Do brain tumor patients have headaches every day?

Brain tumor is a relatively serious tumor, which poses a great threat to the patient's life safety. When a brain tumor occurs, there are many symptoms of the disease. The most obvious one is that it will cause severe headaches in patients, and they will suffer from this headache every day. In addition to taking analgesics, they also need to adjust their diet, change their bed position and other methods to relieve the symptoms. Of course, for brain tumor patients, the radical cure is still surgical treatment.

1. Taking analgesics

Sedatives can be used to relieve headaches caused by surgery. When necessary, analgesics must be used promptly and correctly, and appropriate analgesics must be selected according to the doctor's instructions. Generally, the drug is given once every 4-6 hours, but it varies from person to person. After 2-3 days when the pain is significantly relieved, you can stop using analgesics to avoid overdose and addiction. If the surgical incision is still painful after 3-4 days, you should contact your doctor to check whether the surgical wound is infected.

2. Change your bed position

Using different bed positions after surgery can help relieve surgical trauma and pain, and is also beneficial to improving respiratory and circulatory functions. The semi-sloping semi-recumbent position, which is to raise the head of the bed 15-30 degrees, can reduce the tension on the anastomosis of the patient's abdominal wall muscles. At the same time, a small pillow can be placed under the knees to increase comfort and prevent the patient's body from sliding down due to the semi-recumbent position. The head of the bed can be raised 30-40 degrees depending on the patient's comfort angle, and remember to place a small pillow under the knees. Patients with low blood pressure or unstable blood pressure should choose the supine position. Lying on the side instead of the semi-recumbent position can reduce the pressure on the skin of the sacrum; frequently switching between lying on the left side, right side, and supine position can avoid bedsores caused by long-term pressure on a certain tissue. Such activities in bed can promote the recovery of intestinal peristalsis, allow the patient to pass gas through the anus as soon as possible, and relieve abdominal distension. To increase patient comfort and stability, a slightly larger pillow can be placed under the back.

3. Adjust your diet

Dietary adjustment is very important for alleviating headaches and adverse reactions of radiotherapy in patients with brain tumors. You should choose foods that are nutritious, light and easy to digest. Patients with poor appetite should be encouraged to eat more, and their favorite foods should be prepared to increase their appetite. They should eat small meals frequently. For those with dry mouth, sore throat, and severe esophagitis, you can also use the Chinese herbal medicine Cassia seed and raw licorice to boil water and drink it as tea. For patients with nausea and vomiting, the diet should be light and less greasy. A small amount of ginger juice can be added to the dishes for seasoning. They can also hold ginger slices in their mouths, or drink water boiled with Chinese medicine such as tangerine peel and persimmon calyx. For patients with decreased blood counts, family members can appropriately strengthen nutrition, increase high-quality protein, and eat more iron-rich foods, such as spinach, celery, tomatoes, peaches, grapes, oranges, figs, etc.

4. Warm family environment

Family members should give patients their wholehearted care and concern, allowing patients to feel the warmth of family, maintain mental health, divert attention from cancer pain, and thus increase patients' desire to survive. Director Jia Dong of the Fifth Department of Neurosurgery at Tangdu Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University kindly reminds: Patients with brain tumors should not only do the above points, but also actively adjust their mentality and maintain an optimistic and cheerful mood. This is also very necessary for the relief of the disease. At the same time, family members should also provide proper care and carry out relevant follow-up examinations in a timely manner.