MY LIFE Matters: Health and Wellness Issue - 15

COLD CAPPING Health
treatment, she woke up to find clumps of
hair all over her pillow. She couldn't bear
it, and using the orange handled scissors
from the kitchen, the two of us stood in
front of the mirror in her bathroom and
cut her remaining hair off. It broke my
heart-it was the worst thing I have ever
had to do.
Inevitably, this trauma had an enormous
impact on my Mum and our family. A
story that plays itself out through countless
numbers of families across the world
every day. When she looked like herself,
she could remain resilient and tackle the
cancer treatment. But when she saw a bald
person looking back at her in the mirror,
someone who without a doubt had cancer,
it made finding the energy and strength to
get through that much harder. But being
Mum, she did what millions of people have
done before her, and just got on with it. She
worked hard to keep the family positive
and put on an impenetrable brave face.
My Dad, already a successful businessman
and entrepreneur, ran the family
business that specialised in beverage
dispense refrigeration. Being curious
about the scalp cooling system and what
it was aiming to achieve, he analysed the
device while Mum was being treated. He
recognised the potential to implement our
family's knowledge in refrigeration and
cooling liquids, and seeing the misery that
hair loss caused my Mum, decided that
he would make something better. With
the support of his brother, they set to
work, determined to create a system that
could deliver on the scalp cooling theory
that had been proven to work, wanting
to ensure that no one would suffer the
trauma of chemotherapy hair loss if they
didn't want to.
We hear constant feedback from patients
who have chosen scalp cooling with
stories of why they made that decision.
They range enormously from the simple
and completely valid " I just really like my
hair, " to the complex and often incredibly
intimate experiences that influence their
decision-making. One patient, who was
the sole caregiver for her parents who
were both living with Alzheimer's disease,
expressed a fear that if she lost her hair,
her parents wouldn't recognise her. Many
patients have had scalp cooling so they
wouldn't be bald on their wedding day-
not having to look at photos years down
the line where all they can see is a bald
head or a wig, and fundamentally their
diagnosis all over again. Another woman
not only didn't want to have to explain
" Mummy has cancer " to her two-year-old
daughter, but her daughter also fell asleep
each night stroking her hair-a small daily
routine that she didn't want to lose.
Even the basic day-to-day tasks of going
to the supermarket, dropping the kids
off at school, going to work (which isn't
optional for a lot of people), and even
date night with your significant other or
seeing friends, can become dominated by
cancer. With or without a head covering,
the glances, whispers, interjections from
kind strangers with good intentions, mean
there is nowhere to hide from your diagnosis,
and it's exhausting.
The toll cancer can take on a person's
well-being is immense, with an estimated
1 in 4 people with cancer experiencing
major or clinical depression, and this is
even higher in people who have experienced
mental health problems prior to
their cancer diagnosis. Retaining your
hair doesn't take away the fear and anxiety
of a cancer diagnosis, but it can help
patients feel a sense of control when so
many decisions around treatment plans
are out of their reach. It can also provide a
level of normalcy to help maintain a sense
of self when they may also be facing body
altering surgeries, such as a mastectomy.
My Mum's initial diagnosis was made
in the 1990s, a time when mental health
support wasn't really available or considered.
Talking therapy and counselling just
wasn't a part of cancer care. The focus was
the physical treatment and healing from
physical scars. Side effect management as
we know it today was still in its infancy,
with antiemetic drugs only beginning to
make their mark. Hair loss was just what
happened, it wasn't really on anyone's
radar that it could be prevented, despite
scalp cooling being put into action as early
as the 1970s. The invisible scars sustained
from the treatment process didn't feature
on the medical radar-the body was the
priority, and once the cancer was cured,
why wouldn't you be OK? Circumstances
were so different that people wouldn't
even say the word cancer, let alone have
an open conversation about their feelings.
MY LIFE MATTERS
HEALTH AND WELLNESS ISSUE SPRING 2023
15

https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/physical-side-effects/emotional-mood-changes/depression.htm https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/physical-side-effects/emotional-mood-changes/depression.htm https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/physical-side-effects/emotional-mood-changes/depression.htm

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