Guidelines for rehabilitation of breast cancer patients

Post-operative rehabilitation training for breast cancer patients is essential to restore body function, mitigate complications such as lymphoma and improve the quality of life. The following is a rehabilitation training programme for breast cancer patients. i. Training at this stage of post-operative early recovery (1-2 weeks after surgery) aims to promote healing, prevent muscle atrophy and stiff joints. 1. Fisting: The patient lays or sits, stretches his side arm straight, shakes his fist slowly and looses. Each group repeats 10-15 times for 3-4 groups per day. This helps to promote hand circulation and exercise hand muscles. 2. Wrist movement: keep your arms straight, with the wrists being the axis, slowly up, bending down, then turn left, turn right. 5-10 times per direction for 3-4 groups per day. The movement can operate wrist joints to prevent their rigidity. II. Medium-term rehabilitation (3-6 weeks after surgery) can gradually increase the intensity and scope of training when the wound is healed better. 1. Rare exercise: The patient stands or sits, bends his side arm, puts his hands as close as possible to his shoulder, and then stretches his arms slowly. 10-15 meetings per group, 3-4 groups per day. This action helps to restore the mobility and muscle strength of the elbow joint. 2. Shoulder rotation: Hands fork over the waist, slowly turning the shoulder, moving 5-10 laps forward, moving 5-10 laps backwards, with 3-4 groups per day. This can effectively improve shoulder flexibility and range of activities. III. Post-rehabilitation (seven weeks after the surgery and beyond) focuses on restoring the strength and co-ordination of the side limbs and enhancing the ability of everyday life. 1. Wall-crawling: The patient is standing against the wall, with his feet and shoulders wide, crawling slowly up the wall with his side finger, until the arm is stretched straight or reached maximum tolerance, and then slowly down. 10-15 minutes per exercise, 2-3 times a day. The climbing exercise effectively stretches shoulder muscles and ligatures and increases shoulder activity. 2. Artificial weight training: Based on the patient ‘ s recovery, the appropriate weight bells or sandbags are selected, and simple upper limb force training is conducted, such as arms stretching, side lifting, etc. 8-10 meetings per group, 2-3 groups per day. Care is taken to move step by step to avoid excessive fatigue and damage. In the course of rehabilitation training, the patient should be guided by a doctor or a rehabilitation therapist and adjust the intensity and frequency of the training to his/her own situation. In the event of pain, swelling and other symptoms of discomfort, training and timely medical treatment should cease immediately. At the same time, maintaining a positive and optimistic attitude and continuing rehabilitation training will help breast cancer patients to recover their physical function and return to normal life. Breast cancer