addition to paying attention to clean food, you should avoid eating greasy food to avoid aggravating diarrhea symptoms. If you feel a pinprick-like pain and numbness in the surgical wound, it is related to the nerves of the chest wall cut off during the surgery, you should be patient, and the discomfort will slowly subside after several months.
5.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 consult with us. Our thoracic surgery general outpatient time: every Monday to Saturday morning; specialist outpatient time: consultation guide.
6.Chemotherapy: If you need to receive postoperative chemotherapy, it usually starts 3-4 weeks after surgery. Commonly used chemotherapy regimens are: NS 500ml+CF 200-400mg ivgtt d1-5, NS 500ml+5-Fu 500-750mg ivgtt d1-5, NS 500ml+DDP 40mg ivgtt d1-3 (or NS 500ml+Platinum Oxalate 200mg d1). Antiemetic drugs such as Cardan and Obey can be injected half an hour before chemotherapy to reduce gastrointestinal reactions. This regimen is repeated once a month and may require 2-6 times depending on the situation. Before each chemotherapy, blood test should be done to check the white blood cell and liver and kidney function. If the white blood cell is <3500 or the liver and kidney function is abnormal, then chemotherapy should be temporarily suspended. 7.Radiotherapy: If your doctor tells you that you need radiotherapy, you should listen to the arrangement of radiotherapist and adhere to radiotherapy daily, usually starting 3-4 weeks after surgery, the course of treatment will take about 2-6 weeks. 8.Chinese herbal medicine: You can take Chinese herbal medicine, including Chinese patent 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 prescriptions casually to avoid the danger of toxic side effects. Please note that the claim that Chinese medicine has no side effects is completely false. 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 organism. 9.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 health care products market is confusing at present, so please do not believe in the untrue propaganda of some unscrupulous manufacturers and be alert to being cheated. If you need to take certain health care products, it is best to seek the advice of a doctor in advance. 10.Work: Due to the trauma of surgery, post-operative treatment is often supplemented by chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which requires a period of recuperation and recovery. After these treatments are completed, rest for 2-3 months and gradually return to work depending on your physical condition.