Sunday, May 5, 2013

Preventing hair loss during chemotherapy with Penguin Cold Caps

Update 2013

Well, it has been a long while since I have updated my blog. Life has been one crazy hectic journey and I can't believe it has been almost 2 years since I finished chemo. The double mastectomy went as well as can be expected.  I had reconstruction and now have very perky LA boobs! I had a great plastic surgeon, (Tiffany Grunwald) and Dr Giulliano was my breast surgeon. I also had 6 weeks of radiation which delayed the finishing of the reconstruction, but today it's all done!
Some other big changes in my life - I became an advocate for cold cap therapy, as I was frustrated that most women were not told about this option by their doctors.  Then in February 2012, I was invited to become an official representative for Penguin Cold Caps™. It was good timing; I was a single mom with young kids and I needed a job, I also needed to find a way to balance work with being around for my kids. Penguin seemed like the perfect match for me, to promote something I was passionate about, whilst helping other newly diagnosed women navigate this journey that I had already completed. It has been very rewarding and my clients have helped me through my journey as much as I have helped them. Helping other people was and is the best medicine to heal my pain from the grief of the end of my marriage, and having breast cancer.

A big part of my job is to try and educate oncologists about cold cap therapy, as most of them didn't believe it worked. Now I have about 20 oncologists in the LA area who regularly refer patients to me, and I have helped over 100 women save their hair. It is no coincidence however, that virtually all the doctors who recommend PCCs to their patients are female. It seems that male oncologists just don't get how devastating hair loss is for most women. They are dismissive to their patients who ask about it. But hopefully this will change over time, as the word spreads.

I want to share this link with you: I recently appeared on the CBS TV show 'The Doctors" which just aired on May 2nd 2013. Unfortunately it did not air in the Los Angeles area so if you live in LA please "share" on your Facebook pages!

http://youtu.be/6935hpVeeDY