Anyone tried Cold Therapy to prevent neuropathy in Taxol Chemo

Hi @Caz1, that's great, I have messaged you. A warm blanket helps a bit brrr!

I've been meaning to write a final account of my icing.
I am such a strong believer in spreading the word about cold therapy. Which is why I have been banging on about it here!!
My experience has only made me more convinced that this information should be shared more widely.

My final thoughts
I think the gloves are expensive and you can do it without them. 
I bought two so it cost me nearly $200 after currency exchange, duties and delivery, you can't get them here as far as I can tell, and they only last well for 20 minutes. Its hard to keep your thumb cold too because it is at right angles to your fingers.

By the time I finished last Thursday I was instead using nurses rubber gloves and a tupperware of ice as I mentioned. Photo below. I used cold socks for my feet.

I had had one week when the infusion dragged on, the drip kept tripping off and it went an extra half an hour, and later my fingers were a bit numb and my fingernails sensitive and discoloured in parts. For the few weeks left after that I was more careful with my icing, thumbs are hard to keep cold in gloves and I changed over to the tub of ice to make sure I was keeping them cold. 

I'm a few days out from my last infusion now (hooray) and my fingers and feet seem fine. Any minor numbness in the tip of my thumbs and index fingers seems to be improving already. Touch Wood!

I have a few dark patches mostly on my thumbnails and one fingernail which was damaged years ago and has come loose a bit at the end. But they don't hurt.

I think that you will know if the cold therapy is working because when it doesn't your nails get really sensitive. That's my experience anyway. The tip of my right thumb has been my barometer, when it felt numb I knew I hadn't iced enough. You need to ice before and after the infusion for at least 10-15 minutes. 

The Natra Cure socks are great. A bit cheaper than the gloves and easier than putting your feet in ice bowls.
They come with little ice packs over the toes and under the soles of your feet. I found they lasted the full hour and a half. If they didn't feel cold enough I rested them on a Bodichek icepack. Pics and details in an earlier post.

I bought my socks on Ebay here:https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/254053480072?ul_noapp=true
But you can get them maybe cheaper on Ubuy. Again links in an earlier post. Along with links to studies and forum chat from overseas.

People with chemo neuropathy often talk about ongoing numbness in the soles of their feet so while I only did my fingers not really my hands I made sure the base of my foot was covered. I rested them on another ice pack if I felt they were warming up.

If you didn't have the socks you could just rest your feet on the Bodichek ice packs and have one over and tie them on to start with. I sat my feet on the esky we brought.

All the nurses were accomodating and interested in my cold quest. By the end they were spreading the word. Last week I set up a girl who came and asked me at chemo with a kidney bowl snaffled from the nurses, some of their gloves and my extra ice as she was starting paclitaxel and hadn't prepared. A bag of ice and a plastic container, borrow the gloves from the nurses station and you are set for hands at least.

I would lend others my kit but I have a friend who does Paclitaxel in a few weeks and I've promised it to her.



Good luck to everyone icing or not. Happy for anyone to DM me for more info.