angiesg
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Re: My Scalp Cooling/Cold Caps experience
Hi Lissie Glad to hear that it has all gone so well for you. I cut and coloured my hair around 4 weeks after chemo finished and just before my radiation therapy started. Colouring is much harsher than having a cut, so id say a small trim would probably be ok. We will be getting into cooler months soon, so a hairdryer might be a necessity but try and hold off using it as much as you can. I used to just towel dry lightly and go sit outside in the sun/wind for it to dry. Its 3 years since i finished my cold caps/taxol treatment and all is good on the health front and my hair is as thick and healthy as it has ever been. Best of luck with the rest of your treatment plan4Views0likes0CommentsRe: Travel Insurance
I did all my online and said I had a pre-existing illness which was cancer and then other questions came up about how long since I had finished active treatment and medication I was on. It then calculated it all. They then gave me a special letter saying that they were covering me for it etc. Was very simple process. So if anything BC happened I was covered and I was naturally covered for saying if I broke a leg, which would have had nothing to do with the BC.7Views0likes0CommentsRe: Cold cap
Yes I used cold caps when I had my 12 weeks of Taxol treatment. Retained all my hair and yes it was not the most comfortable of procedure but well worth it. I had some thinning but hardly noticeable at all to others. This was 2.5 years ago and today my hair is as thick as ever. if you look under my posts you should find the post where I explained the whole process. Best of luck with it, I personally think it’s worth giving it a try. For me the emotional part of not losing my hair was a huge factor in my recovery, nobody was defining me for having cancer, as your common person had no idea what was happening.10Views0likes0CommentsSwitching from Tamoxifen to Arimidex
Hi all Has anyone done the switch from Tamoxifen to Arimidex? How did you find the change? Better off? Worse off? I know every person reacts differently to medication but would like to hear your experiences. If you had side effects, did they settle down? How long before side effects kicked in. Im starting my new tablets tomorrow. I have tolerated Tamoxifen very well for the last 2 years, but my oncologist would prefer I move to Arimidex now that im fully menopausal and also believes it will be more effective for my overall circumstances. Thanks Angie84Views0likes11CommentsRe: My Scalp Cooling/Cold Caps experience
So glad to see that this post is helpful, even 2 years later. Some follow-up comments after that post: I went and coloured and cut my hair about 4 weeks after chemo finished, I was really desperate by this stage as it was over 4 months since I had visited the hairdresser. I went for a non-chemical organic hair color and all went well I continued to shed lightly for about 1-2 months after chemo finished, but it was not very noticeable, a little more than you may usually get on your hairbrush I had a delayed reaction with my eye-brows and eye lashes, they became very sparse when treatment finished and not during treatment. Within 2 months they were back to normal too Im so glad I gave scalp cooling a go and it was an enormous emotional help for me during the entire process as I still looked like me and was not being defined by the illness. Best of luck to anymore starting now, at the time it was so daunting, but 2 years later it just seems like a distant memory. Angie5Views2likes0CommentsRe: Cold caps
I did cold capping at epworth Richmond as a private patient and was very effective for me. Epworth in east Melb and Cabrini also provide a similar private patient service. The Royal women's has the facility for public patients but I believe the wait lists are longer. All of them do cold caping using the paxman machine which you can't access independently. Before the machines became available there were places that you can hire the caps and do it the manual way. From what I have heard this is an intensive process as you need to change the caps frequently and you need to keep them cold. Penguin caps was one of these companies that you can hire from. If you can get your daughter to have her treatment where the automated machines are available this will be the simplest and most effective manner. Best of luck51Views0likes0CommentsRe: State of the Nation - Question Parking
I did chemo and radiotherapy privately and all parking was free. for chemo which was for 12 weekly sessions initially and then every 3 weeks for 1 year for Herceptin, we would park at the hospital underground car park and day oncology would give us a drive out ticket which negated the entire cost. This was so convenient and that extra little thing we did not need to worry about at each visit. for radiotherapy, the hospital had 10 designated spots just for their patients, once again free and within a 50 metre walk to the entry. Once again made the 6 week daily visits so much easier. was very grateful that both these parking options were available to us .2Views0likes0Comments
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