Round 1 of chemo and scalp cooling!!

1 minute read time.

Hiya well yesterday i had my first round of chemo (epirubicin) and experianced scalp cooling.

Well just for once the hospital was running on time :-) there was a few tears because the nurse said my hickman line wasnt in the right place and was to far down.... then she didnt know if they could even use it as it had only been 48 hours since having it put in!!!

Anyway, i got set up on a drip the nurse then sprayed my hair with water and rubbed the conditioner in, we counted down to 3 and put the cap on my my head..... I laughed and said omg is this it?? lol it wasnt until she tightened the cap that i felt how cold it was. It was excruciating those first 15 mins thought my head would explode... at -5.9 0c!!! But i kept thinking of my daughter who is so scared of mommy having no hair and told myself not to be a wimp lol :-)

So side effects of round 1 havent been to bad, so far!! felt a bit sick last night and pretty bad cramps in my stomach legs and feet but it didnt last long and keep getting a dodgy taste in my mouth.

I always remind myself just how lucky i am to of caught this in time and it seems to help me through each hurdle, i stick my fingers up to the disease it to get through each day :-)

Hope your all well,

Emma xx :-)

Anonymous
  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    Hi Emma , I used to eat pineapple and lots of curries, and it helped with the metalic taste i had. Good luck with the cold cap, hope the treatment goes smoothly for you .

    Best wishes   Sue   xx

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    Do you know out of all of this i am absolutly dreading the amount of weight i will put on through the steroids!!! Anybody got any tips there???? I always thought you lost weight through chemo..... how wrong was i lol

    Thank you all for your messages :-)

    Emma

    xxx

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    Hi Emma, I decided not to bother with the cold cap as I kept asking about it and the doctors and nurses were not very helpful. Did you have a cap that stays cold all the time? My hosp only had the sort they put in the freezer then they swap it with a fresh one when it starts to warm up.

    I am on day 9 of my first FEC chemo regime. I was sick on day 1, mild nausea on day 2,3, in bed feeling sooo sick on 3,4, feeling better day 5 and back to normal (?) day 6. The mettalic taste is not so bad now, mouth all furry though, keep sucking mints.  Had to go to hosp today as getting pain in arm above PICC line, they have put me on anti biotics. Hope you have lots of friends to support you, it must be very hard with 2 young children.!

    Regards

    Maxine

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    Also about putting on weight, I thought great when I lost my appetite for 4 days but now I want to eat everything that's not nailed down!

    I'm just hoping one will cancel the other one out.

    I'm going out for a nice meal on Saturday while I've still got hair, I am counting down the days until it falls out. I have long hair and thought at 54 it kept me looking young, I'm dreading looking like an old lady!

    I just hope it makes the hairs on my chin fall out as I'm fed up with plucking them!!!!!

    Maxine

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    Hey Emma glad your first chemotherapy went well and you didn't find the cold cap too bad. I only used it the once as my wedding was 2 weeks after my first chemo!! I then didn't lose any hair til around cycle 3 which was nice and I had fec which was epirubicin plus 2 other drugs.  I put on 2 stone during chemo due to the steroids especially when I moved onto taxotere as I had to take a higher dose. I craved carbs with the sicky feeling too. My advice is not to be too hard on yourself, you have a lot on as it is and I did lose it quickly after. See how it goes xx