Let's make a wish list of gifts for people with breast cancer!

This was a gift I have myself, I loved the attitude! Laughs without fear of the future, is my go forward attitude!

A credit to Doordash (or a service like that that will pick up a restaurant meal and bring it to your door)!! Doordash has saved my life during chemo.... when you have no appetite and you are hangry.... and then suddenly you think of something random you would enjoy eating... and you order it online and it shows up in 45 mins or so. Relief!!

While I was going through chemo the first time, some of the most thoughtful and useful gifts were:

- Biotene mouth wash and gel for dry mouth, it's amazing

- Cerave skin care products for body and face, unscented, affordable and does an amazing job on chemo skin

- Foot care products to help with the painful cracking skin

- Burt's Bees lip balms, hand creams, cuticle cream (yes there's a theme here with chemo taking every drop of moisture out of your body and I wish I had known to start managing proactively the first time)

- Yoga/sweat/lounge pants, I needed to build a whole wardrobe around comfy clothes

- a warm cuddly blanket to bring to infusions

- if the person hasn't yet gone through chemo, icing booties and gloves are a not-insignificant cost that may be appreciated to help prevent neuropathy if they will be getting a taxane. Cold capping is outright expensive.

- As others have said, anything that helps with meals, especially if there's a family to feed. I found meals to be my biggest challenge, the one that would reduce me to tears. Whether it be a local delivery service, a company that delivers frozen meals (my sister sent me a 2-week supply of meals from Schwann's that was a life saver, and the food was great), or delivering home cooked meals that can be kept in the freezer, My sisters also flew out here and spent an entire weekend cooking up meals for my freezer. something that would be easier to do if family is local, and it was wonderful to have a freezer full of family favorites. You can only eat takeout for so long before you crave a homecooked meal. Every single meal provided helps more than people realize.

I was not a good wig-wearer, so a gift certificate to headcovers.com, amazon or one of the other sites that sell scarves, hats and other head coverings would have been useful and appreciated. It is COLD without hair, and the more options for head covering, the better

One of the best gifts I received was from a friend who offered to coordinate meals after my surgery. I sent everyone who offered to her, and she not only kept the schedule but also made sure we didn't get (for example) quiche three nights running.

Ginger candy, ginger tea, lemon candy

Comfy socks

Magazines. One of my friends subscribes to many magazines, and she brought me a bag of everything that was on her coffee table, including magazines I would never have bought for myself but were perfect for post-surgery stupor.

Time and support. A friend went with me to the wig shop and made such a hard day easier.

Pillows

Find out what other family members might need. A neighbor with kids at home has pancreatic cancer, so the food requests have been for what others can eat; she's not doing much eating or cooking.