Go home after esophageal surgery. But don’t go unnoticed. Now. I will tell you what you should pay attention to.
Post-operative mentality adjustment of esophageal cancer
After surgical and other treatment measures, esophageal cancer is completely possible to be cured, so patients should have a correct understanding of their condition and the side effects during treatment, and must maintain an optimistic and cheerful mood, firmly believing that they can definitely overcome the disease. Only by adjusting the mentality, establishing confidence and actively cooperating with the treatment can the internal anti-disease mechanism of the body be mobilized, and negative pessimism is very detrimental to recovery.
Diet modification
After discharge from the hospital, you can continue to eat semi-liquid diet, such as lotus root powder, steamed egg, cereal porridge, rice porridge, rotten noodles, etc., gradually from thin to thick, starting from the first time to eat, about half a month can be transitioned to soft food or even normal diet. The principles of postoperative diet are high protein, high vitamin, high fiber, appropriate high-fat diet (favorable to weight recovery and gallbladder emptying), low sugar (to reduce pantothenic acid); the first 3 months, pay attention to eating less and more meals, according to the need to eat 5-8 meals per day, chew slowly when eating.
Do not avoid eating, all kinds of food as long as it is fresh, rich in nutrition, easy to digest can eat, do not be too light, but also appropriate to eat some high-fat food such as red meat, in order to facilitate the emptying of the gallbladder, less spicy and stimulating food (but by no means can not eat chili peppers and other food, should be based on the preoperative personal diet, generally after 3 months of eating should gradually return to the same diet structure as before surgery ), and prohibit smoking and alcohol. However, attention should be paid to stay away from cancer-causing foods such as pickled products, fried foods, barbecued foods, etc.
Pay attention to body position after eating
Don’t lie down to eat, don’t lie flat immediately after meal, take a proper walk for about 30 minutes before going to bed, sleep with upper body padded 30 degrees, right side lying position may be more conducive to chest and stomach emptying.
Discomfort
If the patient has acid reflux, easy fullness, choking and other discomfort, do not be nervous, because the removal of the cardia, coupled with the gastrointestinal emptying function is weakened, so the food and gastric juice in the gastrointestinal sometimes reflux into the esophagus to cause discomfort, after the above-mentioned dietary and postural adjustment measures, generally can be relieved, such as still can not be relieved, you can take some drugs such as omeprazole, morphine, etc. to control.
If the patient has diarrhea, it is often related to gastrointestinal disorders after surgery. In addition to paying attention to clean food, avoid eating greasy food to avoid aggravating diarrhea symptoms, after dietary adjustment, if diarrhea still cannot be controlled, you can take some antidiarrheal drugs. If the patient feels a pinprick-like pain and numbness in the surgical wound, it is related to the nerves of the chest wall cut during the surgery, the patient should be patient and the discomfort will slowly subside after several months.
Follow up
You should insist on long-term regular follow-up. After surgery, you should start with once a month, gradually transition to once every three months.
Continue to once every six months or once a year. I will review your chest X-ray, chest CT, abdominal ultrasound, and other tests such as whole-body bone scan and MRI as needed. If you have any other questions, you are always welcome to come in for a consultation. I am in the thoracic surgery ward almost every day
Chemotherapy
If you need post-operative chemotherapy, it usually starts 3 to 4 weeks after surgery. Blood tests for white blood cells and liver and kidney functions should be done before each chemotherapy treatment. If the white blood cells are <3500 or the liver and kidney functions are abnormal, the chemotherapy treatment should be temporarily suspended.
Radiotherapy
If your doctor tells you that you need to receive radiotherapy, you should follow the arrangement of the radiologist and adhere to radiotherapy daily, usually starting 3-4 weeks after surgery, and the course of treatment will take about 2-6 weeks.
Chinese medicine treatment
You can take Chinese herbal medicine, including proprietary Chinese medicine and Chinese herbal medicine, together with 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 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 body.
What supplements can I take?
You can take some health supplements to speed up your recovery, improve your immune system and reduce the toxic side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, please note that the market of health supplements is quite 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 supplements, it is best to seek the advice of your doctor beforehand.
When can I work?
Due to the trauma of surgery, postoperative treatment is often supplemented by chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which requires a period of recuperation and recovery. After these treatments are over, patients should rest for 2 to 3 months and gradually resume work depending on their physical condition.
Patients with esophageal cancer need to be overly under the guidance of doctors after surgery and be reviewed regularly to prevent recurrence.