Support, message boards etc. for cancer patients?

My good friend is going for chemo now and will need a double mastectomy eventually. I'm looking for websites, organizations etc that might be helpful to her. I'm feeling so helpless.

Re: Support, message boards etc. for cancer patients?

I've heard a lot of wonderful things about Cancer Care.

I also bet with all the social media today, she can find a lot of online support on sites like Twitter. She would just need to put in cancer and such as a keyword.

You can also find bloggers that way too.

Re: Support, message boards etc. for cancer patients?

I second cancer care! My mil made some great friends on it

Support, message boards etc. for cancer patients?

Also tell her about Racines in East Islip. They provide free spa services for cancer patients one Mon every month. My girlfriend made great friends there and the support she found there was awesome.

Support, message boards etc. for cancer patients?

Have her go to www.breastcancer.org I found it tremendously helpful when I had to go through cancer treatment and chemotherapy last year.

Doctors at both Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and NY Hospital's Breast Center recommended it to me.

Please also let your friend know that if she is given Taxotere she should be sure to ice her fingernails and toenails during her infusion to prevent damage to them. Ziploc bags of crushed ice work well. Have her dip her fingers directly into the ice to above the first joint, and lay closed bags over her toes and under her bare feet. Icing is also thought to prevent neuropathy - nerve damage. I iced and had no nail or nerve damage. My surgeon is still surprised.

If your friend is told she will lose her hair, she may be able to avoid doing so by using cold caps, depending on which chemo she is given. I did and kept my hair. They are cold as hell, but they do work.

If she is interested in saving her hair she should go to the two websites below. The first is a non-profit dedicated to helping women save their hair, the other is where she can rent the caps. She can also go to "The Doctors" morning TV show website and look in its archives for the May 2, 2013 show which had a segment on saving hair by using cold caps.

www.rapunzelproject.org
www.penguincoldcaps.com

Re: Support, message boards etc. for cancer patients?

Thanks so much for the ideas!