Ice packs for hands and feet during chemo.

Posted by bendeb @bendeb, May 6 12:11pm

I had read about ice being a possible deterrent to CIPD while going through certain chemo therapy drugs.
Question: If this could possibly help avoid the onset of peripheral neuropathy, why aren’t there ice machines in the chemo clinic? I had Ovarian cancer 5 years ago.
I have had good results from treatment, it was left with CIPN. It has been a life changer for someone who used to be quite active. Yes, I thank God for treatment that saved my life. But, for the price of ice, I could be back to my physically active self.
Any thoughts??

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lathomasmd | @lathomasmd | May 8 11:08am

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?

val64 | @val64 | May 8 1:53pm

In reply to @lathomasmd "Has anyone here gone through chemo more than once? Did you use ice each time? Did..." + (show)

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.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | May 19 8:19pm

In reply to @pigglywiggly9 "Iced hands and feet by the marvelous nursing staff at Rochester was my life saver! Highly..." + (show)

@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?

pigglywiggly9 | @pigglywiggly9 | May 19 10:20pm

In reply to @colleenyoung "@pigglywiggly9, welcome. I love your username. Did the nursing staff provide the icing for your hands..." + (show)

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

califcheryl | @califcheryl | May 20 8:53am

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.

pigglywiggly9 | @pigglywiggly9 | May 20 9:12am

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

birdergirl | @birdergirl | May 21 11:31am

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).

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