Ice packs for hands and feet during chemo.

Has anyone here gone through chemo more than once? Did you use ice each time? Did you still manage to avoid neuropathy?
I am currently going through chemo for the third time. I never used ice during any of my courses of chemo. After my first course, I had very mild numbness in my feet and fingertips. But the second time I went through chemo, the neuropathy got pretty bad. And now, almost done with the third, it’s even worse. Has anyone managed to prevent neuropathy with ice after multiple courses of chemo?

I've had three separate lines of treatment that include paclitaxel, for a total of 17 cycles. (Only 14 of these included carboplatin.). I have iced my hands and feet the whole time, and I have no problems at all with my hands. My toes and the balls of my feet were starting to get numb after cycle 3, and that's when I decided that I should warm my feet up after the infusion and keep them warm for a couple days. Since then I don't think it's gotten any worse. However, I think they also did a dose reduction at cycle 4, so that may also have been a factor.

There's no way to tell if it really works, unless somebody wants to ice one hand and one foot and not the other and see what happens.

@pigglywiggly9, welcome. I love your username. Did the nursing staff provide the icing for your hands and feet? Did it feel good or it hard to bear the cold?

The Mayo chemo nurses provided the ice packs to hands and feet; they were delighted to. Ice not unbearable at all.

I hear you.
I did do the icepacks for my carboplax 6 chemo treatments but I still ended up with CIPN after end of chemo
Unfortunately icepacks are no guarantee from the neuropathy side affects. I was disappointed, but realized every patient reacts differently.

Imagine the severity of your CIPN if you had omitted ice entirely.

besides the foot coolers for the entire 6 hours, i also do compression socks (higher ones the day of and night of chemo) then switch to the lighter ones except at night when i don't bother. no foot neuropathy for the first 5 infusions (keeping fingers crossed).

@denisestlouie
Respectfully there is actually a growing body of evidence supporting cryotherapy for CIPN prevention during taxane-based chemotherapy. A few key studies:
Hanai et al. (2018) published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute randomised controlled trial showing frozen gloves reduced the incidence of peripheral neuropathy from 81% to 28% in the treated hand during weekly paclitaxel. Each patient served as their own control (one hand gloved, one not), which is a strong study design.
There's also a systematic review and meta-analysis by Beijers et al. (2020) in Acta Oncologica that concluded cryotherapy significantly reduces CIPN incidence.
The reason it's not standard in chemo clinics is a funding and logistics issue, not an evidence issue.

@flasma thanks. I knew about ice therapy. I choose to not use ice for my head and extremities because I don't do well with cold. I had some neuropathy in my feet, but a year after chemotherapy I've healed with no long term damage. I believe it's because I continued all my strategies after chemotherapy ended. I also used a fast mimicking product and fasted around chemotherapy.

Bottom line once a person is diagnosed with a chronic disease. Including cancer it's advisable to look at your current life style and make changes to be more healthy.

Denise

I was told by my NP at Mayo Jacksonville to use ice during both the Taxol and Carboplatin infusions. At that facility they did have a refrigerator/freezer, but I found it much easier to bring my own mid-size cooler. (I think it was about 30-40 quarts but I am not sure). I used frozen ice blocks from Yeti to keep 3 sets of gloves/booties cold (Suzzi brand off of Amazon). I had it a little easier than others because I was given Abraxane in place of the Taxol, which about 40 percent of us are when we have an allergic reaction to the binder in the Taxol. That shortened the infusion time. I also chose weekly Abraxane. If my hands and feet were too cold, I added very thin white cotton gloves and socks, which I took off as the coldness dissipated. I am not sure how this would all work for someone who has a longer infusion time. Maybe someone else will speak to that. I considered using dry ice, which they sell at some of the local groceries where I live. I had the equivalent of 10 rounds of chemo and have virtually no neuropathy, but I imagine that differs for many of us. Still, I was diligent with icing. Would this work over 3 separate chemo regimens? Don’t know but I would ice again if faced with that choice.