● Trouble swallowing. ● Taste changes. ● Fertility issues. ● Urinary or bladder changes. ● Thyroid changes.
● Short-term memory loss or chemo brain it is referred to by many. ● Bone pain. ● Tooth loss. ● Neuropathy. ● Blistering hands and feet or hand and foot syndrome – a rare side effect that I experienced after waking up the next morning after my third “red devil”- a slang word for Adriamycin, the most powerful chemo drug used for many different cancers- covered in blistered on the bottoms of my feet and palms of hands. Getting out of bed was impossible! I had to wait for my husband to help me with cushioned slippers and take me right to the doctor’s office. They had never actually seen that side effect before. They called in most of their staff to look at it, too. After that, I had to be taken off that drug or take a break from the chemotherapy and be put on a drug my body could handle. After trying a different drug, I began getting conjunctivitis or pinkeye about every other week. The doctors were baffled by this side effect as well! It is important to remember that cancer treatments can cause a wide variety of side effects, and becoming aware of even the most rare problems will help you become a better, more well-informed esthetician. Because there are so many variables and so many different methods of administering treatments, all cancer treatment plans are case-by-case. It depends on the different stages and other variables of cancer. For breast cancer, the treatment plan is done after biology reports come back with important information such as the tumor subtype, receptors including hormones and receptor status, stage of the tumor, genomic markers, or Oncotype and the treatment plan will continue to be tailored to each individual patient from there. Another common treatment is radiation therapy. Some of the common side effects of different radiation therapies include: ● Exhaustion. ● Burned skin or hardened skin. ● Hair loss in the area of treatment. Emotional effects of cancer The long road a patient endures from diagnosis throughout treatment is not just a physical metamorphosis but also a mental one. It doesn’t stop there because cancer is expensive even though billions of dollars have been spent on research and finding a cure. Chances are your clients have bills that are piling up and charities are not helping them because for a cancer patient to get money from charities they have to fit a certain profile and compete with thousands of other patients for help. We cannot control who will help them financially, but we can control the help we give to others from our treatment room. If we genuinely want to make a difference to a cancer patient, we can help in many ways. There are many ways to support cancer patients, both financially and emotionally. For example, we can start a giving tree (collecting gift card and money in the name of a person in need) once a year and pick one cancer patient. Or, one could spend time as a volunteer at the cancer center as a chemo buddy and keep company to those that sit alone getting their treatment. There are so many ways to help clients during active treatment, but unfortunately during chemotherapy, a facial is not one of them. I gave myself a simple facial and used professional sensitive based skincare lines safe for cancer patients after I started chemotherapy. I had a horrible reaction: Red, puffy face for a few days. Aloe was all my skin could tolerate. Because there are so many different
Radiation is a form of burning, and it does exactly what it says: radiates or burns the area where the cancer cells are present to kill them. As an esthetician, you may encounter clients who are dealing with the after-effects of radiation therapy on the skin, which can include blistering, hardening, and burning. It is important to know that there is no known reason as to why one person will experience extreme effects and another may experience nothing. The effects on the skin do not align with the Fitzpatrick scale, a numerical classification that shows the response of different types of skin to UV burning rays which is typically taught in beauty school. Patients are told to keep the skin moist and to constantly apply lotion. Personally, I have found that using an emollient or barrier cream made up of plant oils, Shea butter, petroleum, fatty acids, and lanolin is a better choice to keep the area of compromised skin hydrated. Here is an example of radiation burn after around 20 rounds of treatment. Remember, every patients skin can react differently.
Note. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzpatrick_scale
chemicals in chemotherapy drugs patients can get a reaction from any facial ingredient. As an esthetician, I could not imagine taking a chance on an imuno-compromised client and possibly giving them a reaction. I knew I had to write my own survivor's guide for estheticians. Some classes might tell you it is okay to perform facials on chemotherapy patients, but that does not make it safe. This can be seen by the fact that the procedure will usually be accompanied by a two-page disclaimer if anything goes wrong, The immune system is too compromised to come in for a spa treatment and that would be putting your client’s life at risk during active treatment, unless they are at the later stages of cancer. At that point it is about comfort and making them happy and feel good. At that point, a home facial would be a better idea. As discussed earlier, a mild infection or fever could put someone undergoing treatment in the hospital or worse. I could not even use a mild, professional calming moisturizer that was made for cancer patients. I knew after that, the only way to help clients during chemotherapy was after an oncologist provided a release to return or for them to wait until treatment was over to see them again. Unless we understand cancer and the road a cancer patient goes down, we could not truly help them because it is a life-altering experience. So what we can do instead of doing facials on cancer patients to help them get through this time until we can have them back in
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