Contents:
- Medical Video: Exercises After Breast Cancer Surgery
- How long does recovery take after breast cancer treatment?
- 1. Operating procedure
- 2. Chemotherapy
- 3. Radiation
- What can be done if you want to speed up the recovery process?
Medical Video: Exercises After Breast Cancer Surgery
For people with breast cancer, the treatment process is a period of struggle where they have to 'fight' against the disease. Not only that, recovery after treatment also becomes an important thing to do so that patients recover quickly and can return to normal activities. So, how long is the recovery time needed after breast cancer treatment is done? Here's the explanation.
How long does recovery take after breast cancer treatment?
The time to recover breast cancer patients depends on the severity of the cancer and the type of treatment that is being undertaken, either through surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. The duration of recovery can also increase if the patient has to undergo additional treatment postoperatively because of certain cases.
Therefore, discuss your disease diagnosis with an oncologist to get the most accurate information about the period of treatment and recovery of breast cancer that you have to go through. But in many cases, the recovery time after breast cancer treatment needed is as follows.
1. Operating procedure
Lumpectomy (7-14 days of recovery)
Lumpectomy is a surgical procedure for removing cancer by maintaining healthy body tissue. The advantage of this procedure is that you can go straight home the same day after the surgery. However, the effect of a lumpectomy surgery results in a small incision in the body so you are not encouraged to rush back to work.
If this operation makes your lymph nodes go up too, it means that your recovery process takes more than one week. So, avoid driving, weight lifting, or burdensome sports.
Mastectomy (1-3 weeks of recovery)
Mastectomy is the operation of removing one or both breasts as a whole. This procedure can be performed in patients with early or advanced stages, depending on the condition of each patient.
This medical procedure is a type of inpatient operation, so you will remain in the hospital for one or two days after the surgery. Your body will be given a special catheter or hose that will hold blood and fluids from the surgery area for 5 to 7 days to help with healing.
In some conditions, mastectomy can be done with immediate breast reconstruction but this depends on the condition and severity of breast cancer in each patient.
Re-excision (3-7 days of recovery)
Re-excision is the process of reappearing cancer cells that are still found around the breast. If the cancer cell tissue is still left behind, the doctor will remove the breast cancer with a larger size so that the whole cancer cell can be removed. This procedure requires a recovery time of around 3 to 7 days.
Breast reconstruction (recovery time varies)
Breast reconstruction is an operation to form the breast after you have done a mastectomy. This procedure uses a breast implant to form the breast again.
The duration of breast cancer recovery with this method depends on the complexity of the construction performed. Because there are several types of reconstruction that involve two or three separate surgical procedures to improve the structure of the new breast, so that recovery is even longer.
2. Chemotherapy
The recovery time needed after treatment for breast cancer varies with each patient. Remember, chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that will affect your entire body so there are enough side effects that might occur.
If the side effects of chemotherapy are relatively mild, the patient may be able to return to normal activities even though he is still on treatment. Conversely, the recovery time can be longer if the patient feels severe and disturbing side effects.Therefore, patients should plan 1 to 3 months of recovery time after chemotherapy so that patients focus more on their health.
3. Radiation
The duration of the radiation process usually depends on the type of radiation performed on the patient. So that the timing of postcaradiation breast cancer recovery also varies. One type of radiation like Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) can be completed within a maximum of three weeks. While branchytherapy or internal breast radiation can be done within five days with mild side effects and a relatively short recovery time.
What can be done if you want to speed up the recovery process?
Recovery time is not always the same for each patient. Because, this depends on the condition of the patient's health, the body's response to treatment, lifestyle, and the level of physical activity during recovery.
To speed up the recovery period, patients are encouraged to exercise regularly, eat healthy foods, avoid alcohol, and stop smoking. The following ways can help overcome sleep problems that are commonly experienced during treatment so that patients can return to normal activities.
In addition to physical recovery the patient also needs to recover himself emotionally. Emotional recovery is more complicated than physical recovery. Not a few breast cancer patients who are prone to depression and excessive anxiety so that the opportunity to make the disease recur.
According to May McCabe, RN, a director of the Cancer Survivorship Program at the New York Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, every cancer patient desperately needs support from family and friends, as reported by WebMD. This is useful for reducing the pressure and stress felt by cancer patients so that the recovery process can be faster.
The doctor may advise patients to undergo itget cognitive behavioral counseling aka speech therapy in addition to physical treatment. That way, the patient's recovery process can run twice as fast and physically and emotionally balanced.
