Chemo

Hello All, thank you all for the tips. I have just finished phase 1 doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide now for 12 weeks one session  a week  of paclitaxel. I have been using the cold cap and have kept a bit of hair, I had waist length hair which was blonde and extremely thick. I did most of the damage when I totally neglected it and my hair became a mattered mess. I ended up hacking into it with scissors and brushes. Good tip do it outside if you can I also used coconut oil olive oil and conditioner. I still  have my eye lashes and eyebrows but I take a small esky with cold packs and put them across my eye lashes and brows works like a cold cap for the face. I have had a good run which the red devil and its friend I continued to go to work at a smallish hospital where I am surrounded by the most beautiful staff from cleaners to my lovely nursing staff bless everyone of them including administration staff even maintenance. The only person who was nasty was my coordinator but there is a good section on workplace bulling in one of the cancer books and she has always been a bully so I would have been surprised if she was any different. What I am wondering if I am using a cold cap and my weekly paxcitaxol is kinder on your body would my hair start growing back.

Thankyou to all you lovely people in our club kezza

Hi Kerry

It sounds like you are managing all this amazingly well. Thinking back to my 9 x paclitaxels, I was told emphatically that I would lose all my hair. I never cold-capped but I had a buzzcut and no longer needed to do anything except smooth on the shampoo and let the shower do the rest - no touching. I did retain maybe 50% but it was a bit of a sorry sight tbh. I love your idea for brows and lashes. The loss of my lashes was my snapping point I think. I had about 5 left in total lol.

What I wanted to say was that I’d be more concerned about keeping peripheral neuropathy at bay. Hair grows again. Damaged nerves often don’t repair themselves. Paclitaxel is meant to be ‘kinder’ but it’s all relative and the weekly routine can feel relentless. Just be alert to any tingling in the fingertips and toes, maybe even the tongue and keep on top of it because PN can do permanent damage (I can no longer thread a needle or do my creative embroidery, which was my passion, as I can’t feel the needle or the thread!).

Hope paclitaxel is kind to you

xx