After skin cancer surgery

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 having small tubes (a nasal cannula) put into your nose 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 after surgery

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.

Eating and drinking after surgery

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. 

Find out about follow up after treatment for your skin cancer