Icing and increased pain in toes

tinacap77
tinacap77 Member Posts: 27 Member
in Uterine/Endometrial Cancer #1

Tomorrow I have my second round of chemo and after first round I experienced neuropathy in hands and feet. So I'm trying out the ice booties and hand mitts and am having a hard time tolerating the feet booties especially. The only thing that makes it more tolerable is to wear a thin sock. I find my toes are aching/reminding me of the neuropathy pain I had experienced first cycle. Has anyone else experienced this? Were you able to tolerate the booties and mits without a sock or mitten as a barrier?  Did you wear them 90 min with no break other than to change when half way?

Comments

  • MAbound
    MAbound Member Posts: 1,168 Member
    edited November 2020 #2
    Socks Ok

    My ice slippers came with surgical booties to wear between the feet and slippers and I, too, didn't think they were enough, so I ended up wearing regular ankle socks and used the booties over the slippers to protect them when I need to walk to the bathroom.

    I also found keeping the slippers cold with bags of ice worked better than dried ice. The dried ice just made them almost too cold to stand.

    I found that after the initial 10-15 minutes of chilling my feet that it got easier to stand the cold, but those first 10-15 minutes were hard! I was already dealing with neuropathy by the time I started chilling my feet and hands starting with my second infusion, so maybe the pain of the cold seemed less compared to that. I wore the mittens and slippers non-stop from 20 minutes before the infusion started till 20 minutes after it was done.

    It's not easy, but I kept telling myself that the discomfort from chilling was temporary while the neuropathy pain can be permanent and oh so much worse! I can't begin to tell you how desperate for sleep I was because of the burning pain that always worsened when I laid down to sleep. I could cope during the day, but nights were awful. The ice slippers help to cope with that as well as preventing worsening of existing neuropathy if it wasn't started in time to prevent it in the first place.

  • Primavera
    Primavera Member Posts: 231 Member
    edited November 2020 #3
    You do what you can

    I've heard of people who wear socks in between. I do not, but people have different tolerance for coldness, especially on their feet.

    I carried a few pairs of socks with me just in case, but I didn't have to wear them.

    So maybe try them with the thin socks if that's all you can tolerate. I think it will still help. You might be able to train yourself to not need the thin socks by the next chemo.

    I cringe at the thought of people using real ice with cold water to dunk their hands and feet on, but you never know if I would be able to put my mind to it trying to avoid neuropathy.

    How long is your chemo? I've been getting short ones, so I haven't been too good at icing. I'm planning on doing it better when I go for the long treatment for Taxol.

  • Armywife
    Armywife Member Posts: 451 Member
    edited November 2020 #4
    Socks

    I absolutely wore socks under the booties.  

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