Ice Queen: My journey with Cold Capping & Neuropathy pt. 1

Chemo in and of itself isn’t a fun journey, so when I decided to add ice into the mix, I knew I was going to make this journey even harder. Now, as I sit at my halfway point, part of me wonders why I wanted to make it harder, while part of me is glad I did it.

My oncologist office offers cold capping through the Paxman. The Paxman uses freezing technology to freeze your hair follicles so stop the chemo from penetrating the fast-growing cells on your head. Chemo is focused treated to stop and kill fast growing cells, like cancer cells which is why chemo patients lose their hair. Freezing those follicles stops the chemo from being able to get to them.

In order for the cap to work, I have to wet my hair, very wet, and then put a conditioner on top of it. I then put on my cap and connect it to the Paxman system which brings the temperature down to -15 to -4 degrees, essentially freezing my hair and the follicles. This lasts for 45 minutes precooling, 1.5 hours during chemo, then an hour of post cooling. After the first 45 minutes, my scalp is so numb that I cannot feel anything. In fact, I almost feel like the Disney movie, ‘Frozen’. I now live in an ice castle.

During the actual chemo infusion, my hands and feet are put into frozen sleeves. Once again, fast growing cells are being attached. This is to stop my hands and feet from getting neuropathy or tingling and numbness. The type of chemo that I am getting is often known to have this side effect. For the next hour and a half, I am a miserable person to be around. I am frozen (literally) from head to toe and I start to think is any of this worth it. To which my mother and husband normally yell at me and ask if I have drunk enough water today. (Water apparently solves everything in their mind, I wish I was drinking wine.)

Now that I am at the halfway point, I can report mild success with the cold capping and a huge success with my flippers to fight neuropathy. For the cold capping, I have lost about 15% of my hair with noticeable bald spots at my part and crown of my head. I hate my hair, but I am dealing with it. I cannot pull my hair in a ponytail, cannot put any heat on my hair, and cannot use my normal hair products. So, my hair is hidden every day. OOHHH and the dandruff and dryness in my scalp fucking sucks. It is so painful. Wearing hats or scarves in the house is the only way I can keep my hands out of my hair. As for the neuropathy, I have no tingling or numbness in my hands or feet!! YAY!! The flippers are a huge success and I am so grateful that Dr. H is making me do it.

I will continue to cold cap and use my flippers, I will keep you all posted on how my hair turns out. Right now, I am wishing I shaved my hair and just said fuck it and embraced this journey a little more. Maybe I will change my tune, but right now, I’m on the fence if it was worth it.