Recovering from Cancer Surgery
Right after your surgery, you will be moved to the recovery area. How long you will stay in the recovery room depends on the type of surgery you had and the type of anesthesia used.
After the anesthesia wears off
- After local anesthesia, you may be able to go home shortly after the procedure.
- After regional anesthesia with conscious sedation (which reduces pain, relaxes you and may make you sleepy), your team will monitor you carefully until the anesthesia wears off. How long it takes depends on the extent of your surgery.
- After general anesthesia, you will be monitored carefully in a recovery room until the anesthesia wears off. This usually takes 1 to 2 hours, but could take longer depending on the type and extent of your surgery. As anesthesia wears off, you may feel groggy, have a sore throat, or have pain or soreness at the site of your surgery.
Once you recover from anesthesia, you will be taken to the ICU, your hospital room, or you might be allowed to go home. Make sure you follow all recovery instructions from your surgical team.
Let your surgical and cancer care teams know how your recovery is going and let them know if you have problems or concerns. This way, they can help relieve or avoid the side effects of surgery.
Tubes and catheters
Your throat may be sore for a while if you had an endotracheal (ET) tube to help you breathe after surgery. You might also have tube (called a Foley catheter) draining urine from your bladder into a bag. This is usually taken out as soon as possible after surgery to prevent infection.
Incision site care
You will likely have a bandage over your surgical site. This is also called the dressing. It helps your incision heal and guards against infection.
Ask your surgeon or surgical team when and how to care for your incision site and change your bandage. Leaving it on too long may delay healing or cause infection.
Contact your surgical team if you develop a fever, or have more drainage than expected from your surgical incision, redness or new swelling at the incision site, or nausea and vomiting that doesn’t go away pretty quickly.
Surgical drains
You may have a tube or tubes (called drains) coming out of the surgical opening in your skin. Drains pull fluid that collects at the surgery site out of your body. Your surgeon will take them out once they stop draining fluid.
Your surgeon or surgical team will tell you and your caregiver how to care for drains if you have them. You and your caregiver may need to learn how to empty the drain, keep it clean, and change the dressing around the drain.
Eating and drinking
You may not feel like eating or drinking after surgery, but this is an important part of the recovery process. Your surgical team may start you out with ice chips or clear liquids. They will also check to make sure that you are passing urine normally. They may want to measure the amount of urine by having you urinate in a special container.
The digestive tract (stomach and intestines) is one of the last parts of the body to recover from anesthesia and other medicines used during surgery. You’ll need to have signs of stomach and bowel activity before you’ll be allowed to eat.
Along with checking your surgical wound and other parts of your body, your doctor or nurse will listen for bowel sounds in your belly and will ask if you have passed gas. These are signs that your digestive tract is starting to work normally again. You will probably be on a clear liquid diet until this happens. Once it does, you may get to try solid foods.
Talk with your nurse or registered dietitian about getting the right nutrition. They can also help you return to eating your regular foods.
Physical activity
Being active, such as getting out of bed or even walking soon after surgery, can help prevent problems after surgery. Moving can help speed your recovery by getting your digestive tract working, increasing your circulation, and preventing blood clots and pneumonia.
If you are in the hospital, the nursing staff will help you get out of bed to be sure you are ready to begin physical activity. If you are at home, take your time standing up and moving around. You can increase your activity as you feel up to it.
If you are not able to get out of bed, you might have pneumatic stockings place on your legs. These devices are wrapped around your legs and gently squeeze and release every so often to help your circulation and prevent blood clots.
Your surgical team may also recommend physical therapy and/or occupational therapy to help with your recovery.
Your surgical team will encourage you to do deep breathing exercises. You might be given a device called an incentive spirometer to help you take deep breaths. This helps fully inflate your lungs and reduces the risk of lung infection (pneumonia).
Be sure to let your team know if you’re having pain that is affecting your ability to be active so they can give you medicine to control it.
How fast you recover from surgery depends on the kind of surgery you had and your overall health. Be sure to ask your health care team what you might expect right after your surgery.
Going home after surgery
Planning for you to go home or to another setting starts very soon after surgery. Your discharge plan is finalized once you’re eating, drinking, and walking. The plan also will depend on other factors, such as the results of your surgery and any tests done afterward.
Pain control is important as you recover. If you’re having pain, be sure to let your health care team know.
Before you are sent home, be sure that you understand these things:
- How to care for your incision (and drains) at home
- What symptoms or side effects you should let your surgeon or surgical team know about right away
- If you have any activity limits (driving, working, lifting, exercising, etc.)
- What you can eat and drink
- What medicines you should take and when you should take them
- Who to call with questions or problems during the day, after hours, or on the weekend.
- Whether you should be doing anything for rehabilitation (physical or occupational therapy)
- When you need to see the doctor again
Everyone recovers differently. Wounds heal at different rates, and some operations are more involved than others.
You may need help at home for a while after surgery. If you need more help than your family members or friends can give you, ask your surgical team if home care is an option. They should be able to arrange for a nurse or nurse’s aide to visit you at home for a while. This may also depend on your insurance plan.
Adjusting to changes in your body after surgery
Depending on your surgery, you might have changes in how your body looks and works. Some of these changes can be hard to get used to. Feeling upset, sad, or angry about the changes is normal.
It might help you adjust if you have a good idea ahead of time what the likely result of your surgery will be. You will probably still need time to adjust to the changes, even if you knew they were going to happen. Your surgical or cancer care team should be able to help you with those feelings. They won’t be surprised if you tell them that you are having a hard time coping with the changes.
Let your surgical or cancer care team know how you are feeling. Be as specific as you need to with your questions, and make sure they give you answers you can understand. It might also help to see a counselor or join a support group for people who have the same kind of cancer or had surgery like yours.
When to call your doctor after cancer surgery
Before you leave the hospital, make sure you know how to contact your surgical team at any time – even after hours, on weekends and holidays.
Some side effects from surgery may come and go quickly, but others might be a sign of a more serious problem. Let your surgical team know right away if you have any of the following symptoms after surgery:
- A fever (ask what temperature you should call for)
- Shaking chills
- Bleeding from your incision or drain site or unexplained bruising and bleeding anywhere else
- Pain or soreness at the surgical site that’s getting worse or is not relieved by the pain medicine you were told to take
- Unusual pain anywhere, including in your legs, chest, or belly, or intense headaches
- Nausea and vomiting
- Dizziness
- Shortness of breath or trouble breathing
- Having trouble or pain urinating (peeing); or bloody, bad smelling, or cloudy urine
- Any other symptoms or signs mentioned by your surgical team
Don’t hesitate to let your surgical team know about any new problems or concerns you have. It’s always best to find out the cause of a problem so it can be treated right away.
- Written by
- References
Developed by the American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team with medical review and contribution by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
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National Cancer Institute (NCI). Surgery to treat cancer. Published November 8, 2024. Accessed at March 3, 2025. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/surgery
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Last Revised: June 2, 2025
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