Keeping Her Hair Helped Her Feel Normal During Breast Cancer Treatment

Keeping her hair helped Maureen Green feel like herself during treatment, as scalp cooling became a meaningful part of her care.

Maureen Green was 34 in 2018 when she found a lump in her breast. As a new mom, she assumed it was related to breastfeeding and didn’t worry at first. Her husband encouraged her to get it checked, and after a mammogram and ultrasound, she received the unexpected and frightening news that it was breast cancer. With no family history and feeling far too young, the diagnosis came as a shock — marking the beginning of her cancer journey.

Transcript

How was scalp cooling introduced to you, and what role did that play over the course of your treatment?

I heard about scalp cooling initially from one of the nurses at Memorial Sloan Kettering. It was during that first meeting with my oncologist, where she told me the treatment plan and everything that would happen. She let me know that I would lose all of my hair after the first chemo infusion, and that was a very difficult moment. Obviously, all of it is overwhelming and scary, but the thought of also looking really sick and not being able to control who knew what was going on with me just felt like the nail in the coffin. It was one final blow to all of this — like I wouldn’t even be able to take my daughter to the playground and feel like a normal person. Everyone would know I was sick.

At that meeting, the nurses brought up scalp cooling as an option. I didn’t feel like they pushed it very hard, because it is a big financial burden. At the time, it was not covered by insurance, so I think they didn’t want to encourage something that a patient might not be able to afford. We had to weigh the financial costs, and after I was diagnosed, we also went through fertility treatments to protect the ability to expand our family down the line, which also wasn’t covered by insurance. There are just a lot of costs that come with cancer treatment.

We had a big decision to make, and we decided to give it a try. I was very lucky that it worked. It adds a lot of time to your treatment — you have to wear it before, during and afterward — so it means more time sitting in the suite, and it’s pretty uncomfortable. But I would say it was worth it to me.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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