Ice therapy for neuropathy
Just read about using ice on my hands and feet to combat Neuropathy during chemotherapy. Does anyone do this and if so what do you use on your hands and feet? What type of glove and/or slippers?
Comments
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I use cold therapy during my weekly Taxol infusions. Bought stretchy booties that have gel ice packs in them. I like those. I pile more ice packs on them towards the end of chemo when I think they could be colder. Hands have been more of a challenge since I am alone during chemo. If someone was with me I would put my hands into big ice water cups. Easy. I bought 2 bigger gel ice packs that fold around my hands and fingers top and bottom. Everything was off Amazon. I have bought some icing products that are hard to manage myself or didn’t get cold enough during chemo so those got tossed.
No neuropathy, yet. Fingers crossed.
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I did not do any icing of extremities during chemo. My feet would "burn" for a couple of days after each round and then return to normal. I had a little bit of numbness in my fingertips that gradually went away.
I know a lot of people have done this and had pretty good results so it's certainly worth a try. You might check with your infusion center to see if they have any products or recommendations.
BTW - I did suck on ice chips during chemo and it helped to reduce mouth sores!
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Hi SoonerOK,
I finished 12 weeks of weekly Taxol and did cold capping on my head, added mitts for my hands (my hands are really important for my career, so started that pretty quick), ice chips in my mouth to try and protect taste buds, and eventually added icepacks for my feet.
I had some mild neuropathy by the end of the 12 weeks but it is almost all resolved at this time (and I'm on every other week AC right now). Just a very mild diminished sense of touch in the fingers, mostly in my middle finger.
I used these mitts:
https://smile.amazon.com/Elasto-Gel-Hand-Mitt-Cold...=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1541275118&sr=8-1&keywords=elastogel+mitt
The penguin cap representative I use had several sets of mitts given to her by a previous client after he used them, and she let me use them for free. I chilled them with my cold caps, and that might have been a bit too cold at times. I got a pair of thin cotton gloves that I wore inside the mitts to make it so it wasn't too cold. The gloves I had didn't come down far enough on the wrist, though so for the last couple times, my aunt brought me her opera length gardening gloves which worked great.
for my feet I just used a couple of reusable ice packs (the gel kind) and put my feet on top of them with thin socks on. No noticeable neuropathy in my feet at this time.
I also took Vitamin B6 (with my MO's blessing) to help prevent neuropathy, and have heard Glutamine might be helpful as well.
Good luck!
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I just finished my 4th and final chemo session with Taxotere and Cytoxan. I too used Penguin cold caps to try and save my hair, and my therapist recommended using frozen peas on my fingers and toes during the Taxotere cycle. I brought the 4 bags of frozen peas and he used duct tape to make pouches for my toes and fingers. It worked great and was super cheap!! Reused the 4 pouches for all 4 chemo sessions. No signs of neuropathy so far:)
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gmaNeen, thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us! VERY helpful! Please continue to keep everyone posted on how things continue!!
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I bought the general type gel packs that are used to relieve any injury or pain. they are quite cheap.
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