INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer often face many side effects. One, called neuropathy, can be extremely painful and research shows Black women are more likely to experience it. Now, doctors are finding ways to decrease that risk.
Saysha Wright is a busy mother of two.
“I’m a football mom, a cheerleading mom,” she said.
She’s also a breast cancer survivor. In 2019, at just 31 years old…
“I found a lump,” Saysha recalled.
She had stage two breast cancer. She started chemotherapy and after a couple treatments, she developed neuropathy… a side effect that causes numbness, tingling, and pain in the hands and feet.
“I couldn’t feel my fingertips or my toes. So when I would try to braid my baby’s hair or button up my kids’, you know, clothes, I couldn’t. I had no feeling whatsoever,” she explained.
“Neuropathy is a tough side effect,” said Bryan Schneider, MD, Vera Bradley Professor of Oncology at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.
He says anyone can experience it …