Just diagnosed

[sharon1014]

Hi there - I was just diagnosed with breast cancer. I am 42 with four little kids. I have invasive in my right breast with Triple positive. I need chemo first then surgery. I have a lot of hair and want to keep it and might try to use penguin cold caps. Anyone use them?

[Loulou669]

Yeah I tried using them for a while and they seemed to work until a nurse forgot to turn it on before hand and it resulted in me losing my hair.

[sociallisa]

Did Not use them. Expensive and I've heard they don't always work 100%, which may mean you don't loose your hair but it thins.

[BklynCatwoman]

I've never tried cold caps but I felt compelled to write to you and wish you luck. I'm a 4-year survivor. I lost all my hair in chemo but I figured that was the least of my problems! It all came back, and curly at that, at least for a few months. Then it went back to normal. Oddly enough, I didn't mind being bald. It was summer. My husband said I looked like a sci-fi punk rock chick (which I took as a compliment!). I tried to focus getting through my treatment. The rest was all gravy. I wanted to stick around to see my son (then 13) graduate from high school. And in a few weeks, he is!

The best of luck to you. Stay positive.

Cathy

[PJBinMI]

It's gotta be rough to have this lousy miserable cancer when you still have kids at home, rough in all kinds of ways. I hope you have plenty of support. With triple positive cancer you have a number of treatment options, which is good. If you haven't seen a breast cancer specialist oncologist, you might want to do that as soon as you can. The website of the National Cancer Institute has a list of the Comprehensive Cancer Centers, state by state. That is the top tier of CCs in the US and most of them offer second opinion evaluations by very specialized oncs. Most insurance will cover that and your onc ought to support that idea. BC treatment has come a long way in the last 20 years. I was diagnosed with invasive metastatic bc in 2004 and have done well and there are alot more women living with mbc for double digit years now than there were when I was diagnosed. Hope you will join us in having a great response to treatment. I can't tell you anything about cold caps, though

[IGotSunshine]

Cold caps were not in wide use when I was treated 12 years ago, but I've heard from a few women who have used them in recent years. Results are mixed. Some women retain all or most of their hair. Others experience visible thinning. My understanding is you need to bring a support person to help you with the constant changing and refreezing of the caps. It can be a bit of a production, but doable. If you'd like to speak with someone who used them successfully, give the Share helpline a call, and ask for a "peer match" with a cold-cap user: 844-275-7427.

[Jessydontcare]

I never was given the optioto use cold caps. I was told I wouldn't lose my hair then it wouldn't work so I didn't bother but I did lose m hair. I sobbed when I did I found that really hard and couldn't face going into work. Luckily I was picking up my wig the next day.