Cool cap and Diabetes (Type 1)

Hello Vicman31

I used the cooling cap throughout my chemotherapy for endometrial cancer last year. I had some shedding but retained a lot of hair and I am glad that I did it. It is very much a personal decision but for me I feel it was the right one. I did find I had some pain when it was first put on but that it would settle fairly quickly and become numb. I was advised to take paracetamol before hand and that did help. It adds a small amount of time to the chemo day but not as much as people seem to fear as during this time my nurses would be doing other things. 

I have not got diabetes but I can not think of a reason that this would cause a problem as long as it is well monitored. It is only your actual scalp where the temperature is affected and that is a thin area. I would imagine that you would have to keep an eye on your scalp and protect it with a theatre cap to make sure there is no damage to the skin. I did not have any damage to the skin but I would think with the diabetes it would just be something to keep an eye on. 

I had a look on the Paxman website for you and can not see anything about diabetes being contraindicated. I will pop a link below if you want to have a closer look.

Paxman Scalp Cooling | Changing the Face of Cancer

The other thing to do is to ask your diabetes team directly. 

However perhaps consider giving the Support Line a call and asking one of the nurses for some advice? The number is below and they are lovely on there. 

I wish you well with your treatment, whatever you decide.

Jane

Thank you for your message Jane I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I've spoken to one of the nurses via the chat service on here and she has sent me lots of links to look at as she wasn't sure about it. I'm going to mention it to my breast cancer nurse when I next speak to her. Getting the surgery out the way is priority at the moment and then when we discuss the chemo in more detail I'll then speak to my diabetes team. Just trying to find out info and I guess feel a bit in control whilst everything is still so up in the air about everything else. I'm still in that limbo stage at the moment which is very frustrating. 

Good luck with your journey and hope it all works out for you x

Hi Vicman31, I’m sorry I can’t advise about cold cap with diabetes but I’m hoping it’s something you can do if you decide you want to. It’s something that if you are going to try you need to do at the start. It’s not something that can be added part way through. Before I started my chemo I went to see the lady at my local MacMillan centre who helped me find a wig as close to my style and colour as possible. Loosing hair is different for everyone. Some people shed a bit some a lot and yes unfortunately sometimes all. I lost about 80% but cold capped throughout all 8 cycles. I didn’t shave my hair off I didn’t cut it at all until the end of chemo and then it was just short not that close to the scalp. I looked a bit like Gollum. The cold cap I read about on the Paxman website and it did say that it helps with regrowth and gives lots of info about studies that have been carried out. I also bought some hair serum and organic colour powerbuild shampoo, revamp and conditioner that has also helped with the regrowth. 
Wishing you all the best

Hugs from cuffcake x x x x x