Elizabethtracey your post made me smile.I feel the same I had 3 tax and lost all finger and toe nails,Wish I knew about the dark varnish and frozen peas, it would of been worth trying.
Melxx
I also did finger cooling for 3 x TAX and have had no problems at all with my nails, other than a slight brittleness. I just took a flask of ice cubes with me and a little tupperware box, and kept my finger tips in the ice water for as long as I could bear it. After watching me do this for three cycles the chemo nurse admitted they had mitts!
I also sucked on the ice cubes to try and minimise mouth problems - it didn’t seem to help with the taste issues but I had very few problems with ulcers etc.
finty x
hi everyone,
i kept the dark nail varnish on, but i took it off after my 6th and final tax, maybe i should have carried on with the varnish after i had finished, but my nails were already sore so maybe the damage had already been done.
best wishes everyone, liz xxx
Hello,
I heard about problems with nails but hadn’t realised it was so common. I’ve had 3 TAX, one more to go. Some nails look slightly bruised. The white tips are now extended down my nails and I’m frightend to catch them incase they lift off my finger. My big toes absolutely kill. Pain in all my toes hasn’t really eased up this time.
Anyone had problems with their feet swelling up? They go down over night but by the the afternoon next day they are up again. Fluid I believe.
Oh the joys
x
Hiya Mandy, yes have done the throbbing toes especially in bed at night. Feet have been a problem since the paclitaxel dose of chemo. I can’t get a shoe on anymore and crocs are the only comfort. Am getting worried about going back to work in a suit and a pair of red crocs!!
Hi All,
I’ve had 1 Tax and my second is due tomorrow. My chemo nurse said there were more problems with nails with Paclitaxel than Docetaxol but I’ve been reading the nails threads here and there seems to be lots of ladies who have had prblems with Docetaxol. I painted my nails dark for TAX 1 but didn’t try and frozen treatments. Chemo nurse said she hadn’t heard of the gloves. Anyway, I’ve picked up some bit of advice from this site and had my nails painted purple yesterday, so not my colour but I read that black/blue/purple are especially good colours to block the UV rays. I also mentioned the frozen treatments at my onc appoinment today. Onc said it’s worth a try but no guarantes, so I’m gooing to try it. There are no gloves available at my hospital so I’m going armed with frozen peas in nappy sacks!
Sorry to hear that so many of you have suffered so badly with your nails. Let’s hope that if the frozen treatments for nails helps, that this gets offered as a potential preventative measure to everyone having Tax (the same way the cold cap is when starting chemo).
Lisa xxxxxxxxx
LISA
hi lisa,
apparantley a lot of hospitals stopped using frozen mitts, because a few patients suffered ice burns!
be careful with your peas in nappy sacks, sounds wrong lol, you should maybe wrap them in a thin t towel or something just to protect your skin.
i had 6 tax and didnt ice my fingers my nails are VERY bad all finger nails sore, and it looks pretty much like the are going to fall off.
give the frozen peas a go i wish i had,
all the very best love liz xxx
i asked the british supplier what it would cost to get my own mittens and slippers.
about £200 a pair, and you might need several pairs depending on how long the treatment is. Thats quite a lot of money.
I wouldn’t bother with the mits - no point in getting your whole hand freezing cold. If you just do ice cubes in water it isn’t as cold as direct contact with ice or frozen peas, and you just dip the nails themselves in the ice water - it’s very tolerable.
finty x
One thing I found with the frozen gloves is that they heat up inside quite quickly, even with three changes of them during the Tax. I think providing your own frozen thingies or iced water is more practical. Making sure you don’t overfreeze your extremities is very important though - cold but not freezing is the aim.