At present, chemotherapy for malignant tumors is mostly based on combination chemotherapy. Combination of chemotherapeutic drugs with different mechanisms of action, which act on different stages of cell division cycle and different pathways of cell metabolism, improves the killing effect on tumor cells, so that one plus one is greater than two.
Chemotherapy is a powerful weapon to kill malignant tumor cells. Some malignant tumors such as small cell carcinoma and lymphoma can be cured by chemotherapy alone, but chemotherapy is also a double-edged sword, which can cause great damage to normal human cells, if we can know ourselves and each other, and understand the basic knowledge of chemotherapy drug effects, we can get twice the result with half the effort and completely defeat tumors. In the first week, some patients may show digestive symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, constipation, diarrhea, etc., which last for several days or longer, usually about 7 days, and in the second week, they may mainly show myelosuppression, which only shows the decrease of white blood cells in the early stage. The former is dizzy and the latter may have various bleeding phenomena.
You naturally don’t want to be a complete passive person when it comes to chemotherapy. You must understand chemotherapy and learn to deal with side effects in order to feel more in control of yourself during treatment.
1.Keep a good mood
It’s important to keep a good mindset, and to meet chemotherapy with a positive mindset. There used to be an old saying, called maintaining the optimism of the revolution, I think this is still very valid, with a strong moral support, there is no difficulty that can not be overcome, not to mention the temporary discomfort of chemotherapy.
Family members are the closest people to the patient, and are also a source of strength and a strong spiritual pillar for the patient. The role that family members can play is in some ways irreplaceable by anyone. You should try to organize the patient’s day in such a way that he or she feels happy, fulfilled and relaxed. You can read a book, listen to music, watch TV, go for a walk outside, which is very beneficial to improve the state of mind. However, during chemotherapy is not advocated to exercise, but to rest, rest and energy, to wait for labor, exercise will deplete the vital energy, resulting in a weak vital energy, the evil can come.
2, maintain a good appetite
Good nutrition during chemotherapy is important, your body needs energy for repair, but due to the role of chemotherapy drugs, often poor appetite, and nausea, vomiting and other reactions, so how to maintain a good appetite, should be one of the biggest problems you face.
◆Eat a diet that is thin and soft and easy to digest, such as porridge. Don’t eat more greasy and hard-to-digest food.
◆Change the recipes often and change the cooking method. The fancy food can often promote appetite.
◆Small amount and many meals are good, even if the patient has vomiting, insist on eating.
◆Eating more fresh vegetables and fruits with high vitamin content can not only increase resistance, but also increase appetite.
◆Arrange the meal time well, and should avoid the peak time of chemotherapy drug action.
It is very necessary for cancer patients to exchange dietary experiences among patients, which not only can make up for their shortcomings, but also can help increase their appetite.
◆If vomiting can not eat for more than 3 days, or weight loss more than 5% during chemotherapy, it is necessary for other supportive treatment, such as intravenous nutritional support treatment, please find your chemotherapy doctor to deal with it.
◆Chinese medicine can reduce the gastrointestinal reactions during chemotherapy, such as nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, loss of appetite and so on, but it needs to be treated with evidence, and you need to find a Chinese medicine doctor who understands chemotherapy to prescribe the prescription. Different body types and different chemotherapy regimens have different time and length of gastrointestinal reactions, and an experienced Chinese medicine oncology specialist doctor can surely help you get through it.
3. Something easy to ignore – drink more water
During chemotherapy, your doctor may ask you to drink more water, i.e. 8-10 large glasses of water a day. But this doesn’t just mean water. You can get water from milk, juice, soup, ice cream, and many other good things like watermelon. If you have trouble eating, you should tell your doctor.
Drink water not only to quench your thirst, but also to urinate more quickly. This is because most chemotherapy drugs are excreted from the kidneys. If chemotherapy drugs stay in the kidneys for a long time, they can easily lead to kidney damage, and if they stay in the bladder for a long time, they can damage the bladder and cause blood in the urine. Drinking more water will increase the volume of urine and make the chemotherapy drugs in kidney and bladder to be excreted as soon as possible, thus reducing the damage of kidney and bladder. On the other hand, chemotherapy can cause necrosis of tumor cells, forming many harmful waste products, which need to be excreted from urine.
Chemotherapeutic drugs are often “unclear” and “indistinguishable”, killing tumor cells as well as normal cells in human body. Chemotherapeutic drugs are not very selective between tumor cells and normal cells, therefore, while killing and inhibiting tumor cells, they also damage a considerable number of normal cells.
In fact, with the further understanding of chemotherapy by doctors and the application of new drugs, chemotherapy is far less frightening than people thought in the past.