After skin cancer surgery
How you feel after skin cancer surgery depends on what type of surgery you have.
For small skin cancers, you often have surgery whilst you are awake, under local anaesthetic. You can go home on the same day.
For larger skin cancers, you might need a general anaesthetic and to stay in hospital overnight.
The information on this page is for people who have had surgery for a larger skin cancer.
After a general anaesthetic
You wake up in the recovery area next to the operating theatres.
At first you’ll be wearing a mask or have small tubes into your nose (nasal cannulae) to give you oxygen. You might feel dizzy and sluggish to begin with.
You have a blood pressure cuff on your arm and a little clip on your finger to measure your pulse and oxygen level.
Once you are more awake, your nurse will take you back to the ward. They will measure your blood pressure and check your dressings regularly.
Pain control
Pain can usually be very well controlled after surgery. Your doctors and nurses give you painkillers by drip, tablets or liquids if you need them.
You might have an injection of anaesthetic into nearby nerves (a nerve block) for some operations. This can work very well to control pain. You might also have a small pump attached to a drip so that you can give your own pain medicine as you need it. This is called patient controlled analgesia (PCA).
It's important that pain is well controlled, so do tell your nurse if you don’t think it is working well enough. As well as making you more comfortable, the painkillers also help you to move around and breathe properly, which helps with your recovery. Pain will gradually get better as your wound heals.
Possible problems after surgery
There are some possible problems after any surgery. Your doctors and nurses do their best to prevent you getting these complications. They ask you to help yourself too. Problems may include:
Wound infection
You might have antibiotics to help prevent infection. You may have them through your drip at first. But once you are eating and drinking, you can take them as tablets.
You might also have drainage tubes close to the wound to stop fluid collecting around the operation site. This is important because, as well as being uncomfortable or painful, fluid that doesn't drain away can become infected.
Chest infection
Getting up and moving around as soon as possible after your operation helps to prevent chest infections. A physiotherapist or nurse might also teach you breathing exercises to help.
Blood clots
Getting up and moving around as soon as possible after your operation helps prevent blood clots. A physiotherapist or nurse might also teach you leg exercises and give you compression stockings to wear while you are in bed.
Your nurse might give you an injection just under the skin to lower the risk of blood clots. After some types of operation, you might carry on having these injections for 4 weeks. Before you go home, your nurse might teach you to do these injections yourself. Or a district nurse might come to your house to do them.
Numbness
You may have some numbness, tingling and pain in the area. This is due to nerve injury and may get better with time. Talk to your doctor or specialist nurse if this is troubling you.
Having a local anaesthetic to the middle or lower part of your face means that you won’t be able to feel anything until it has worn off. So you should avoid hot food and drink until the sensation has returned, as there is a risk of burns.
Bruising and swelling
You might have some bruising and swelling around the area of your operation. This goes down over time as the wound heals. Contact your doctor or nurse if the swelling gets worse.
Bleeding
You might have a small amount of bleeding after surgery. If your wound continues to bleed or gets worse contact the department where you had surgery or go to your local Accident and Emergency (A&E) department.
Avoid strenuous exercise or activity after surgery to reduce the risk of bleeding. Your doctor or nurse will tell you how long for.
Scarring
You'll have a scar. The size and shape of your scar will depend on how big the skin cancer was and if you needed a skin graft or flap.
Scars are quite noticeable and red to start with, but they get paler and less noticeable over time. Some scars can be quite thick and raised (keloid). Talk to your doctor about any worries you might have about your scar.
Breathing and circulation exercises after surgery
Voice over: These exercises help prevent you developing a chest infection or blood clots in your legs after surgery. These problems are more likely when you are not moving around as you would normally.
You can do these breathing exercises while sitting up in a chair or in bed or whilst lying down.
Relax your shoulders and upper chest.
Take a slow, deep, comfortable breath in and hold for a couple of seconds, then slowly breathe out.
Repeat this 3 times.
You can start these breathing exercises as soon as you come round from your anaesthetic. You should try to do them every hour when awake until you are fully mobile.
If you need to cough support your wound with your arms a pillow or a rolled up towel.
Woman: [Coughs]
Voiceover: If you are struggling to clear any phlegm, try a huff. This is where you breathe out in a short, sharp manner as if you were trying to steam up a mirror.
You should move about as soon as possible after your operation. But while you are not as mobile, try to keep your legs moving to encourage better circulation.
You can do these exercises in a bed or in a chair.
One foot at a time point your toes away from you then, pull your toes towards your chin. Try to do 10 of these on both feet at least 2 to 3 times an hour.
The next exercise is circling your ankles. One at a time circle your ankles, clockwise and then anticlockwise. Repeat this 10 times with each ankle 2 to 3 times an hour.
Eating and drinking
Your team will let you know when you can start eating and drinking again.
Getting up and about
How quickly you can get out of bed and move around depends on the type of operation you had. For most operations you get up the same day or the next day. Your nurses and the physiotherapist tell you when you can get up. They'll help you if you can't move around easily by yourself.
It's good to get moving as soon as possible. This helps you recover and reduces the chances of other problems, such as a chest infection and blood clots.
Follow up appointments
You'll have follow up appointments to check your recovery and sort out any problems. They're also your opportunity to raise any concerns you have about your progress.
