I have been diagnosed with cancer, firstly they thought it was gall bladder problems, had an ultrasound scan, nothing wrong with gall bladder but had a cyst and lesion on my liver. I was referred to heptobilary at the hospital they asked for a Ct scan, I was then told I had suspicious nodules in the peritoneum, I was then informed they wanted a scan of the pelvic area, it was then decided I was to be referred to Gynae dept, I attended the clinic, was called in and the Doctor sat in his chair and there was a Macmillan nurse as well, the doctor just look at us and said, bad news, it’s cancer, I had a suspicion but my husband was very upset.
We were invited by the nurse into another room where she answered our questions, even the black side ones, she was lovely and had such a gentle way of explaining.
I was told I was to have Chemo 3 sessions, 3 weeks apart, but they wanted a biopsy first to determine if it started in the ovary or peritoneum plus it straddling the appendix. I had a hysterectomy aged 37 but they left the ovaries, mores the pity, lol
I had my biopsy 2days ago and the lovely Macmillan nurses personally took the samples to the lab, in the hope of a quick result. I am now awaiting the result and then an appointment to attend The Christie hospital to start my treatment.
I asked about the cold cap and they told me that gynae chemo does tend to affect the hair, I.e. it will come out, now I am puzzled after reading your experiences.
Have any of you had a line out in either your chest or arm? I have very small veins and taking blood is a nightmare also inserting cannulas.
I am trying to stay positive but have ups and downs.
would be interested to hear your comments about the caps and hair loss.
Hello Lotus7
I am sorry that you have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and are needing to have some chemo. I hope that you do not have to wait too long to have your biopsy result and appointment at The Christie hospital.
I had my chemo last year after a diagnosis of womb cancer. I had paclitaxel and carboplatin chemo but there are other types. I had them via a cannula in the back of my hand but that was my choice. I wanted to avoid the line that goes into your chest or arm as I wanted to be able to have it taken out at the end of each chemo session.
I did cold capping- paxman and kept most of my hair. I had thinning all over but no bald spots. It's very much a personal choice. I did have a bit of pain for the first 30 mins but after that I found I tolerated it well. I would do it again. Even with some hair loss I believe it protects the hair follicles and in my case my hair started to grow back between the 2nd and 3rd chemo cycles. Carboplatin causes thinning but paclitaxel causes you to lose all the hair on your head and body I was told. About 2 weeks after my first chemo I had no body hair but still had hair on my head. I had scarves and wigs on standby but didn't really need them.
I also joined the chemotherapy forum on here and found it helpful. There is a thread on there for hair loss/hair loss treatments if you want to have a look. I did actually post my experiences on there.
(+) Chemotherapy forum - Macmillan Online Community
Hope this helps a bit but if you need anything else please do ask.
Jane
At my hospital, anyone who wanted the cold cap was allowed to. Made a slight delay for my first chemo by 3 days. With the cold cap you will still shed hair, it doesn't work for everyone and I looked on the Paxman website to find out about it. There was a calculator on it that I put in the type of chemo I was having and it gave me a 50% chance of retaining 50% of my hair. It wont help with eye brows or eye lashes but to me my hair was important and it was worth a try and I was told if I didn't like it or wanted to stop I just had to tell them and the machine would be turned off. Quite a few people used it while I was there and most seemed to have some success. I know that because it was the same people coming in and I could see their hair before they had the cap put on. Most of the other people I saw who were not cold capping, for a variety of reasons, had lost either all their hair or were wearing wigs/scarves etc. If I had lost most of my hair early on , I still would have continued.
Its hard to predict who the cold cap will work for and who it won't but I figured it was worth a try. I am happy I did and would do it again. I had also been told it does seem to protect the follicles a bit from a small chance of any hair loss being permanent.
It does add a bit of time to the chemo day- but I found the cooling down time at the beginning was when I was having the pre meds etc run through and at the end of the day the 90 mins extra soon passed it and it gave me a chance to talk to other people, the nurses and have a cuppa. I took paracetamol an hour before having it put on which the nurses suggested and its a bit like a tight swimming cap.
I understand about the picc line- I would just make sure you mention you would prefer it to you CNS before the chemo starts. in case they want to do the day before. My veins are reasonable but they did deteriorate a bit as the chemo cycles went on and it was harder for the nurse. I did have a bit of bruising. I did find though that the nurses in the cancer unit were pretty spot on with the cannulas- I suppose they are used to it.
Jane
