After starting chemotherapy, skin gets really dry. The cells that reproduce faster are the ones that are “killed” faster with chemo medications. These cells contain the most moisture. Therefore, most of the skin’s gets lost.
I really struggled, and still today suffer with the dryness. My skin got little thin cuts, especially on my hands, inside my mouth, inside my eyelids and generally it was a nightmare to try to keep my skin hydrated. No matter how much water I drank.
Chemotherapy was doing its job, but it was so painful suffering from it!
I started researching lotions on the internet to figure out which lotions were good with no parabens and no chemicals that would damage my skin even more. I ended up buying a couple of them and I didn’t have a lot of success. Finally, I ended up going to an organic local store and found a great lotion for my skin.
My skin still gets dry. I had triple positive breast cancer and with that, I had to take Tamoxifen. This medication caused me to have dry skin too. It suppresses estrogen and as a consequence it makes you feel dry.
I can manage it now as I don’t suffer from the little cuts I used to have while in chemotherapy, but still dryness is part of my life.
I can’t wait to be done with medications. I am 3 years cancer free and that is my biggest blessing!
