Life After Treatment
- The irrepressible comedian Kathy Griffin, 61, has posted a photo of husband’s culinary masterpiece, and opens up about struggling with food in post-treatment life.
- Griffin has struggled not just with digestion after lung cancer treatment, but also vocal hoarseness and swallowing issues. She’s open about all of it with fans.
- She recently had successful surgery on her vocal cords to repair damage from the cancer treatments.
- Cancer can invite a variety of issues in after treatment, like digestive issues and unintended weight loss. Doctors suggest tackling these issues immediately by consulting professionals about what can be done to ease symptoms.
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I don't know. I might. Is there a definitive test for that? Ever since my lung cancer surgery last August, I've had a lot of problems with my eating. A lot of vomiting and getting too sick to even get out of bed. 🤢
Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) July 3, 2022
Healing from Lung Cancer
When healing from lung cancer, it’s important to keep close contact with the members of your care team to let them know about the severity of your pain and discomfort, as well as any anxiety and stress that you may feel. Kathy’s ability to be open about struggles coming into her life post-treatment is how she’s been able to attain comfort in recovery.
"So it’s important that you stay connected and, as things change that maybe don’t feel right, that you connect with your care team and make sure that either they do something to make you feel better or that they reassure you that this is to be expected, because your pain will change in location and nature," says Melissa Culligan, a thoracic surgery nurse at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Side Effects: Managing Pain and Discomfort after Lung Cancer Surgery
While Griffin appears to be listening to her body with these recent symptoms, she has also appeared to be back to her active self. Keeping active and overdoing it are two completely different things.
Getting proper rest, light exercise when feeling up to it, and eating a nourishing diet (which she looks like she has covered with the help of her live-in chef) are important elements of your healing journey.
Major Reduction in Cancer Risk by Following Old Standbys Diet and Exercise
Diet’s Role in Cancer
An important question for patients with any cancer is the role of diet and exercise in cancer risk. On the question of diet, studies of human populations "have not yet shown definitively that any dietary component causes or protects against cancer."
Unintended weight loss, however, gives a sense of how much of a toll the body is taking from the cancer. Digestive issues like the ones experienced by Griffin might come with a set of unwanted results, like weight changes.
When a patient first visits the oncologist with unintended weight loss, it can be a sign that the cancer is having a large negative effect on the body. Thus, maintaining weight throughout treatment, although a challenge, is important. Dr. Sagar Lonial, Chief Medical Officer at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, says exercise is important: "What I tell patients is the stronger and fitter you are going into treatment, the stronger and fitter you're gonna come out on the back end."
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