TCHP advice and neuropathy prevention

Nicb1

Starting TCHP in the next week or so and curious about your experiences with this specific treatment. Also wondering if anyone used cold packs, etc to help with neuropathy and what types of gloves or socks did u use? Thanks for any advice or help. I'm IDC grade 3, triple +++. Best of luck to you all through this journey

Beesy_The_Other_One

Nicb1,

I used these cool packs, which I saw someone here suggest. I ordered four, one for each hand and foot--not cheap but a great investment, in my opinion. I have no neuropathy and believe it was because of icing. I also had no issues with my nails, hands or feet. These packs stay very cold in a cooler for 8+ hours, and my first few infusions took many hours (nine hours the first time, I remember for sure--it got shorter and shorter). The first fifteen minutes I would wonder why I was icing, but after that my hands would get so numb I didn't care as much. I also sucked on ice chips during the T and C portions of the treatment to avoid mouth sores, which I also did not have but I can't say for certain it was because of the ice chips.

Wishing you the best in your treatment! Let me know if I can help further.

xo,

Beesy

Nicb1

Beesy — thank you for the information. I went straight to Amazon and ordered these. I hope they help me like they helped you!! If you think of anything else, please feel free to share!! Also, did you wear any special socks or gloves with these packs? Thanks

BellasMomToo

Nicb1: I did not ice my hands/feet and did not have neuropathy. I did not suck on ice chips and did not get mouth sores. I didn't do any of these things cause I didn't know about them -- I never saw anyone at my infusion center icing or cold-capping. My nails were super strong during chemo, but I started to have problem with my nails while I was on Herceptin only.

Good luck and I hope icing works for you.

Beesy_The_Other_One

Nicb1,

The packs come with fabric covers and velcro straps. I just folded them over, secured the velcro straps and tucked my hands and feet into them. My oncologist gave me a "loading dose" the first time and it knocked me down pretty hard, but in general, it seemed that my body adapted and I dealt better and better with the TCHP as time went on. You can see from my stats below that my tumor grew very large very fast and the TCHP did it's job--no tumor was left at the time of surgery. That's one benefit of having a grade 3 tumor--they respond to chemo. I literally felt a sensation in the area of the tumor that felt like a war was going on in there--or that's the best I know to describe it. In a weird way, it was a comforting in that I felt like the drugs were doing their job.

Beesy

Nicb1

Thanks for all the info BellasMomToo and Beesy! I'm so nervous, and wish I could just push fast forward. If I've seen anything people suggest then I've tried to go ahead and get it. I'm the "I'll do it just in case" kind of person. Im so nervous. My first tumor was measured 1.9 x 1.3 x 1.9 and that's the one they biopsied and diagnosed the IDC from. I just had a breast MRI done and it didn't show any cancer in my left breast or the visible lymph nodes, but the right breast was full of it. It read "there are multiple spiculated suspicious masses ..... atleast 25 suspicious masses were seen .... the individual masses measure from 5mm to 3.7 cm...." I got the results from my surgeon but haven't heard from my oncologist yet. I was stage 1 but I think the largest tumor measuring 3.7 will now put me in the stage 2 range. ??? I'm not sure. I'm grade 3 also. This means I'll have to have a mastectomy now per my surgeon. I have to meet with plastics. I'm having chemo, then surgery, then radiation. I'm wondering if you can do a mastectomy with implants put in during the same surgery and if u can have radiation after implants are in???