[Magdalen] Cold caps in chemotherapy

[Jay Weigel]

I've heard both pro and con about this. I didn't do oncology at all when I
was an active nurse (just not my cuppa, for various reasons which I won't
go into) but I get the feeling that such things are kind of scoffed at
here. I don't know whether it's because the FDA thinks it knows more than
doctors and agencies in Europe and elsewhere, or what.

On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 8:56 AM, Roger Stokes <roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com
> wrote:

> One of my nieces was, for a time, a representative for a firm supplying
> the refrigerators for this treatment.  From what I gather it was not a good
> firm to work for as she was the one employee who was not part of the family
> and her "beat" was the whole of the country, lugging the kit around in her
> car.
>
> She now deals with and demonstrates edoscopy equipment in a much smaller
> area and with smaller bits of kit.
>
> Roger
>
>
> On 19/08/2015 12:58, Sally Davies wrote:
>
>> Dear Pub friends
>>
>> I have an interesting assignment from my sister, to write a piece on her
>> website about cold cap treatment which is a strategy for preventing hair
>> loss during chemotherapy.
>>
>> I just spoke to a former patient who did that and managed to save her hair
>> - which was long and still is!
>>
>> It involved quite a rigmarole, they had to get Dry Ice in (from elsewhere)
>> for the caps, change caps every twenty minutes on "chemo day" and ensure
>> that any skin not already protected by hair (such as the ears) was covered
>> to prevent frostbite!
>>
>> But after six sessions of chemo - lovely natural hair. This patient had
>> been through chemo baldness before, as a teenager, and had been
>> traumatised
>> by it so she was highly motivated to manage the cold caps
>>
>> Not for everyone I'm sure and perhaps wouldn't even work for everyone, but
>> she says that overseas (US/UK) chemo treatment facilities offer the caps
>> routinely and even have specialised apparatus for fast freezing them.
>>
>> Has anyone in the Pub come across these? And if so, did they work or was
>> the head-freezing just useful as a distraction during an awful time in a
>> person's life?
>>
>> Sally D
>>
>>
>