More Tips (and a Shopping List) for Getting Through Chemo

Hi Nico & Badger

bumping for the Feb '13 chemo starters

bump

bump!

Bump

My wonderful barn friends took me out to dinner tonight and gave me 3 chemo caps handmade by So Southern.



http://www.so-southern.com/products.php



The lady who makes them made my saddle cover. They are so beautiful and soft. I pasted the link to her website if anyone is interested. I'm going to find some Tiger Blue and Grey and have her make me a custom one to wear to the Tiger games.

-I have mentioned this in other threads (and I'm sure I'm soon going to sound like a product salesperson), but I found Witch Hazel and WH-containing products invalulable during chemo.

I purchased a huge bottle along with unscented moist wipes.  Dumped half the bottle into the container with the wipes to have on hand for any soreness.  I also soaked gauze in WH to hold against any particularly sore areas.  I dabbed q-tips in it to use on mouth sores.

And I swore by the Tom's Baking Soda mouthwash during treatment.  The one I had also had witch hazel in it which I think may have been discontinued, but hopefully can still be found.  The only time I got mouth sores was during a week when I had ran out of it.  The prescription mouth stuff did nothing for me. 

-I had a P.I.C.C. line so the plastic sleeve thingies were invaluable as well, although the hospital gave me those.  However, I had to also wrap both ends in tape to avoid any water getting in.

-Water, water everywhere......and I can't stand to drink.  I hated the taste of plain water during treatment.  My way of dealing with this was either drinking club soda (also good as a mouth rinse) or to use water flavorings (minus the vivid red stuff which reminded me of the red stuff they gave me during chemo). 

THANKS chemicalworld! I had the same experience using Witch Hazel products during chemo and continue to use them today. My derm told me that Witch Hazel is as effective as rx strength cortisone cream for treating external inflammation. It takes the itch and sting out of bug bites for me in a few minutes and calms my chemo-sensitive skin just by swabbing my face with a saturated cotton square. Thank you also for reinforcing the importance of FLUIDS! I've often thought we need a thread here just on fluids, including every trick of the trade to make them palatable.

SPECIAL THANKS also to Paula and badger ~ you bc sisters ROCK!

Hi Ladies,

I have the prescription for the Lidocaine cream to put on my port.  Can you tell me how, when, where you apply it?  I start chemo on Monday morning. 

Shadytrake~Liberally rub the lidocaine (Emla) on the port site. Then lay a small square of Saran Wrap on top of it. There's no need to tape it. The lidocaine will keep it in place.

Do it an hour or 2 before treatment. It works great.



I hope you have an uneventful first treatment.



Blessings

Paula

Bumping with the best, Nico & Badger!

Thanks for all the tips...I got my port today and treatment x 6 starts tomorrow. Getting a cute short haircut Saturday...yay...have wanted to try short hair but been afraid to so I am so excited to have a really good reason to get it cut short:-)

Hi Paula, in am at Zangmeister and so far, its been good. Got a PM from another woman posting that she's here in my town and treated at OSU. Small world...all the best, most positive feeling to you and a great big hug...pm me anytime...I need some personal tips on hair loss...to wig or not to wig...((hug))

@iluv2scrub, I did what probably many did, cut my hair into a short sort of bob pre-treatment.  I also purchased a few new hats to carry me through the initial period of my hair falling out.

I never shaved my head until I finished my last chemo and wanted that fresh start.  Everyone's different and that was best for me.  Shaving my head early on felt like giving in for some reason.  I was most comfortable letting mine fall out on it's own, and I mostly brushed it off my head after each shower.  I had a few little stragglers that hung around so that I was left looking a little like Gollum, but that was ok. 

I purchased a wig through a shop after my first chemo, and hindsight being what it is, I would have avoided that as it wasn't a positive experience for me.  Found the wig person there kind of aggressive about sales, not what I needed then.  It cost several hundred dollars and I also didn't need that either.  Plus, much like what Soteria says, it was too much hair for me, too thick in contrast to my normally thin hair, and not really a style I would have normally worn (I was talked into a really short style because it was winter and it would have gotten messed up with scarves and such).  Whenever I wore it, I wore a hat over it. 

What I eventually did later in treatment was buy a much much cheaper wig from ebay.  It was advertised as human hair and while longer than I wanted, it just took a quick trip to another wig dealer to get it trimmed up and looking just like I wanted and MUCH closer to my pre-chemo hairstyle, although still thicker.  It cost me under $60, plus a trim.  I wore that through the summer which was a p.i.t.a. with the heat and hot flashes, until I had enough regrowth to toss it. 

Otherwise, I wore a soft cotton sleep cap around the house that I also purchased from ebay.  Looked like those kind that newborns wear with the little knot on the top !

Bumping it up!