Chemo & hair loss

@Chris51
Sorry that your roller coaster ride has so many twists and turns, keep coming on here and sharing and venting. we get it and will help you walk this bloody horrible ride it is .... I hope that you get a bit of good news in the midst of all this 
Soldiercrab

Ah, the shower on the naked scalp. Wonderful. I will miss that. It is almost X-rated.

Oh gosh, you sure are doing it tough right now @Chris51. Hang in there.

Once I took my remaining hair off, and when I'd adjusted to the public nature of looking like someone with cancer, I actually found it very freeing. And showers are fabulous!

Big big hug Chris. We'll be with you all the way. K xox

Oh bugger bugger @Chris51 .  So sorry to hear. Like one thing to worry about is not enough.  Hopefully you get some good news very soon.

Really appreciate all the feedback. Have had a few complications since original post. Further investigations have found endometrial cancer in vagina 13 years after hysterectomy. The PET scan to investigate this has found lymph nodes on inside of breast that appear to be involved. Because of unusual nature of the endometrial cancer have now been referred to Peter Mac and it looks like radiotherapy for the EC will proceed chemo & further radiotherapy for BC. It is now 5 weeks since original diagnosis and I just feel as if I am on this round-a-bout that just keeps spiralling faster and faster. Would love to get some ‘good news’ . Losing my hair doesn’t seem to be quite the issue that it was initially!

You can do some pretty nifty things with scarves!

Oh and just for the record,  I'm a tad vain but being bald wasn't that bad coming out healthy and strong is incredible.xx

Like @melclarity said if your chemo treatment includes the red devil ac or fec just focus on getting through your treatment , cold caps are a 50/50 option for those. I shaved my hair off 2 weeks into my first ac treatment after trying the cold cap,  i struggled with not being able to wash my hair , style  my hair and then the added time each treatment took a toll as well. I  chose that my main focus was on beating cancer and losing my hair was secondary. If you are doing taxol chemo please try the cold caps as all my friends that did have all had pretty decent results. I know it's confronting losing your hair, eyelashes and eyebrows but you know something losing those things for a few months helps us get our lives back,
I have all of those things back now and am so grateful. 

@Chris51 It is a tough one absolutely, depends on your Chemo regime for a start. If you are just having Taxol the cold cap will be quite successful however if you have to have AC or FEC which are the red devil the success rate is about 50%. I didnt do it in the end as my Oncologist said it wouldnt work to what I thought it would. I have had friends do it who all abandoned it. One is currently started Chemo and had 2 sessions of cold cap and said the last one was brutal and inspite of doing it after 2 infusions about 50% of her hair has fallen out, so she cut it up short and is now going with it. @kat09 tried it and might be able to share her experience. 

I was adamant I did not want to lose my hair but when I look back now, I had such a hard time through chemo that the cold cap and the extended time spent would have amounted to like 7hrs each time. 

I think like most women, they choose to give it a go and just see, if that's what you'd like to do, I say do it as at the end of the day this is about you. Hugs x

It worked very well for me - it thinned over all but no bald patches. It was very uncomfortable for the first 5 to 10 minutes but they give you pain killers and a sedative - TAKE THEM
@kezmusc  was very supportive of me so I am keen to pass this on, it worked for me and my hair has grown back really strongly - the worst part was not being able to color it until 6 weeks after the last chemo (and then only natural color). As other ladies have said pushing the cap down really matters and I found the Cabrini nurses fantastic. I also ran through my chemo and it had no effect on the cool cap that is important on the day of treatment before and after the actual chemo not the rest of the time as I could get my head hot and sweaty. I could only wash it twice a week in tepid water but you get used to it.