A 73-year-old oncologist suffered from cancer and passed away after a year of fighting cancer. His reflections before his death are thought-provoking

It may be difficult for ordinary people to imagine what cancer patients will experience if they reach an advanced stage. It may also be difficult for doctors who treat patients to "empathize". But there is such a doctor, he deeply understands.

Hua Yiwei, the former Director of the First Surgery Department of the Beijing Military Region General Hospital, has been engaged in cancer prevention and treatment for 56 years and has performed operations on countless cancer patients.

After unfortunately suffering from gastric cancer, after a year of fighting against the disease, he still left with regret, but before he passed away, his words are worthy of our reflection: "I have done so many operations before, but the postoperative The patient's pain is not well understood. I didn't expect the situation to be so serious, and the patient would be in such pain..."

1. After becoming a patient, I realized how painful it is to suffer from cancer

What happens when a person changes from being a doctor to a patient? How will the mentality change?

Hua Yiwei is the former Director of the First Department of Surgery at the General Hospital of the Beijing Military Region. He was diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer in 2005. After total gastrectomy, Hua Yiwei suffered from severe reflux, unable to lie flat at all, and could only lie in a semi-recumbent position for a long time.

In order to control the spread of cancer cells, he also underwent intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy and experienced unbearable pain for ordinary people. Despite this, Hua Yiwei is very strong. In the process of fighting cancer this year, he also constantly reflected on himself:

1. "It's better to keep a little stomach than to cut it all"

In the past, when treating patients, doctors mainly considered removing the tumor and reducing the risk of recurrence, and rarely considered whether there would be complications.

Hua Yiwei didn't realize until after his own experience that being a doctor should not only care about treating diseases, but also consider the quality of life of patients. Under his suggestion, improvements were also made when performing operations on patients with gastric cancer: it is not necessary to perform a complete resection, try not to perform a complete resection, and even if a complete resection is required, find a way to reduce the pain of the patient .

2. "Chemotherapy is too painful, I just want to relieve the pain"

After complete gastrectomy, in order to control the spread of cancer cells, Hua Yiwei had undergone 8 rounds of chemotherapy within one month . During chemotherapy, Hua Yiwei vomited so badly that he couldn't eat at all and relied on a nasal feeding tube for nutrient solution.

After the chemotherapy ended, the symptoms still did not improve. Hua Yiwei developed intestinal obstruction in the terminal ileum and became weaker.

In order to survive, Hua Yiwei underwent another operation. Unfortunately, a severe infection occurred after the operation, and his body was completely exhausted, with tubes inserted all over his body... At that time, he had only one thought: stop using expensive medicines, No more expensive tests, just less pain.

3. "The goal of a doctor is not to cure the disease, but to treat the sick patient"

Hua Yiwei believes that the mission of doctors is not to cure diseases, but to treat patients. As a doctor, you should not only consider whether the operation is successful, but also consider the patient's feelings .

If there is a trade-off between quality of life and disease, consider which is more beneficial to the patient. Doctors should bear the main responsibility, because for patients, due to ignorance of medicine, they will think that complications are normal, but in fact sometimes they can be avoided.

2. It is difficult to empathize with the pain of cancer

How painful is it for patients when the cancer has developed to an advanced stage? It may be difficult for ordinary people to imagine...

For cancer pain, Academician Han Jisheng described it like this: Swallowing saliva is like eating broken glass, headache feels like sitting on a roller coaster for several days, lack of oxygen and dizziness, defecation takes all the strength of the whole body...

More than ten years ago, Yu Juan, a young teacher at Fudan University, described in her autobiographical book "This Life Is Not Completed" how she experienced cancer pain in the late stage of breast cancer: the pain was so painful that she couldn't move at all, the pain was so painful that she passed out, and the pain was so painful that she thought about it. I can't afford to cry .

Why is cancer pain so painful? Because it is not only physical pain, but also has a major impact on the mind and spirit .

In addition, cancer-related treatments can also cause a series of pains, such as peripheral neuralgia, burning pain, etc. Under the influence of body pain, it can lead to insomnia and fatigue, further aggravating cancer pain.

And because of the fight against cancer pain, patients become withdrawn and closed off. Under multiple tortures, the patient will fall into a vicious circle of pain.

3. Cancer pain must not be tolerated! Timely treatment is critical

Cancer pain must not be tolerated, and it will not pass after a while, on the contrary, it will become more and more serious, and finally the pain is too painful. Statistics show that there are more than 3 million new cancer cases in China every year, and about 2/3 of the mainstream patients experience pain, most of which are severe pain .

Liu Wei, Director of the Palliative Care Center and Day Ward of Peking University Cancer Hospital, introduced that many patients and their families are worried about drug addiction and have certain concerns about the use of opioids to relieve pain. In fact, don’t worry, China has strict regulations on the use of opioids.

In addition, there are two common misunderstandings in cancer treatment:

One is that analgesics are only necessary when there is severe pain. The role of analgesics is to relieve pain and improve function. As long as cancer pain occurs, regardless of the degree, analgesics must be taken in time and on time;

The second is that long-term use of opioid analgesics will lead to addiction. Clinical medical research at home and abroad has shown that scientific, reasonable, and standardized use of opioids has a low risk of mental dependence . Therefore, don't bear the pain of cancer, timely treatment is very important.

To fight cancer, it is very important to survive, but it is necessary to consider not only the survival period, but also the quality of life and the patient's feelings. If the patient is lucky enough to survive, but is in pain every day, it doesn't actually mean much.

References

[1] "["Medical" Talents] Hua Yiwei: A Person Worth Entrusting His Life to". Qingdao University Medical College Student Union. 2014-11-03

[2] "It really hurts to have cancer! When it comes to cancer pain, the 90-year-old academician also shed tears! ". Health Times. 2018-01-16

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