cold cap

Hi Sukki17 What chemo are you having? EC is the the toughest one for keeping hair. The taxanes are about 80%+ effective.

I've done it through 4 EC so far, and so far have no bald parches on top, but my hair has thinned significantly. I have to say that out unit there are 2 machines, and the first and fourth time I had the same one, and the second and third the same one. On the first I probably lost about 40% of my hair, but was fine. This (fourth) time on the same machine I've lost a lot. It didn't feel very cold either time so suspect it was a fault on that machine, which I'll question next Monday. On the fourth time the helmet which freezes was cold at the bottom not frozen, so please check each session. On the second and third time it was really cold (painful almost!) for about 10 minutes and then fine. I hardly lost any hair despite it being EC those times.  Other points

Take painkillers before leaving the house so that they've kicked, or if you are having premeds an hour before chemo then take them as you arrive at the hospital. They help!

You should have a paraben-free conditioner with you for the top of your head and wide toothed comb. Make sure that all your hair which will be under the cap is wet but not soaking.

It's on 30 minutes before chemo, and depending on the drugs, 45 -90 minutes after.

You can go to the toilet! Not in the first 30 minutes or they start again with the 30 minutes, but after the first chemo is done it's fine. You've 10 minutes to get plugged in again before it starts to get warm.

I don't need a blanket, though they always give me one, but everyone is different

If you have Facebook there's a Paxman group https://www.facebook.com/groups/PaxmanScalpCooling/

Any other questions, please ask and I'll try to answer.

Hi Sukki17,

i have recently finished 8 cycles of chemo using the cold cap each time and I still have a full head if hair its just abit thinner, lost my eyelashes and brows but my main worry was losing my head of hair, Like someone has already mentioned take painkillers prior to cold cap and what I did which may or may ot help you isI took my ipad and got jy ear phones in and listened to my favourite music for the first 15 mins of the cold cap and it got me through every time. As for feeling sick the tablets i were given did work and I used my own gut feeling as to how and when I had them initially I took them as a precaution as there is nothing worse than feeling sick then once I got into a routine with the treatment each month logging everything to look back on I got the hang of it and got through it.

wishing you well and just take a day at a time and try not to search or wait for symptoms just try and maintain a positive attitude and do things you enjoy!

streets

x

My oncologist told me Docetaxel can cause total hair loss, I asked the nurse the first time I had Docetaxel and she read out the side effects and top of the list was Alopecia.

I think all the side effects are different for anyone.

Wishing you lots of luck of it x

Docetaxel causes permanent hair loss in about 10% of women, but using the cold cap protects the roots, so is worth doing . Paxmann machines are also very effective with the taxanes, but struggles a bit with EC.

Yes it’s very unfortunate about the permanent hair loss. I wasn’t meaning permanent loss, just effects of chemo, my oncologist said hair loss usually happens more with Docetaxel, not always with FEC or EC, but like I said it differs in everyone.

I didn’t lose that much with EC with first couple of times, it has to fit really well though and I don’t think mine did.