Diet Tips for Colon Cancer Surgery Patients

When cancer strikes your colon, your doctor may need to do resection surgery to remove the tumors from your liver. This is major surgery that involves a large incision in the abdominal wall. The diseased portion of the colon is cut away and the two healthy ends of the colon are attached to each other. Lymph nodes are also removed during the surgery because cancer cells tend to gather at lymph nodes. Removing the lymph nodes reduces the risk of cancer reoccurring.

Colostomies

• If too much of the colon needs to be removed, a colostomy may be needed. A colostomy is when part of the intestine is left poking outside of the body (called a stoma). A bag is worn around the abdomen and the intestine drains into the bag for waste collection. The bag must be emptied multiple times a day and changed regularly. Most of the colostomies are temporary until the colon can heal. Then a second surgery reattaches the colon and removes the stoma.

Pre-Surgery Diet

• In the days leading up to your colon surgery, your doctor will want you to follow a diet that will cleanse the colon. It will help prepare it for the trauma of surgery. You will need to avoid foods that are hard to digest, such as nuts and seeds. You will eat more starchy foods (breads, rice and potatoes) while avoiding high-fiber foods. Even closer to your surgery, you will have to switch to a liquid-only diet of broth, tea and gelatin.

Diet During Treatment

• While undergoing treatment for colon cancer, you may not feel like eating. That would be a mistake. Your body needs the vitamins, minerals and nutrients to help itself recover from the effects of the treatment. Radiation and chemotherapy damage your cells that proper nutrition can help repair. A healthy diet to follow is the one used to develop the food pyramid. You daily diet should include: bread, cereal, rice and pasta (6-11 servings); vegetables (3-5 servings); fruit (2-4 servings); meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts (2-3 servings); milk, yogurt and cheese (2-3 servings) and fats, oils and sweets (sparingly).

Post-Surgery Diet

• Your initial diet following resection or colostomy will probably be liquid, no-fiber diets with nutrient-rich drinks. While in the hospital, try small amounts of some foods and see which ones your body can tolerate. By the time you are released from the hospital, you should be able to follow a fairly normal diet. You will want it to be a diet that follows the guidelines of the food pyramid. Your doctor will probably advise you to avoid some foods that may be too much for your system to handle. These foods include: fruits, fruit juice, high-fiber vegetables, whole-grain cereal, whole-grain breads, onions, cabbage, carbonated drinks, beer, rich foods and fatty foods.

Radiotherapy Diet

• Radiotherapy treatments will probably cause you to have diarrhea for as long as a month. Some of this comes from the low-fiber diet you will initially be on following surgery. As your body begins to recover, your dietary fiber will slowly increase. This should minimize your bouts of diarrhea.

Chemotherapy Diet

• Chemotherapy can cause diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and fatigue. Diarrhea should gradually dissipate as your doctor allows you to eat more fiber. Nausea and vomiting can be minimized by keeping something in your stomach. You can accomplish this by eating smaller meals more often throughout the day or by drinking a nutritional drink between meals. The important thing is to continue eating so your body will have the nutrition it needs to recover.

Gum

• Dr. Rob Schuster published a study in the Archives of Surgery that suggests chewing gum may shorten hospital stays after colon surgery. Patients in the study chewed gum three times a day for an hour at a time. The patients were quicker to feel hungry, pass gas, have their first postoperative bowel movement and leave hospital. The belief is that chewing gum may stimulate the digestive system following surgery.