Health
Argentine cancer survivor offers affordable cooling chemo caps to help cancer patients keep their hair
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After docs identified Paula Estrada with breast most cancers in 2009, the then 41-year-old Argentine determined she wouldn’t solely beat the illness, however would accomplish that with out dropping her lengthy blonde hair to the ravages of chemotherapy.
At her residence in Buenos Aires, Estrada, a graphic designer by career, set about making a makeshift cooling cap out of ice packs to maintain her scalp chilly – and chase away hair loss.
It labored, and “no person realized that I used to be present process chemotherapy,” mentioned Estrada, now 54.
BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR’S INCLUSIVE LINGERIE BRAND CATERS TO DIAGNOSED WOMEN
Scalp cooling, a approach to constrict blood vessels and hold chemotherapy medicine from reaching hair follicles, has existed in some type for many years. The Paxman Scalp Cooling cap, for instance, was launched in Britain in 1997 and earned U.S. FDA approval in 2017.
Paula Estrada reveals off her cooling cap that helped her hold her hair whereas she was going by way of chemo remedy, and is now serving to others do the identical by providing the caps for less than $2.
(REUTERS/Matias Baglietto)
However in 2009, cooling caps had been an unknown in Argentina, Estrada mentioned.
“Once I completed, I mentioned ‘I am not going to maintain this for myself, I would like everybody to have this as a risk,” she recalled.
Estrada’s ‘Quimo con pelo’ cap may be made with gels that value as little as $2 – a lifesaver in a rustic going through financial struggles and the place various cooling caps can value $100 a session.
On social media, sufferers in Argentina and around the globe share directions on make the caps and donate them once they’re completed.
The caps should be used starting with the primary chemo session, saved at -4 levels Fahrenheit (-20 levels Celsius), and adjusted each half-hour.
COOLING CAPS HELP WOMEN KEEP HAIR DURING BREAST CANCER CHEMO
“It is value it,” mentioned Mariangeles Fernandez, a 48-year-old liver most cancers affected person. “It enables you to battle the illness differently.”
Estrada, who’s now writing a e-book about her expertise, says she hears from sufferers day-after-day whose most cancers journeys have been improved by the caps.
“I believe the (cap) has been the important thing to my way of thinking,” mentioned Elsa Ram, a 64-year-old retiree with breast most cancers. “It is a large a part of a superb remedy.”