New To Board - Starting Carac

I'm on day 8 out of a projected 3 week treatment for AK.  I knew to expect redness and considerable discomfort, so I've planned this for my slowest work month (june), but as I get farther into this and read more on this message board, it seems like I'm barely going to look presentable when I get back into the classroom in September.

My face is seriously mottled with red and it stings/itches just as most messages report.  As of about day 7, some small specks of dry skin started flaking off.  Aquaphor ointment seems to help but it's thick enough that you have to rub the already painful areas just to spread the ointment.  Today I tried warming it every so slightly just to make it spread easier. 

Sleeping is tough but possible, especially if I fall asleep facing up.  But if I roll onto my side or stomach, my face tocuhes the pillow and I wake up; after that getting back to sleep is very tough.

It's now Day 12.  The redness and swelling are still present and cover about 80% of my face, but I seem to have gotten used to the discomfort enough to be able to sleep.  Keeping busy during the day is definitely a key in getting through this.  

A couple of my friends suggested that my face just looks like a bad sunburn, but since it's June now and quite a few people around here have gotten too much sun, I'm not that out of place.  I started doing shopping erands in a nearby town where almost nobody would know me, and really not many people looked at me or deliberately away either.  Over the last couple of days I have started going out in my neighborhood with less feeling of self-consciousness. 

The dead skin cells are sloughing off my face at a fairly rapid pace, and this is the new unsightly challenge.  Moisture lotion seems to make them less noticeable for about an hour at a time.  Aquaphor does a good job at this but it's looks and feels too slimey.  I have discovered that some other lotions feel better but others really STING (it's probably those containing alcohol).

It's now Day 21 and yes I am red with a few blotchy spots of normal skin tone.  Aquaphor does work to cut down the pain and itch.  Week two was the most painful-- even putting on the Aquaphor was uncomfortable because it's thick like Vaseline, but during week two the discomfort was SOMETIMES forgotten by keeping myself busy.  Week 3 was actually a little more bearable than week 2, maybe because I kept myself busier, but maybe because my brain started ignoring the nerve endings in the face.  There were definitely times when the pain was undeniable, but then there were also hours on end that I could forget my face.  There were also several nights that I slept really well.

 So now I stop with the applications and watch for the clear skin to emerge from under all that redness.  I will see the dermatologist day after tomorrow.

Yes I made it through and my skin is MUCH nicer now.  The two weeks following treatment were very itchy and unsightly due to skin flaking off quatity.  Additionally, I believe I developed a new but temporary allergic reaction to sun screen - particularly Blue Lizard - which raised terrible hives on my arms (remember I had only used Carac on my face!). 

 In general, the fresh facial skin was very sensative. For a couple of weeks I had at least 3-5 white-head zits which would develop, then disapper, only to be replaced by other zits in different spots on my face.  They finally decreased in frequency and now their gone completely.  I seem to be able to tolerate sun screen again but now I wash it off soon after I get out of the sun. 

All in all, the Carac treatment on my face did get rid of the AK patches on my cheeks and temples and the grittiness along the scalp line.  Somehow I had believed that 3 weeks of treatment meant that by week four I would stop drawing stares in public, so we planned a vacation for week 5.  I was not necessarily uncomfortable, but people still stared and I took solace in the fact that almost nobody in that town knew me or would ever see me again.  If I were doing it again, I would have planned the vacation for week 6 or later.  Sensitivity to sunscreen made it difficult to enjoy sightseeing.

 Good luck. 

- Jerry