Courtney | California

Courtney | California
Diagnosis: Stage II Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Chemotherapy regimen: Taxol
Total Treatments: 12

31, 1-month into a new relationship and a new job and I find out I have stage 2 triple negative breast cancer. I am BRCA 1 positive, I knew this day may come, but never thought it would happen when I felt I was really getting some momentum in my life. One of the first things I thought of in my initial consultation for my treatment plan was loosing my hair. I love my hair and felt it was my favorite part of me. As I was crying next to my mother in the doctor’s room, my doctor told me about DigniCap. I had never heard of scalp cooling and I knew it would be good for me. The reason I chose to use DigniCap is that I was going to work through 12 rounds of weekly chemo and did not want people to look or treat me differently. It was one thing I did not want cancer to take away from me. I did lose about 50% of my hair during treatment (cut it short to make it more manageable before) and lost about 15% after treatment (4 weeks after) with a bald spot that I now cover with my part and purchased a fall extension. I kept my eyebrows and eyelashes all the way through chemo, but those have now fallen out about 80% 4 weeks post chemo completion.

During treatment I would do the following: make sure my cap was tight and there were no air bubbles and my hair was really wet (watched video on DigniCap site), wore ear warmers from amazon during cool cap therapy, brought an electric blanket, wore mittens and warm socks, had someone there to help me unplug when I needed to get up and use the bathroom and ate a huge breakfast the morning.

How I took care of my hair during treatment: washed my hair with cold water only once a week with a very mild shampoo that is PH balanced, combed 2/day, wore a hat out in the sun, no blow drying or extra products besides a detangler.

Thanks DigniCap!