Cool, another buddy! Yes, started last night (I cried knowing this is the best I'll feel for several weeks). This morning started to feel some slight pin-pricky (but not painful) tingling sensations on my face. Yes, I'm using this all over my entire face so as to treat my large AK on my forehead, several smaller lesions which are also probably AKs as well as anything below the surface which can't be seen yet (and my MD and I feel there are probably many given my history).
A little background: about 10 years ago I noticed 3 pink, flaky areas, 2 on my left arm and 1 on my left thigh, that never seemed to go away. They didn't hurt, but just churned skin flakes evey few months. I went to a dermatologist who diagnosed me with psoriasis. This didn't surprise me as my mom had it, but even with the steroid creams she gave me, they never went away. 18 mos ago we were in Hawaii and the spot on my thigh suddenly got a lot bigger and began to bleed. That's when a new dermatologist immediately gave me a new diagnosis of superficial basal cell carcinoma (you'll see this in websites as sBCC). He prescribed Aldara, which is an immuno-response modifier and makes your own body produce interferon to eliminate the cancer cells. It's a spot treatment and the lesions swell, get ugly, itchy, oozy for several weeks (most people are told to use it for 4-12 weeks) until finally you form a big scab, it falls off and hopefully no more cancer. It's not horrible, just very unpleasant. All those initial 3 lesions were eliminated with the Aldara. I've since been seeing my MD every 3 months 'cause more spots keep appearing but just on my face. These next several were small AKs and I had them burned off with liquid nitrogen which also worked fine. I started Aldara again in October for a big sandpapery lesion (1" across) on my forehead. Got a huge scab, got infected(sometimes happens with Aldara), scab falls off, but sandpapaey skin is still there. I had a punch biopsy last Friday and my MD ands I were worried it was squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) which would have required Mohs Micrographic surgery. Well, "luckily" it's just an AK which most MDs will agree will become SCCs if not treated.
Potterylady and Butterfly Swimmer, thanks for your continued posts. If you're interested in sharing photos (I'm going to take one daily and have my "before" shot already) we can exchange privately. I'm really happy to have you two to share with!