Working with your doctors to optimize readiness for ovarian cancer surgery has always been an important part of treatment. Women are generally advised to remain as active as possible and eat whatever healthy food they can best tolerate the day before.
For patients, making the preparation for surgery less complicated is a comfort as well as an advantage. "Other than strictly observing when to stop solids and liquids the day before surgery, there really isn't a whole lot that needs to be done to get ready," says Dr. Kellie Schneider, Gynecologic Oncologist at Novant Health. "We've relaxed our restrictions from what they used to be, and general practice now is all about being healthy and as active as possible before your surgery, because we realized that patients recover faster if they're not coming in starving."
Read More And eating healthy and staying as active as possible leading up to surgery is not only easier on patients, it's good for the outcome of treatment. "There are studies that have shown that protein intake prior to surgery and after surgery, which can be as easy as a protein shake, can help recovery" says Dr. Schneider, "so we do encourage that, even for our patients who eat a lot of protein normally. "The recommendations are generally to stop eating solid foods at midnight, the night before surgery," she adds. "The patients are able to drink clear liquids, so basically anything that you could read through if you spilled it on a piece of paper, or a newspaper, up until four hours before surgery. And then four hours after surgery." A patient's pre-anesthesia appointment is an optimal time to ask questions about eating healthily before surgery and then continuing the practice during recovery. But perhaps the best incentive is psychological. The opportunity to play an active and positive role helps mitigate some of the stressful challenges of recovery. It provides a meaningful way for a patient to reduce stress by becoming a partner with her medical team in her own success.
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