Post Chemo Neuropathy Pain

CARRIZALES

My wife has had 2 surgeries: an emergency colostomy for an endometrial mass that blocked her descending colon at the sigmoid loop, and a successful reversal surgery 5 and a half months later to remove @ a third of her colon along with the mass which was believed to be benign based on blood tests. It wasn't. Cancer cells were detected in it and in 4 of 20 lymph nodes. This was April 4 of 2023. She was diagnosed with Peritoneal Cancer. After a long surgical recovery period, a PET Scan revealed the cancer had not spread, as was feared, but was still localized. She had had a complete hysterectomy 21 years ago, so no further surgery is believed to be necessary. The doctor downgraded her from Stage III to Stage II and she had her first Chemotherapy Treatment June 13. She is currently dealing with severe pain in her knees, ankles and feet. Chemo-induced Peripheral Neuropathy, (CIPN). Cold packs and over the counter pain medicines seem to help a little bit. Has anyone experienced this? How long a duration does this usually last? Anything seem to help ease the pain? We're thinking about calling her Oncologist Monday to see about a pain medication prescription. We have been "googling" and researching various websites. I was hoping to learn more from some firsthand knowledge. She is scheduled for 3 more Chemo Treatments followed by another PET Scan to see if she needs the remaining 2 of the 6-treatment regimen. From reading, it appears we can expect more of this after future treatments with an increase in pain.

NoTimeForCancer

hello CARRIZALES, unfortunately some people suffer from neuropathy more (and worse) than others. Some of the warriors on the Uterine thread have mentioned having success with icing their hands and feet to help prevent it. I don't think any of them have mentioned it reversing, and the medical world is finally starting to realize this is a very real side effect and people have shared the different techniques they have developed to combat it.

What a lucky wife to have her partner searching out ways to help.

CARRIZALES

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1707171#Comment_1707171

Thank you for the response. She had her 2nd Chemo treatment on July 4th. The first one, she had me take the ice socks off her feet because they were too cold for her. This time, I waited until she was asleep and put them on with only the cold pack on the soles of her feet, where it hurt the worse last time. I had a cooler with ice packs and ice cubes in bags where I kept the extra packs for the socks and changed them out twice during the treatment. We did the cold gloves on her hands just like the last time. This time around, no pain in her hands or soles of her feet!. She did, however, have some pretty painful leg pains that migrated from just above her knees, through them to her shins over the course of several days. So I'm going to take some extra larger cold packs and put them on her knees as she sleeps through her next treatment. The doctor thought it was strange how sever her neuropathy was after the first treatment, so he prescribed her a mild anti-depressant and moved her from 3 to 4 week breaks between treatments. We'll see how the extra cold packs work the next time around, on August 1st. Thank you, again!

AnneN

Hi: I'm visiting from the ovarian thread. I have neuropathy from my chemo (using cold mittens and booties and 2/3 finished with chemo), and have just started acupuncture on the advice of my MD. It seems to help, although I am in the early stages.