You won't be out of commission for months, more like a week or two. Ask your Dr., if he or she recommends a 21 day regiment (two applications a day - morning and evening). That is what I did. The first two weeks were not too bad. By the end of the 2nd week I was looking like I had a bad sunburn but not uncomfortable. The 3rd week is the killer. The cells die, dry up, and slough off. It looks awful and itches/burns like the devil. I needed hydrocodone for the pain and sleeping pills to get through the night for the last 4 days or so. I learned from this board about vaseline - it was literally the only thing that really worked for me. Vaseline keeps the itching way, way down. While I was still using the Efudex (same stuff as Carnac)I would scrub the vaseline off with a wet paper towel before applying Efudex. That was uncomfortable but had the beneficial effect of clearing off a lot of the dead tissue. I was able to stop treatment after 21 days - two days after the real uncomfortable period began. I was cleared up pretty well in a week. The steroid cream was useless - vaseline worked.
You can see pictures of me at the peak at:
http://tinyurl.com/ybtlx2 If you want to see pictures of a "worst case" scenario check out www.topical-chemo.com.
By the way, wait until you have a month when you will not need to travel or attend an important event.