Contents
1.Outpatient follow-up is essential
2.Make a long-term health plan
3.Adherence to treatment
4.Targeted therapy is even more valuable in lasting
5.Active exercise is good for body and mind
6, exercise is not limited to the form
7.Family members need to understand the dietary knowledge
8.Diet regulation for chemotherapy
9.Rational diet helps recovery
10.Several good vegetables
Outpatient follow up is essential
Lymphoma, like other malignant tumors, still has the possibility of recurrence and metastasis after treatment. Since 90% of recurrence and metastasis occur within 5 grandmothers, it is important to follow up regularly in the first 5 years after treatment so that metastasis and recurrence can be detected early.
During the first 5 years of disease, the primary problem faced by long-term survivors is lymphoma recurrence and metastasis. Regular follow-up review is an effective way to keep abreast of the tumor condition. Patients and their family members should set up a follow-up schedule with their primary care physician and do some appropriate tests, and adjust the medication during the next follow-up period based on the results of each follow-up visit, such as using maintenance therapy during the remission period to further reduce the risk of recurrence.
Establishing a long-term health plan
While following up with your doctor, we should also be concerned about long-term complications, as some of the more toxic drugs are often used because of their irreplaceable therapeutic effects during treatment. Once remission has been achieved, it is important to be aware of the possibility of long-term complications and to consult with your doctor for early intervention.
In this regard, it is necessary to ask our primary care physician to develop a long-term health plan for us. Therefore, we need to maintain long-term contact with our primary care physician, not only for follow-up, but more importantly, we can get individualized healthy diet, exercise guidance and psychological support from our primary care physician, which will help us to reduce the risk of lymphoma recurrence, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, psychological disorders, second primary cancer, etc. for a better quality of life.
Adherence to treatment
Treatment of most types of lymphoma, whether it is chemotherapy or chemotherapy + radiotherapy, may take several treatment cycles. However, the toxic side effects of chemotherapy always make some of us shy away from the next course of treatment after one. Some patients may ask their doctors if I can have fewer treatments or even refuse to go to the hospital for the next course of treatment.
Lymphoma treatment must follow a regular regimen and be done in full, so if you stop halfway, you will lose everything. Therefore, although it is true that treatment may be difficult to endure and continue, especially when toxic side effects hit us, we must adhere to the treatment. Only by strictly following medical advice and receiving reasonable and standardized treatment, tumor cells will not return and the disease can be cured.
Targeted therapy is even more valuable in lasting
Due to the large adverse effects of traditional radiotherapy, in order to ensure our quality of life, we can usually only have a limited number of courses of treatment. After these limited rounds of radiotherapy, a very small number of tumor cells may still remain in our body and become the culprit of recurrence and metastasis later.
In contrast, the adverse effects of targeted drugs like rituximab are relatively mild, so maintenance therapy can be used to maintain an effective drug concentration in the body to keep a high pressure on tumor cells and prolong the survival of certain types of lymphoma, such as follicular lymphoma.
Active exercise is good for body and mind
As early as 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine and a famous doctor in ancient Greece, pointed out that “sunlight, air, water and exercise are the sources of life and health.” The insightfulness of this statement lies in the fact that it places exercise on the same level of importance as air and water.
We need to keep participating in moderate exercise during our recovery. This will not only improve physical fitness, but also mental state. The best aerobic metabolic exercise is walking, a simple reference is “three, five, seven”, that is, walking 3 km per day at medium speed, 30 minutes or more, five times a week. The intensity of the exercise should be such that the body surface sweats slightly after the exercise and the heart rate + age reaches 170. For example, assuming our age is 60 years old, then our heart rate after exercise to not more than 110 beats per minute is appropriate.
Sixth, exercise is not limited to the form
Many of our patients take it for granted that exercise is physical activity when it comes to exercise. In fact, for lymphoma patients, exercise should not be confined to any form. What is more taboo for us is that some patients think that if they are sick, they have to be bedridden.
During the interval between chemotherapy treatments, we can do some household chores as we normally can, or even accompany our loved ones for a walk in the neighborhood, if our physical strength allows, which are forms of exercise. If our condition is completely relieved after a phase of treatment, we can even do some activities that are less likely to cause strain, such as jogging, bicycling, etc. As long as the form of exercise is not overly strenuous, it is all right.
Seven, family members need to understand the knowledge of diet
Family members should cook more often to take care of the patient, and try not to let the patient cook himself. The diet should be good in color, aroma and taste, less and more meals, balanced meals, and avoid blind taboos. This will not only help the patient to recover early but also help to receive other follow-up treatments as soon as possible.
1, to develop good habits, regular living can improve appetite, if possible, can also create a good dining atmosphere, to enhance appetite;
2, change the recipe, change the cooking method. For example, patients who often eat pork-like food can be replaced with fish, lamb, chicken, etc. Change the cooking method to make food with different color and flavor, can also increase appetite;
3.Do not lie down one hour after meal, do not drink water one hour before chemotherapy, and take 3~5ml of fresh ginger juice orally if you are nauseous when eating;
4, for patients with heavy taste, can give ginger fried rice, or a small amount of pickled vegetables, curd with meals.
Eight, for chemotherapy dietary regimen
During chemotherapy, patients may experience blood cytopenia, oral mucosa irritation and other symptoms, through dietary modifications can effectively prevent such adverse reactions.
Preventing the decline of blood count: supplement high protein diet, such as milk, soybean, lean meat, pig’s feet, sea cucumber, animal liver and red dates, peanuts, walnuts, black fungus, etc. Animal boiled gum peptones such as donkey skin gum (Agaricus blazei) and pig skin gum (Pork skin peptones) can also help to raise white blood cells.
Reduce the symptoms of stomatitis: It is advisable to have a highly nutritious liquid or semi-liquid diet, such as lotus seed soup, milk, soy milk, carp soup, etc. Avoid overheating and stimulation when eating. When eating avoid overheating and stimulating diet, acute inflammation can contain ice, ulcers can be used 20 ml of honey with 0.1 grams of crushed vitamin C tablets orally, 2 to 4 times a day.
Nine, for chemotherapy dietary modifications
As the saying goes, “three parts of treatment and seven parts of nourishment”, diet is an important part of lymphoma recovery. Lymphoma patients should not only pay attention to balanced nutrition, but also eat no or less fried, baked, smoked and salted foods, and eat more fresh vegetables and fruits with anti-tumor ingredients, such as tomatoes, oranges, hawthorn and kiwi, carrots and lettuce rich in vitamin C, shiitake mushrooms and silver fungus rich in minerals.
In short, dietary nutrition should follow the principle of “balanced and moderate”. Many people think of chicken, duck, fish and meat when they talk about enhancing nutrition, but this concept is not correct. This concept is not correct. Supplementing nutrition for patients is not just about simply eating big fish and meat, but also about supplementing fruits and vegetables and grains and cereals. In addition, many vegetarian foods are also rich in protein, such as soybeans is a high-quality protein. In addition, balanced nutrition, but also pay attention to the right amount, blindly overfeeding may also have the opposite effect.
Ten, several better vegetables
In 1997, in the book “Food, Nutrition and Cancer Prevention” written by experts from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, the epidemiological data of cancer research in various countries around the world were summarized and it was concluded that fresh vegetables are the best food for cancer prevention. The following vegetables are good for cancer patients: cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, onions, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, and konjac.