Cooling Gel Mitts

The point was to keep my hands cold during taxol treatment (to prevent neuropathy). These kept my hands very cold. Yes, they were uncomfortable. They felt like frostbite. But that's the whole point, they're supposed to keep your hands very cold. And I never got frostbite even when it felt like it. They were reasonably easy to put on except when I had an IV stuck in my hand. Even then, it wasn't THAT difficult.

I'm using these mitts to help prevent neuropathy from chemo. I wore them during my infusion yesterday. I had them in the freezer for 2 days, then packed them in an insulated bag with blue ice packs because it's usually 3-4 hours between leaving the house and getting the Taxol which is what I'm protecting my hands from.I was really happy with the way these performed! I had another pair of mitts which did not work nearly as well. These are insulated enough that they don't hurt my hands from being too cold. They have baffles to keep the gels evenly distributed and provide an even cooling to all my fingers. I do wear white cotton gloves under them.Best of all, the cooling lasted a good forty minutes and could possibly have gone 45. The Taxol part of the infusion takes an hour. I used these first and used my old mitts for the last 20. My partner suggested I just buy another pair of these since they are easier to get on and more effective.They are large and stiff. I couldn't hold a book or tablet wearing them so I just rested. They are on the heavy side too but that didn't bother me.The mitts came packaged in a cello bag inside a sturdy cardboard box to prevent damage. The only thing I didn't like is there's no reusable plastic bag for storing these in the freezer. You have to have them inside a sealed plastic bag to prevent condensation. The mitts are large and one doesn't even fit in a gallon gusseted ziplock freezer bag. Fortunately I had some Hefty 2-1/2 gallon jumbo ziplocks from when we moved. Both mitts fit into that. For the price I feel they could provide a locking plastic bag to use for freezing and storage which is why I took off a star.Yes they're on the expensive side but if they help me retain feeling and function in my hands through my treatments they are worth it.

Pain releive during chemo treatment

I get a lot of pain in my hands from doing repetitive kitchen work at my job and other hands-on jobs over the years, and I'm only 33. I saw these and I had to give them a try! I'd heard of cryogenic therapy for your entire body, but never seen or heard of hand mitts for that purpose. I tried using these about 3 times so far, and I can say at this moment I am not feeling any pain in my hands, but the pain tends to come and go. However, I DID have much more pain, more often prior to trying these mitts, so I think they have been helping a bit. I have also been using my CBD cream while at work. I think the two together have been helping my pain. I've noticed I have a bit more "movement" in my fingers, which have felt stiff for a very long time... I will continue to use these mitts and see if I can continue keeping the pain away. I like that it does get EXTREMELY cold, but because of the layers in the mitts it doesn't hurt my hands, just feels extremely cold.I removed a star though because they are so big, and the pain is mainly located along the sides of my hands so it's hard to target those specific spots with these mitts, so I have to move my hands in somewhat awkward positions in order to target those spots. Again though, my fingers have been feeling better, and I haven't been using CBD directly on my fingers, so I think these gloves are slowly working!

I know these are marketed for chemotherapy patients, but they are wonderful for arthritic hand pain as well. Usually applying heat to my hands is the best way to ease the pain from PsA. Sometimes though a flare up is so bad that my skin is incredibly hypersensitive in addition to the pain and swelling. Putting any kind of warmth on them feels like my hands have suffered from serious burns and the pain is excruciating. I use the clay ice packs which help with the pain, but their weight is murder on hypersensitivity. Gel packs, including ones meant for hand use, usually don't stay cold very long, maybe five to ten minutes tops. Bags of ice always seem to leak no matter how many or what kind of bag you put the ice in, and they don't conform to your hand shape very well.Whatever kind of gel they use in these mitts is a big improvement. It freezes very solid compared to most gel packs I've tried. The fabric inside these mitts is indeed soft, though until the cold from the frozen gel penetrates and starts to ease the pain and sensitivity, the fabric is still slightly irritating. I think part of that is also the weight of the mitt on my hand, and there isn't really a way around it. (The weight is why I can't use a frozen clay pack during one of these particular flare ups and turn to gel packs.) It doesn't take long for the cold to start working, and that's when these mitts show how they are different from other gel-style packs. They stay cold for as long as a clay pack but without the extra weight.The longest these mitts have stayed cold for me over a few uses since they arrived is about 27 minutes. This doesn't seem that long, but when you generally aren't supposed to ice an area for more than 15-20 minutes, it's plenty of time. It takes a good minute for the cold to really seep through from the mitt to my hand, and a few more minutes for the the cold to begin working its magic. With a typical gel pack, right about now is when the pack doesn't feel as cold anymore after absorbing the heat from my hand and the ambient air. Mooshing the gel around helps some, but that kicks the hypersensitivity pain back into high gear just after it starts to settle down. By the time the hypersensitivity calms down again, the gel pack has been out of the freezer for 10-15 minutes. While still around refrigerator cold, it definitely is no longer frozen/freezer cold. Kind of a no-win situation. This so isn't the case with these cooling chemo mitts. At 15 minutes, they feel almost as cold as they did when I first pulled them out of the freezer. I don't have to layer a couple of folded hand towels on top of them to try and keep the cold in as long as possible (though yes, it does help) while hating how every single ounce of weight from those towels causes more pain. I am able to simply slide these on, sit or lay back, close my eyes, and grit my teeth for a few minutes until the pain begins to subside.NatraCure does offer cooling gel mitts for arthritis, and I have a pair. With those, the gel pack is only on the backside of my hand, not both sides like these chemotherapy cooling mitts. The gel pack for those mitts is the kind you can also microwave or soak in hot water if you want heat therapy for your hands. That gel doesn't contain any special properties that allow it to stay colder or hotter longer. You absolutely CANNOT heat up these chemotherapy cooling mitts because of the different kind of gel and little 'ice cube' that is in each little compartment. Doing so would ruin these mitts. The arthritis mitts also have a tighter fit and different inside of the mitt fabric. It's like Lycra on the inside with microfleece on the outside. That tighter fit on hands suffering from painful hypersensitivity would make that kind of mitt almost impossible to wear.These chemotherapy mitts have a blessedly looser fit. The main sections of the mitts don't stretch; it's only the outside perimeter of the mitts that do in order to accommodate different thicknesses of hands. If you have big and/or thick hands, this pair of mitts might be a little snug. If you have long fingers, this pair of mitts will still work, but the velcro closing meant to secure the mitt around your wrist will end up closer to the bottom of your palm. Swollen hands might find the fit a little snug at first, too. The interior fabric is very soft against inflamed skin, and there aren't any seams to cause irritation. (I will say that even with the softness of the fabric, these mitts aren't totally pain-free for hypersensitive skin. They aren't as pain-triggering as mitts with different, rougher fabric or that weigh more.)The return policy is currently 30 days, so try these on as soon as you receive them. If they feel uncomfortable to wear when your hands aren't in pain, just imagine how they would feel when your hands ARE in pain. I'd love to see them offer a larger size in this type of cooling mitt like they do with their arthritis version. Being 'one size fits most' still leaves out a lot of people, including those who may be suffering from serious edema as well as neuropathy pain in their hands. I'd prefer cooling mitts that are too big so they don't feel even slightly tight on my painful hands. Plus having a larger opening would make it easier for people to slide these mitts on when their hands are too painful to flex or grasp to pull these on. When your hands are super painful and you need to wear these mitts, you aren't going to be doing anything with your hands anyway. So why worry about the mitt being too big for the customer when the larger size is probably a boon for them?