Cancer patients will have many symptoms while treating them, among which pain, insomnia, and fatigue are the most unbearable symptoms for cancer patients. Many cancer patients are deeply tortured. So, how do these symptoms occur and how should they be dealt with?
Most cancer patients will experience one symptom, that is, fatigue. After a series of treatments, cancer patients will inevitably feel tired. This feeling of fatigue is not only physical, but also mental, emotional and psychological. Patients may experience physical weakness, inattention, memory loss and depression. What are the causes of fatigue in cancer patients? There are many cases of loss of appetite, even nausea and vomiting in tumor patients, which leads to insufficient nutritional intake, especially patients with esophageal and gastrointestinal tumors. As we all know, tumors are a wasting disease, and if cancer cells do not eat enough, they will rob other tissues of nutrients. The intake is low and the consumption is still high, so malnutrition is inevitable. Emaciation is also the deepest impression of cancer patients. This will cause fatigue and weakness. At the same time, normal tissues and organs are mainly metabolized by by , while the tumor metabolization method is mainly anaerobic fermentation. As a result, excessive accumulation of lactic acid in the patient's body is also one of the main reasons for the patient's fatigue. Of course, metabolites and lactic acid accumulation have a certain relationship with the size and amount of the tumor.
How to deal with cancerous fatigue? In addition to some anti-tumor measures, supplementing nutrients, energy and other measures, if physical conditions allow, exercise moderately to ensure adequate sleep and improve the patient's bad mood. This includes help from family members, and the patient must overcome it by himself, listen to music, chat with friends, etc.
From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, the causes of fatigue are insufficient qi and blood, deficiency of positive energy, and weakness of the five internal organs. In response to fatigue, we need to replenish qi, blood, and nourish the five internal organs. Traditional Chinese medicine has many solutions in this regard. Based on the diagnosis and treatment of traditional Chinese medicine, through the treatment of different diseases, a reasonable combination of methods such as replenishing qi and promoting blood circulation, strengthening the spleen and stomach, relieving liver and regulating qi, reducing reversal and stopping vomiting, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, detoxifying and anti-cancer, etc., is adopted to select prescriptions and medications according to the different clinical characteristics of the patients, to kill cancer cells and improve the body's immunity, solve the symptoms of fatigue of cancer patients, help patients to establish confidence and energy to overcome the disease, and improve the quality of life of patients.
The most common and typical symptom of cancer patients is pain. After the cancer enters the middle and late stages, the human body will cause pain (nociceptive pain) due to the invasion of cancer cells and abnormal pain transmission (neuropathic pain) caused by the damage to the nervous system. These two kinds of pain are most common in patients with mid-stage cancer. For example, cancer cells directly infiltrate or compress the nerve root, nerve stem, nerve plexus or nerve, which can lead to tingling, numbness, burning pain, etc. In addition, cancer cells invade the patient's brain tissue and spinal cord, which will cause radiation pain, migraine , etc., and will also be accompanied by brain function damage, such as: hemiplegia , aphasia , loss of visual taste and smell, etc.
How should cancer pain be relieved? It can divert or distract attention, and can also appropriately reduce the pain in cancer patients. Choosing some things you like to do, such as watching TV and listening to music. Turning your attention away can prevent you from focusing all your attention on the pain, which can effectively relieve it. At the same time, a positive and optimistic attitude can be cultivated. The most important thing in fighting cancer pain is the patient themselves, and the family members and medical staff only play a supporting role. Patients themselves must recognize their own disease, bravely fight against cancer pain, maintain an optimistic and positive attitude, and actively cooperate with doctors' treatment and standardize the treatment of cancer pain, so as to relieve the pain caused by cancer pain.
Non-drug treatment methods include hot and cold compresses, comfortable positioning, meditation, massage, listening to music, deep breathing and relaxing exercises. But these are only auxiliary methods and cannot replace drug treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the pathological properties of cancer pain are always inherently weak and sufficient. Most of them are caused by deficiency and pain due to deficiency. It is a disease that is weak in the system and solid in the local area.Traditional Chinese medicine methods are safe and effective and can relieve pain in patients with malignant tumors. Cancer pain can be divided into qi stagnation and blood stasis type and qi and blood loss type. Qi stagnation and blood stasis are due to the pathology of blockage of qi in a certain part, and local symptoms of bloating or pain. For cancer pain with qi stagnation and blood stasis, the main purpose is to promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, unblock the meridians and relieve pain. The main purpose of cancer pain in qi and blood loss is to nourish qi and blood, warm menstruation and relieve pain, and achieve the purpose of treating cancer pain.
70% of cancer patients are accompanied by insomnia, and there are many reasons, such as too much pain, fear of death, use of irritating drugs, antidepressant, anti-anxiety and antihypertensive drugs, etc. Cancer patients do not get enough sleep and rest, which will inevitably consume energy and physical strength, reduce their ability to resist diseases, and lead to cancer recurrence or metastasis.
So, how should cancer patients solve the problem of insomnia? First of all, we must eliminate negative emotions in a timely manner. Cancer patients need to correctly understand their disease and correctly deal with adverse reactions caused during the treatment process. Be calm when you come, eliminate tension, anxiety, and nervousness in time, make psychological adjustments, ensure that you are not surprised when you are in trouble and have a calm and stable mentality. The main cause of insomnia is pain, especially at night when the pain is intensified. According to the cause, location and nature of the pain, choosing a suitable analgesic method can effectively relieve the pain, make the patient feel calmer and help fall asleep quickly.
Patients should adjust their work and rest time. The work and rest time needs to be adjusted according to the treatment and rehabilitation plan so that the treatment and rehabilitation of the disease are carried out in an orderly manner. Get up on time, fall asleep on time, participate in outdoor activities more during the day, and take a nap every day, but not more than 30 minutes, but not more than two hours. You should not sleep in bed for too long during the day, and you must fall asleep before 19 o'clock. You can do more relaxing entertainment or exercise during the day, but not participating in activities that will make the brain excited or cause emotional excitement, such as watching competition film and television programs, listening to music with too strong rhythm, playing electronic games and chess and cards, etc. In addition, you should not discuss topics that may cause disputes with others before going to bed to prevent major changes in emotions and avoid emotional excitement.
Relieve cancer-related symptoms, including pain, nausea, vomiting, dyspnea, etc., which can relieve insomnia symptoms in most patients. For insomnia patients with malignant tumors, traditional Chinese medicine treatment follows the principle of taking into account both the symptoms and the root causes. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the key to tumor lesions lies in the imbalance of the internal environment of the body, causing dysfunction of various internal organs, tissues, and meridians. "The positive and weak evils gather together, and the accumulation gradually becomes", which is related to qi stagnation, blood stasis, and phlegm and blood stasis. Traditional Chinese medicine can help patients to support positive energy, mobilize their own positive factors, control the growth of malignant tumors, and improve the quality of life of tumor patients. Through diagnosis, a series of painful symptoms caused by cancer such as pain and difficulty breathing can be improved, the patient's comfort level can be improved, the patient's sleep quality can be improved, the patient's own immunity can be enhanced, and the patient can recover.
We say that treating cancer requires both the treatment of "cancer" and the treatment of "symptom". The survival time and quality of life are mostly consistent. Improving fatigue, pain, and insomnia is an important factor in improving patients' quality of life and should be paid attention to!
