I would welcome some advice and support. Diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer about 6 weeks ago.
I had my first chemo session last Friday where I tried a cold cap. I had a pre-chemo telephone appointment with one of the chemo daycare nurses who mentioned cold capping but didn’t provide any real information on what would happen or what to expect.
On my first visit I was given a freezer cap about 30 minutes before the chemo started and it was changed once during the treatment. I had about 90 minutes worth of chemo drugs administered. I have since spoken a ward nurse about the cold cap regime they offer. They put the cap on 15 mins before the chemo starts and change the 1st one after 30 minutes and subsequent once’s every 45mins leaving it on for 15mins after the chemo has finished. There are 2 paxman machines on the unit but I have been told I’m not eligible for their use as my chemo doesn’t run over 3 hours.
From what I have read the cap should be changed every 30 minutes and left on for at least 30 minutes after chemo has finished.
I’ve started on 3 weekly carboplatin and paclitaxel with weekly paclitaxel in between.
I’m a bit confused with what I should be asking for as the regimes seem to differ with a machine vs freezer caps. Any advice, suggestions or experience on what I should be asking for would be very welcome.
Oh that’s interesting. I had mine on for 30 mins before the chemo started then for I think it was an hour after it finishing. But it never got taken off and changed at any point, I’d keep the same cap on the whole time I was there.
I also had the cold cap on for about half an hour before treatment started and for an hour after treatment finished without having it changed, but this was ten years ago and I don’t know if things have changed since then.
It worked pretty well for me yes. I kept around 70% of my hair. I will say it was very thick so there was plenty to start with! I had 12 Paclitaxel then 2 EC and had a huge shed a few days after my final EC. Then it stopped shedding after about a week. I was surprised at fast it grew back in. I lost all my eyelashes and eyebrows by June but did have my eyebrows microbladed before starting chemo and that is something I highly recommend as it meant I looked like I had a full set of brows once they had all fell out. They too started to grow back very fast.