Eureka!

Last week when I had my "nasty" chemo, I decided to do an experiment. A few days earlier I had been in to see the nurse about my fingernail that is falling off (ick) and, in the process of conversation, she told me about a study she had just read having to do with taxotere (one of my nasty chemos) and resulting burns on hands. The study found that if you iced your hands for the entire time you were given the taxotere, it greatly reduced the probability of burning because the cold constricts the blood vessels, making it harder for the taxotere to spread there. I was all ears! So, on Tuesday, I dutifully took my insulated lunch bag with me to fill with ice, and a pair of "surgical" gloves to protect my hands from getting wet and chapped.

When it was time for the taxotere, I went to the ice machine and filled my lunch bag with ice, put on my gloves and settled down for an hour of iced hands. About ten minutes went by and suddenly I felt cold water trickling in my lap...my lunch bag leaked! Oh, no! My experiment was doomed from the start! I tried putting a towel under my bag, but it was not to be...I was still getting quite wet. So Rich dumped the ice for me while I mourned the failure of my experiment. But then my eyes fell upon the large container of pop I had sitting on my table...full of lovely ice. Why don't I just hold onto that for an hour? And that's just what I did! It was easy to hold on to and I was able to move my hands around and get them all nice and cold for the time it took to finish the taxotere. And guess what? It worked! I noticed a couple of small red splotches on my hands yesterday that would have turned into large burns without the icing, but these are hardly visible, and don't hurt at all!