Megan ▶ GA

Megan | GA
Age: 39
Diagnosis: ER+HER2 Breast Cancer
Chemotherapy Regimen: Dose Dense AC-T
Total Treatments: 8 
Infusion Center: Emory St Joseph’s Hospital – Winship Cancer Institute

Tell us about yourself.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer within weeks of my 38th birthday. I never felt the lump. It was small, only 1.4cm, and my lymph nodes felt and looked normal on scans. Going into my double mastectomy, I was hopeful that my sentinel node would be negative for cancer and that I could go back to my life as a manager at a tech company, wife to my husband Geoff, and spending my weekends traveling or going out with my friends. Unfortunately, I had six positive nodes, necessitating 8 rounds of the dreaded Dose Dense AC-T chemo (“red devil”) and 25 rounds of radiation.

How did you find out about DigniCap?
From my oncology team.

Did you have a successful experience using DigniCap?
My goal was to keep enough hair so that I could have extensions put in after chemo was completed. Because of DigniCap, I have never needed the extensions! I’m 4 months post-final chemo and still have most of my hair. What I lost around my hairline has grown fast and has the same texture as before! I even had it colored at the 3-month mark. Sometimes, coloring can be unpredictable after chemo, but my stylist remarked that it colored like I had never had chemo. As I start to find my body’s “new normal” after treatment, it’s been easier to look in the mirror because of DigniCap.

I did cut my hair before chemo so that it wouldn’t be so heavy and weigh down fragile follicles. I cold capped at Level 10 and used the Daniel Fields scalp booster combo

“While cancer and chemo stripped me of my breasts and fertility, I was determined not to let it take my hair as well.“

Why was keeping your hair during chemotherapy important to you?
Being diagnosed with breast cancer is always a shock, but even more so when you’re under 40. I loved the life I had created for myself, and it felt like cancer was taking it away from me piece by piece. I had lost my breasts and my fertility and needed to take an extended medical leave from a job I loved. Losing my hair felt like one more thing cancer was taking from me, so I was excited when my oncology team told me about DigniCap. Given the advice that results were mixed with “red devil” chemo, I still wanted to try. It gave me a sense of control over my body at a time when I had no control. Before chemo, I had long, thick, highlighted hair that I loved, frequently having it blown out and styled at local salons.

How did keeping your hair affect you, and those around you?
Aging is hard on most women, but entering middle age while losing your breasts, fertility, and hair feels particularly unfair. I had fine yet thick hair that I loved having colored every six weeks and blown out more frequently than I’d like to admit. While cancer and chemo stripped me of my breasts and fertility, I was determined not to let it take my hair as well. I knew I wouldn’t feel or look like myself during treatment, but I didn’t want to spend 2-3 years not looking like myself while my hair grew out. Keeping my hair helped me feel more like myself, especially when my eyebrows and eyelashes grew back! I could go out without strangers staring at me, knowing I was a cancer patient. Six months post chemo, I can now color and blow-dry my hair as I did before, making me feel feminine and beautiful again.

What advice would you give to someone who is going through a similar experience, or who has recently been diagnosed and is considering scalp cooling?
The AC-T regimen is considered one of the most harsh on hair and many people advised me against scalp cooling doing it because “you’ll probably lose your hair anyway.” I am so glad I didn’t listen, and I encourage anyone undergoing chemo to research and try it. The DigniCap Facebook group offers tons of great information and my nurses were incredible. My other advice is to keep a positive attitude. My family jokes that my hair stayed on my head by sheer force of will because I had said at the outset, “I am not losing my hair.” That type of mindset carried me through both treatment and cold capping.

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