After a successful surgery to remove the brain tumor, it’s important to strictly follow the instructions of the surgeon. Otherwise, you’ll be experiencing the side effects after brain tumor surgery and that can be extremely bothersome. For example, a brain tumor could affect your eye vision. Therefore, you must know what to do in the event that this case happens.
Follow-up Appointments
Your visit to your doctor does not end once the surgery is over. In fact, you’ll still have a lot of follow-up appointments to make sure you won’t have a relapse of your condition.
One of the most dangerous side effects after brain tumor surgery is when the tumor grows back. To prevent this from happening, always have a regular appointment with your doctor. During these sessions, you may need to discuss about any symptoms you’ve experienced. Moreover, you’ll still need to undergo some tests such as physical examination and brain scan.
Possible Side Effects after Brain Tumor Surgery
Some of these side effects are even experienced months or years after the surgery.
- Migraine
- Cataracts
- Hearing loss
- Infertility
- Impaired memory, judgment, language or thinking
- Developing tumor in another part of the body
- Loss of vision due to nerve damage
- Stroke (rare)
If you’re experiencing one or more of these symptoms, it’s highly recommended to contact your doctor as soon as possible.
Supportive Treatment
Don’t expect the problems to be instantly resolved once the tumor has been removed. Therefore, always consider extra support to help you adapt with the changes.
- Physiotherapy – To address motor movements
- Speech and Language Therapy – To improvement your swallowing and ability to communicate
- Occupational Therapy – To determine any problems you’re experiencing on your activities of daily living. Any problems detected will be addressed and you’ll be given an alternative.
Most post-operative patients are still required to continue taking their seizure medications even for a few months after the tumor has been removed.
Travelling
There’s a high possibility that you’ll be prohibited to drive after being diagnosed with brain tumor. The duration of the restriction depends on various factors such as:
- Whether you had episodes of seizures
- Type of brain tumor
- Symptoms you’ve been experiencing
- Exact location of tumor in the brain
- Type of surgery you had
Lifestyle Modifications
You may need to adjust your lifestyle after your surgery to minimize side effects. For example, you need to lessen your smoking to prevent stroke. Engaging in a healthy diet and regular exercise is also a good idea.
Sports
While sports promote healthy physical activity, those who had brain tumor are not recommended to play contact sports like boxing and rugby. If you had a history of seizure, it’s also discouraged to go swimming, unless there is close monitoring. To know which sports you can do, it’s best to talk this over to your doctor.
Suffering from brain tumor is definitely life-changing. But it’s not the end of the world for you. You can still go live a normal life as long as you’re disciplined enough to modify your lifestyle.