What is follow-up care for cancer treatment, and why is it necessary?

Getting cancer treatment is one of the most challenging battles that someone has to face in their life. However, the battle doesn’t end here as survivors need to attain good health following that. Cancer care treatment is a critical aspect of getting back to everyday life. There are tons of recommendations that everyone gives to the patients, but we suggest following the recommendation of your doctors before following any advice.
In this post, we will talk about proper care up plan after cancer treatment for monitoring patients' health adequately. Following this advice can create lots of differences and boost the recovery process. Although we wish none of our readers or their loved ones had to deal with cancer, it is still important to stay updated regarding better care. Go through the complete article and understand how to care after treating cancer.

Important Tips for Staying Healthy After Treatment

The survivors should have fun-filled years after getting treatment for cancer. We want to give a few tips that can be very useful for attaining good health.

• Avoid Smoking
  There can be many harmful effects of smoking on cancer care treatment that reduces its effectiveness. The patient’s smokes can alter the way body performs chemotherapy. Additionally, the toxic effects from the treatment can be increased with smoking which should be avoided at any cost.
  
  There is no denying that smoking can be tough on the human body, irrespective of someone is diagnosed with cancer or not. Smoking causes lots of side effects on the body, including nausea, fatigue, pain, and hair loss after getting treatment for cancer.
• Exercising Regularly
  Creating a schedule involving exercises and following it is a tough task for most people nowadays. It becomes even more challenging for cancer treatment who have finished up the treatment. However, its advantages need to be recognized considering the complications of chemotherapy and related treatments.
  
  If a cancer survivor regularly exercises after treatment, it reduces cancer-related fatigue to a greater level. We suggest exercising for at least 30 minutes a day to get better after cancer care treatment.
• Maintaining Healthy Weight
  A cancer diagnosis can cause many side effects to the body, making it hard for the survivors. It is essential to maintain a healthy weight once someone receives cancer treatment. We suggest they should stay within the weight limit for dealing with complications.
  
  It is essential to add average physical activity and movement in your daily life to maintain body weight. One can also think about eating fruits rich in fiber for extra benefits.
• Avoiding Alcohol if Possible
  Drinking alcohol should be eliminated from your daily routine if someone is a cancer survivor. It increases the chances of reoccurrence of cancer in later life. Apart from that, alcohol can be considered a pretty unhealthy method for dealing with the stress of cancer.
  
  Although we suggest avoiding alcohol, it should be kept at a moderate level if someone still wants to drink alcohol. Cut down drinking alcohol consistently later on for better health.
• Staying Connected with Friends
  If someone thinks medicines and care are enough to deal with cancer, there is a need to change the mindset. A survivor also needs mental support that only family and friends can offer. Indulging in talks with your loved ones can give great support in these tough times.
  
  Cancer can make a person feel isolated from maintaining happiness in their life. It can turn to be very beneficial for patients in the long run.

How to manage side effects in the long term?

A patient will have to deal with lots of side effects once completing the procedure. Few of them stay beyond the treatment period for weeks and even months. It even includes physical and emotional changes to the body. We suggest every patient talk with a doctor before starting the treatment about the side effects in the long run. They greatly depend on the cancer type, stage, and overall health of the individual.

Certain tests are strongly recommended for cancer care treatment for identifying late side effects. There are many instances where people forget keeping their health in check once tumor gets removed from the body. We have specified about them in detail below:

• Thyroid Examinations
  Having a thyroid test is essential for patients who have gone through radiation therapy as a part of treatment. There is a strong chance of these diseases, especially with kids at a very young age.
• Lung Functioning Tests
  Patients with bone marrow transplants can develop complications related to the lungs for better health. This test will show the amount of air lungs can hold and how much time is needed for moving out of the lungs.
• Regular Mammography
  Doctors often suggest this test for females who received radiation therapy on their chest at a young age. They should get this test about 12 months after surgery.
• Regular Imaging Tests
  The follow-up care plan should also include regular imaging tests, including CT scans and x-rays to check out second cancer. This periodic testing will make sure the reoccurrence of cancer can be detected as soon as possible.

What should Things be maintained in Health Records?

The details regarding diagnosis and treatment are very important for doctors to maintain the health of cancer patients. While your regular doctors won’t involve in cancer treatment, they should still be aware of keeping your health complications to make sure nothing gets missed.

On top of that, this information can be useful in the future if someone changes the doctor after cancer care treatment. It is essential to include the following things in your health records.

• Diagnosis Time Period
  The first thing to keep is the date when cancer gets diagnosed first. Additionally, we suggest keeping the complete time frame of the cancer period, so that any health complication can be easily identified in the future.
• Cancer Type
  The next thing to keep part of your cancer care treatment is including the details like cell type, stage, etc. It will be helpful in giving medications about the further treatments to the patient.
• Treatment Dates
  Every small detail regarding the treatment like dose, therapy, treatment cycles, and dates should be maintained in the records correctly.
• Future Tests Schedule
  The next thing to do is adding the full details regarding what kind of tests need to be performed for health evaluation once the cancer treatment is completed and patient becomes healthy.
• Dangers about long-term side effects
  As we have mentioned, there are lots of side effects caused by cancer treatments on the body of patients. It will be beneficial to keep the records of those effects for quality evaluation.

Conclusion

We understand that a patient's life completely changes once getting treated for cancer. There is no doubt the things we have mentioned in the post aren’t easy to be made a part of life. However, a patient should do what’s possible for them slowly and steadily. Adding these advices to the schedule will be extremely helpful for having better cancer care treatment. It not only helps improve quality of life but also ensures the patient can deal with stress better.