Chemotherapy

@Newby24 they may not be pretending when they say they love your new look. Like baldness in men, there are some women who absolutely rock it. It depends a bit on the shape of your noggin, but mostly on the shape of your attitude :) MXx

Thank you everyone for your info on the cold caps, I decided not to go for it and just get the chop. I have some beautiful scarves and beanies been given to me and yes even though not a lot of people know what I’m going through, my immediate family and close friends do know and so they will at least pretend to love my new look haha. I am now going into day 3 of my first cycle and am laying wide awake. Good luck to everyone that is also struggling on this wave of emotions and thank you very much to the women who have been through and continue to support us Newbys 👍🏼💕

@Megs04 I also hijacked this thread as I start chemo on Monday and have found it most informative. I had my education session today at the oncology unit and saw the cold cap in action. I was under the impression the temperature was going to be somewhere between minus 30 or 40 so I was pleasantly surprised to find out it sits at minus 5. I'm going to give it a go but I'm not sure I love the fact that it adds a half hour before chemo starts and an hour after each chemo session finishes. If I can't hack it or don't want to do the extra time for my 14 rounds of chemo, I've decided I'll go to my hairdresser and have a very short haircut. I've been out and bought a few turbans to wear just in case. Funny you say you've developed a needle phobia as all the needles of recent times seems to have cured my needle phobia.

If you haven't been offered them then it's likely that they're not available at your clinic but give them a call and ask - nothing ventured, nothing gained.  As @sarnicad says, they add a significant amount of time to your treatment and you may have to have chemo in a different area of the clinic.  My clinic had a large chemo room but if you were doing cold caps, it had to be done in the hospital next door.  All still under the care of the clinic - they just didn't have room for the equipment.

@Newby24 the cold cap adds about an hour and a half to treatment time. An hour at the front end and half an hour at the back end

@Newby24 A cold cap is a specific piece of equipment attached to a machine in the chemo ward. Some places don't have them. Some people have great success with them (@kezmusc is the poster child for that) while others, like @Sister and myself, tried it but found it didn't work well enough to persist. You can talk to your oncologist about it. It's initially very uncomfortable but then just numb. It adds a lot of time to your stay in the chemo ward.

You might surprise yourself. I love my new short do and am keeping it! K xox

@Newby24 the cold caps are available through the oncology centre that I will going to here in Canberra. I know how you are feeling with the hair. I've also never had short hair and I'm pretty sure that's because I don't look good with short hair. 
Best of luck with the chemo. What is your treatment plan?

Where do you get the cold caps from? Do you buy them yourself? I start Chemo in two days n was going to do the big cut tomorrow. My hair is long but very weather worn so was thinking maybe a short hair cut anyway. Never had short hair in my life so bit apprehensive 😬 

@CathyMac @Shellshocked2018_  it is so true that everyone does chemo differently.  For me everyone warmed me of constipation - not a day but I took handfuls of gastro stop and indigestion meds. Just have the drugs on hand and don’t hesitate to ring your onc or the nurses or whoever they give you to contact(make sure you have a number!) if you are in doubt about anything 

on the cold cap I’m in the give it a go camp. I was given a sedative and it was only intense for about 5 to 10 minutes I think the first time was the worst as I was so stressed by the whole unknown chemo thing that I made it worse the next three times were probably only 5 mins. I had some thinning but most of my hair stayed and it has bounced back quickly

@Romla I do know her, but I Googled to check the likeness. I kind of know what you mean, but I think you're being very generous! Thank you.  :*