By Aasra Editorial Team | India's First Adaptive Clothing Brand
Aasra has served thousands of patients and caregivers across India since 2020, providing adaptive clothing that makes dressing independent and dignified for people recovering from surgery, dealing with disability, or facing the challenges of old age.
A chemotherapy day is long. You arrive, bloods are taken, you wait for them to be cleared, and then you sit connected to a line for anywhere between one and six hours. You will do this many times over several months. What you wear turns out to matter a good deal more than anyone tells you at the start.
Where the access is determines what you need
A chest port, often called a portacath, sits under the skin below the collarbone. The nurse needs to see and clean a small area of your upper chest, then place a needle into it. With an ordinary t-shirt or kurti, the only way to give that access is to pull the neckline down awkwardly or take the top off and sit in a gown.
A garment that opens at the front or the side solves it in one movement. A side-opening t-shirt or the men's version opens enough to expose the port area while everything else stays on. For women who prefer Indian styles, a front-open kurti does the same thing and looks like an ordinary kurti in the waiting room.
A PICC line runs from a vein in the upper arm. Here the requirement is a sleeve that comes up above mid-upper-arm and stays there comfortably for hours, without tightening around the limb. Loose or side-opening sleeves work. Fitted sleeves pushed up become constricting, which is uncomfortable and best avoided over a line.
Whichever you have, the practical goal is the same: the nurse gets access to a small area, and you stay dressed and covered from the waist down for the whole session.
You will be cold, then you will be hot
Infusion units are air-conditioned, you are sitting still for hours, and some chemotherapy drugs cause cold sensitivity. Certain platinum-based regimens can make cold genuinely painful in the hands and feet, and your oncology team will warn you if yours is one of them.
At the same time, some people get flushed and overheated during or after an infusion, and steroids given alongside chemotherapy often cause heat and sweating for a day or two afterwards.
Layers are the answer, and specifically layers you can add or remove with one arm occupied. Cotton as the base layer, something warmer over the top, and socks even in an Indian summer.
Skin gets more sensitive
Chemotherapy affects fast-dividing cells, which includes skin. Many people find their skin becomes drier, thinner and more reactive over the course of treatment. Seams, labels and synthetic fabrics that were unremarkable before can become genuinely irritating.
This is the reason we make everything in 100% cotton. It is not a marketing preference. Skin under treatment reacts to synthetics, and if you are wearing the same few garments repeatedly through months of treatment, the fabric against your skin matters.
If you are having radiotherapy as well, the treated area will be more sensitive still, and loose cotton over that area is what most radiotherapy departments advise.
Practical things worth knowing
- Pack for a longer day than scheduled. Delays are routine. Take an extra layer.
- Nothing tight around the abdomen. Nausea is common and a waistband pressing on your stomach makes it worse.
- Slip-on footwear. You may be tired, lightheaded, or dealing with numbness in the feet from neuropathy.
- Avoid anything that has to go over the head at the end of a session. Arms are sore, and you are usually more tired than you expected to be.
- Have easy clothes at home for the days after. Days two to four after an infusion are often the hardest, and that is when dressing effort matters most.
On dignity
Many people going through chemotherapy in India are treated in busy day-care units with limited privacy. Being able to keep your clothes on while a nurse accesses your port is a small thing that people mention to us often. It is one of the few parts of the day you get to control.
Our adaptive uppers include the side-opening and front-opening tops that give port and line access without undressing, and our mastectomy recovery collection covers the overlap for breast cancer patients who are having both surgery and chemotherapy. Everything is 100% cotton, free shipping across India, cash on delivery available. If you need an opening in a specific position for your access site, message us on WhatsApp and we will make it to measure.