Efudex

I am glad to have found this site and hear someone elses stories about the side effects of this medication Efudex.  I have 2 days left of treatment and I am about to rip my face to pieces.  The itching and tightness and burning feeling of the skin and not to forget the REDNESS...looks like I was hit with napalm or thrown in a fire. Everyone just stares at me now when I have to somewhere, they can't imagine what the heck I have. Almost looks like a bad case of measles or chicken pox.  I want to know if it's ok to try to put some kind of moisturizer on the skin after I finish the treatment or should I just ask my dermotologist?  Right now after washing my face with soap and water...the cold water feels so good, and boy,  does it hurt to pat dry my face. What should I expect to happen after the treatment is stopped? does the skin peel like a bad sunburn kinda peeling? and flaky stuff?  Wish there was a way to post a picture of my face to see if anyone looks like me right now. It really looks bad !

I'm learning a lot with my research.  How did we manage without Internet?  I got your post about Efudex side effects.  I'm wondering if only potentially cancerous areas turn red or if all treated areas turn red?  I'm almost done with my 4th week and the redness seems to be confined to my nose, forehead, and right cheek.  Left cheek doesn't look bad, and there is zero response on my neck, shoulders, and upper back.  Although treating both ears as well, only one small spot on my right ear is responding with some scaliness.  Also, I see some posters going through 6 weeks of treatment, others 8.  My doctor prescribed only 4.  The redness, irritation, itching, and burning is as bad as I've ever had to put up with.  As a guy that NEVER, EVER takes any kind of medication, I've gone to the 800 mg Ibuprofen.  I can't tell if it helps or if a reduction in the symptoms just means I am distracted by something else.  I've only had on BCC removed in the past, from my nose, and the Efudex prescription came during my one year follow up (closer to 15 months.)  How soon can I expect to bounce back when my treatment ends on Wednesday?

 

 

Hello Vegas John,

I was diagnosed with Actinic Keratosis, pre cancer on my face. I was prescribed Efudex to put on 2x a day for 2 weeks.  All I was told by my dermotologist was that anywhere there is precancerous cells, the Efudex will target it, turn and turn red.  I am to see him in 2 weeks for a follow up.  After applying this stuff, the first couple of days wasn't so bad, but now it's horrible, or it looks that way.  After much re search on the internet I couldn't find a single photo of what Efudex does to the skin.  And of course this being the weekend and of course no doctors here in Las Vegas work the weekend, I really became concerned that what I am experiencing right now isn't anything to be alarmed about.  After reading the posts I found one that was so helpful and really put me to ease that everything that is happening is quite normal for this treatment.  Here is the link if you haven't seen it already.  It was very imformative to me and I am hoping it will help you also.

PS...I live in Las Vegas...SUMMERLIN area.

Hope all goes well with you and a speedy recovery.

Diann 

www.topicalchemo.com

 

On 2/18/2007 Wings wrote:

I am glad to have found this site and hear someone elses stories about the side effects of this medication Efudex.  I have 2 days left of treatment and I am about to rip my face to pieces.  The itching and tightness and burning feeling of the skin and not to forget the REDNESS...looks like I was hit with napalm or thrown in a fire. Everyone just stares at me now when I have to somewhere, they can't imagine what the heck I have. Almost looks like a bad case of measles or chicken pox.  I want to know if it's ok to try to put some kind of moisturizer on the skin after I finish the treatment or should I just ask my dermotologist?  Right now after washing my face with soap and water...the cold water feels so good, and boy,  does it hurt to pat dry my face. What should I expect to happen after the treatment is stopped? does the skin peel like a bad sunburn kinda peeling? and flaky stuff?  Wish there was a way to post a picture of my face to see if anyone looks like me right now. It really looks bad !

 

 

On 2/18/2007 Wings wrote:

I am glad to have found this site and hear someone elses stories about the side effects of this medication Efudex.  I have 2 days left of treatment and I am about to rip my face to pieces.  The itching and tightness and burning feeling of the skin and not to forget the REDNESS...looks like I was hit with napalm or thrown in a fire. Everyone just stares at me now when I have to somewhere, they can't imagine what the heck I have. Almost looks like a bad case of measles or chicken pox.  I want to know if it's ok to try to put some kind of moisturizer on the skin after I finish the treatment or should I just ask my dermotologist?  Right now after washing my face with soap and water...the cold water feels so good, and boy,  does it hurt to pat dry my face. What should I expect to happen after the treatment is stopped? does the skin peel like a bad sunburn kinda peeling? and flaky stuff?  Wish there was a way to post a picture of my face to see if anyone looks like me right now. It really looks bad !

 

After the treatments stop, in my case 2x a day for 4 weeks, your skin will dry, crack, peel and itch.  The nurses station at my doctor's office recommended Aquaphor to relieve the discomfort and it worked wonders.  Apply thinly to the most sensitive areas.  It's very greasy so sleep with an old pillowcase.  The Aquaphor will not impact your recovery.  It will just make the recovery easier to handle and allow you to sleep at night.  I am now on my third day of post-treament recovery and I can finally see new skin instead of that nasty redness.

To anyone thinking about or currently going through an Exfudex treatment check out my experiance at MyEfudex.com, It may be very helpful.

During the healing process I strongly recommend coating the area that had Efudex cream applied with vasoline, It keeps the skin from scabbing, cracking, and itching(make sure you consult your doctor).

 

On 3/13/2008 MyEfudex wrote:

To anyone thinking about or currently going through an Exfudex treatment check out my experiance at MyEfudex.com, It may be very helpful.

During the healing process I strongly recommend coating the area that had Efudex cream applied with vasoline, It keeps the skin from scabbing, cracking, and itching(make sure you consult your doctor).

 

 

On 3/13/2008 MyEfudex wrote:

To anyone thinking about or currently going through an Exfudex treatment check out my experiance at MyEfudex.com, It may be very helpful.

During the healing process I strongly recommend coating the area that had Efudex cream applied with vasoline, It keeps the skin from scabbing, cracking, and itching(make sure you consult your doctor).

Thanks for your informative site MyEfudex.com

I had a very tiny SCC removed from my nose and about a year ago a BCC from my ear. The doctor prescribed Efudex once a day to my nose for 3 weeks I am in the first day of recovery he prescribed Sorbolene cream during recovery and later I will be doing my face and neck with Efudex.

What was a help with my glasses as I haven't done my forehead yet is to get one of those strings that old ladies use to hang their glasses around their necks, (sorry for the reference to old ladies) shorten the string with a knot and loop it over the peak of a baseball hat then slide the hat up slightly to lift the glasses slightly off the nose I also spread the little tags that contact the nose (metal frame glasses) and tucked the spare string under the hat.

I'm not looking forward to the rest of my face but I am thinking of doing my forehead and only one side of my face so that I have a good side to sleep on and when that heals doing the other side and my neck. I will run this past my doctor before I start.