Things you wish you had know!

I am glad I found out about the Penguin Cold Caps through this network. I am on my third round of TCH and still have most of my hair. It has thinned a fair bit and I dont know if it will last the 6 rounds but I am glad to have hair at the moment as I am barely coping with all the other stuff. It just helps. The caps make chemo day fairly unpleasant but its worth it to me. I am a private person and I dont really want my BC to be public knowledge. My family dont understand this but if I had irritable bowel syndorme or any other condition it would be understandable if I didnt want to make it known. I dont know why it is hard to understand that I dont want people knowing about my health issues (if I can help it). The privacy issues and the small (but signficant to me) chance of permanenet hair loss due to taxotere spurred me to hire the cold caps.

I also ended up in hopsital due to mucositis and a related infection on my first round. Since then I have sucked ice cubes during Taxotere and have had no probs. The hospital offered me icypoles on my first treatment but try negotiating that with ice mits on!!

BTW. I realy admire the brave and beautiful women who are not afraid to wear their baldness and bc. Initially I thought I could be that woman but I now realise and accept that its just not me  and I am glad I took time to refelct and make the decisions I have made.

Love and courage to all..however you choose to do it.

shat