Hi @kabash,
I have a bit of numbness in my right thumb after an unintentionally extended session the other day (week 7) when the drip kept turning off. So last week (week 8) I upped the ante and took a tupperware full of ice to put my hands in when the Elastogel gloves warmed up. It was a good solution and I think you could easily do the whole course this way. As I've said the Elastogel gloves aren't perfect and don't last the whole time.
If you go the ice route make sure you wear some light rubber gloves, I just borrowed some from the nurses station. Maybe a small esky to take extra ice depending on how it lasts for the whole session. Try and ice up before they start. I wait till my port is accessed for the saline and then ask them to come back in ten minutes. The nurses are always happy to accomodate my cold packing.
I think the bucket of ice method is an excellent way of keeping your hands cold and when it gets unbearable I just took them out for a bit. You'll get the feel for it. I crushed my ice to make it easier to put my fingers into. Try and keep both sides of your fingertips cold.
@poodlejules used this method the whole of her treatment and avoided neuropathy.
The socks on the other hand have been a good investment and I wear them and sit them on an extra icepack if they don't seem cold enough. They seem to be keeping my feet safe.
Good luck with it!
@Sally_AS I wish you luck too with your cold therapy too. I'm so glad you found the information useful. I wanted to do cold capping but my oncologist said it didn't work for AC chemo. But I thought it important to avoid neuropathy if I could. I'm eight sessions in and just a bit of numbness on my right thumb. And some of my nails have light brown spots, mostly my thumbs which are hard to cover as they face a different way to the fingers! I start my sessions with the gloves and socks and then add ice packs into the gloves and then as I told @kabash last week I used a simple tupperware with crushed ice and rubber gloves for my hands (an extended session which added half an hour to my infusion the week before seemed to have accelerated the browning and numbness so I was determined to keep them extra cold for the remaining time. And they were very cold :o )
The NatraCure socks are great, and cover everything. I sit mine on a Bodichek icepack on top of the esky if they don't seem cold enough.
Great good luck to you both @Sally_AS and @kabash I hope it goes well :)
Happy to answer any questions you have about chemo or cold!
