Wrist warmers during treatment with cryotherapy for patients with cancer Lisbeth Sehlberg Augustsen, 2017

To minimize the damage on nails and cuticles when patients with cancer are treated with cytostatic, physicians sometimes use cryotherapy. The patient has on cold gloves during the treatment, which lasts about one hour. This treatment has been used for 15 years and the aim is to prevent blood flow in the small blood vessels and thereby prevent the medicine to affect that area. The research is not conclusive but the clinical experience shows fewer cases of damage to fingers and reduced risk of loss of fingernails.

Some patients like me have a bad experience with the cold especially in the wrist. For me the cold caused a persistent pain that lasted a couple of hours after the treatment had ended.
The second time I received treatment I used wrist warmers which eliminated the pain. Wrist warmers are easy to knit and made a huge difference for me in how I could cope with the treatment.

The innovation developer at the healthcare facilities helped me to test my idea. The local Breast cancer association knitted 20 wrist warmers, described in the knitting pattern. 20 patients that received treatment for their cancer tested wrist warmers and 12 answered questions afterward. 35 % experienced discomfort when they were treated with cold gloves. 90 % said that they would use the writs warmers at their next treatment and 55 % would recommend wrist warmers to other patients.

Now the healthcare staff can recommend wrist warmers if patients are affected by the treatment. The Breast cancer association keeps on knitting wrist warmers that can help others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57JGlqVZcTs&index=2&list=PLtyEoZJon32fuG...