Penguin Cold Caps

Hi Catherine,

I recently used the Cold Cap at Cabrini in Brighton East.  Yes it was painful, sooo cold.  Was better with increased sedation and listening to music.  Did make chemo a more difficult task to undertake.  I can compare as I have had two primary breast cancers and last time did not do the cold cap. 

It was not successful for me.  I did lose hair, but then again no worse than some ladies who have thinning hair.  I took to wearing a hat all the time and if people did not know they would have assumed that I liked wearing hats.  The Wig lady at LGFB said that if you are not happy in your wig it will not make you feel better.  My thinning hair was like that, everyone said "oh you look fine, you still have hair"  but I did not feel fine.

Now that my hair is growing back I am feeling better.  I have had my hair cut short and the bits growing through will fill in the gaps.  It does look better than growing a full head of hair which was what I did the last time. 

So yes it was worth it in the end, but yes it is unpleasant to go through.  Would I do it again?  (Hope I don't have to!)  But yes I would do it again.

Cheers Gladys :)

Hi catherine

i have been using the cold caps and let's just say they are not very pleasant, the only good thing is that after after 20min of wearing it your head goes numb and you don't really feel too much. I would just that you take the sedative though. If you can get through the first 2min you'll be ok.

the cold cap did work for me I did still lose some hair and had a slight bald patch on top, nothing some strategic hair placement couldn't cover, but I can feel my hair starting to how back now and I haven't even finished treatment yet.

if I ever had to do it again ( and let's hope I don't) but yes I would use the cold cap.

Good luck

Laura

I was able to tolerate it ok. Uncomfortable to start with but i got used to it. The cap didnt fit well on top and lost the hair at the top of my head. I wore hats to hide my bald patch. Any hair that falls out grows back really quick. I would use it again and would highly recommend it. 

Maryrose 

thanks Gladys, that's a really good synopsis of it. someone who has not done it and then done it. I really appreciate your description of both sides of it.

I'm finding this website so useful. people are so generous with their answers.

Catherine x

thanks Maryrose. did you have the TC chemo combination?

And were they at the hospital or did you hire them? Cost?

Catherine

Hi Catherine , I recently wrote about my experience, you can read my post here 

https://www.bcna.org.au/online-network/members/angiesg/blog/my-scalp-coolingcold-caps-experience

It was a positive outcome for me. I'm now 5 weeks post my final chemo and the shedding has stopped. I went and coloured and cut my hair this week too and it now looks like it used too, yes it's thinned a bit but hardly noticeable

the first 15 minutes was the hardest, after that I was ok

its effectiveness does differ dependant on the type of chemo you have. It worked well for Taxol which is what I had

Best of luck with it

Angie

thanks Angie, that's very helpful! :-)

Angie, was it just taxol that you had? Mine is going to be docetaxel (which I think is the same as taxol) and cyclophosphamide.

Called TC. Did you have that combination?

I had 3 fec and 3 taxotere trearments. The cold cap was part of my chemo which i had in a private hospital so covered by my private health insurance and no additional cost.

Hi Catherine, I had scalp cooling for my chemotherapy.  I did find it painful so took ativan/ lorazepam with each chemo and that made the process very comfortable.  Other ladies having scalp cooling at the same time didn't find it uncomfortable and seemed really relaxed.  My hair did thin.  I cut it very short ( No. 2 with the clippers) because found it distressing to find my long hair falling out.  I did buy hats and scarves to wear but only wore once.  Got lots of compliments about my short cut.  My hair started growing back in the 5th month of my six months of chemo and has thickened up very quickly.  I think it was worth it.