Anyone tried Cold Therapy to prevent neuropathy in Taxol Chemo

Great work @shs14! It's so good to share the details. Not everyone gets in depth advice about this and I'm SURE you're doing the best thing :-)
Look forward to hearing how you feel at the end of the treatment - good luck xx

So I had my first session of Paclitaxel and Herceptin yesterday.
I had mentioned to everyone at the Hospital that I would be doing Cold Therapy so they knew. I said it again when getting my preChemo medications an hour beforehand and they said to tell them to put it on the form when I checked in.
Everyone has been positive about it including my oncologist.
Yesterday I told the nurse I needed to start icing 15 minutes before chemo. She set up my port and then I donned gloves and socks and she ran saline and set the timer to come back 10 minutes later to get organised and start the chemo.

As I said before, I bought these expensive gloves from Elasto-Gel and these NatraCure socks. Truth is I was disappointed with the gloves even though they are the ones cited in research. I tried them at home and they didn't even feel cold. So we went out and bought these Bodichek ice packs at a chemist which came with bonus smaller packs. They have a good fabricky cover which makes them nicer to handle.

Yesterday after being in the Esky with ice the gloves were better, much colder. I used them without the included inserts. Even then though they only lasted about 30 minutes. For the price I think you could find a cheaper alternative. I supplemented them with those small ice packs which I held inside the gloves my fingers embedded in the ice and trying to cover my nails as well. Later I took them off and used just the small ice packs resting on a larger one. 

The socks were much better. They are cheaper too. The come from the US on Etsy or Ubuy sites. They have insertable ice packs over the toes and under the feet. We supplemented these as they thawed out with ice packs below and above.

All this was held in an esky with ice from our fridge in a large ziplock bag and another large ice pack over. Its a lot to take and I am very lucky to have my helper to carry and position ice packs (and hold a sandwich up mid chemo!) I am very grateful that my husband has been an enthusiastic helper in all this and believed in what I'm trying to do.

The ice is cold but very doable. And an hour and a half isn't that long (shiver). Though I was relieved after the chemo finished and I'd waited another 15 minutes to take them off. 

Thanks to everyone who has joined in this discussion. I think this is an important therapy to consider if you are having Paclitaxel or Doxacetel to avoid possible neuropathy. I understand it may not be for everyone but I wanted to share my experience to get the message out there and I think the research I've linked too shows its a new therapy that is becoming more widely known.

Jenny @jennyss what a great homemade hack! Great you could show us pictures of it. Very resourceful. Thanks so much for sharing your experience x

Thanks @shs14 for starting this discussion - lots of experiences and tips. I had no trouble with neuropathy, but during docetaxal chemo in 2017 I developed blisters and swelling on my feet and hands - could hardly walk. Cold treatment is also recommended in some quarters to prevent/treat this side effect. I had the mits in hospital, but no foot thingy available. Attached are photos of my homemade kit which I used for hands and feet at home. The skin gradually healed and the blisters and swelling did not get worse during or after the last two rounds of chemo. Best wishes to all from jennyss in Western NSW 

Thanks @sallylovestosing I'm a big fan of walking too. I think it really helps.
So nice to hear all your positive ideas, I must say I'm a bit over it just this week, so some tips to make it more bearable are very welcome  :*

@shs14 From what I remember the Paclitaxel was less awful than the A/C generally speaking. The treatments themselves were much shorter for a start, which felt better. By the end of it I was a bit tired, but kept working all the way through, just shortened my hours a bit (from 38h per week to around 30). Work let me flex at will, so I did short days when I felt rubbish and long ones when I felt good. I'm convinced that keeping on walking the dogs daily and doing a little yoga in the mornings (I used to roll out of bed onto the yoga mat and just lie there for a bit - mornings were the hardest) kept me feeling better than I might have, as did being careful with my diet (plant based, no alcohol). I can highly recommend a great book called "How Not To Die" by Dr Michael Greger of nutritionfacts.org. 
I do remember that the paclitaxel made water taste very nasty - metallic and awful. My kids bought me a sodastream and I drank litres of fizzy water with fresh lemon or lime juice squeezed into it, which tasted great and gave me loads of vitamin C. Also feels a bit special if you chuck in some berries when everyone else is having cocktails!!!
If you haven't done a Look Good, Feel Better workshop yet, I would encourage you to go along - the girls were so much fun and again, it is an empowering thing - I tried harder to look my best during my treatment than I ever have - it felt like an extra layer of armour to me! 
Also if anyone wants to give you a present, ask for lovely smelling paraben free handcream and body lotion. All the treatment seemed to really dry out my skin and make me a bit itchy. I made self care into a welcome ritual and also set up a quiet reading space in my bedroom where I could retire from the rest of the crazy household when I needed to - this was important. Also saved me from having to keep explaining how I felt - if I had retired to my quiet place they knew I needed time out!
Good luck with your treatment - let me know how it goes for you :-)
Sally x

@sallylovestosing Thanks Sally, great to hear another experience and it seems compelling that the difference between your toes and hands means the cold gloves helped. @poodlejules was most resourceful wasn't she!
Sorry somehow posted this before I was finished. I'm sorry to hear about your feet and nails. A year later, that's an annoying reminder. Can I ask how the Pac was on other side effects compared to the AC?
I agree that we exercise etc is in our hands, when so much isn't.
Sharing information is another way to empower ourselves!

Hi @sallylovestosing (and so do I :) ) couldn't agree with you more but sorry to hear about your toes   :'(
All the best , Julie

Cold feet are a good thing in this situation - LOL!
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to add my five eggs worth :-) I had 8 weeks of fortnightly A/C follwed by 12 weeks of weekly Taxol. My Chemo ward offered cold cap with the A/c (which sadly didn't work, but hey, your hair grows back and it gave me the chance to be a cute redhead for a while!) and ice gloves with the Taxol. I asked about ice boots too, as it seemed to me that whatever protocol applied to hands should also apply to feet. They said that unfortunately they didn't have any boots, so we just went with the gloves. It feels pretty awful and makes reading a bit tricky (although not impossible- an eReader is good). HOWEVER - it does seem to work, because although my finger nails became very brittle and shredded easily, they didn't discolour and I didn't lose any and I have no loss of feeling in my finger tips. My feet were another story altogether - blackened toenails after first treatment and neuropathy that lingers even now (more than a year after the treatment). My big toenails finally fell of altogether last month! I wish I had been as resourceful as @poodlejules! Just because my hospital didn't have the ice boots didn't mean I couldn't have DIY'd a solution!! 
It can seem like extra discomfort and awkwardness at the time, but down the track when you're recovering it is incredibly reassuring to know that you have done everything in YOUR power (and less face it, some days it doesn't feel like there is a lot actually within your control!) to maximise your chances of a great recovery.
On that topic, I can't emphasize enough the benefits of being super attentive to your diet, exercise and mental health. Even if these don't actually fight the disease (and I am sure they do, by the way!), the extra resilience they give you to the rigours of the treatment is amazing. And once again, these are things in YOUR control.
Good luck with it all @shs14 - one day at a time xx

Thanks @poodlejules Julie, as you know your message was a most valuable resource for me in this discussion  <3