I promised you pictures

And because I like to make good on my promises, here they are - my journey through 2 weeks of topical Efudex treatment of my forehead and nose.

First, let's start with a baseline - me after my first application. Nothing much going on yet. Hey, this might not be so bad after all!










Let's move on to day three, when there was still hope that this wasn't going to be really really awful. I'm thinking here - "wow - that flash sure does make the ol' fivehead stand out - maybe I should be thinking about wearing bangs on a full-time basis! Plus, perhaps a little eyebrow pencil next time isn't such a bad idea!"







Then, let's take a look at Day 10, when it seemed to be pretty, uh, developed up there. As an added attraction, here you can also see the thicket of gray hairs that is springing up on my temples and, once again, the complete and utter lack of any eyebrows. I look like a spotty white Whoopie Goldberg.






Which brings us up to today, at the ever-so attractive "scaling and scabby" phase of lesion development. If there are small children about, please shield their eyes from the horror-scape that my upper face has become. Note - those really red spots on my nose are from where my glasses rest on the tender Efudex'ed skin - not painful, but dashedly unattractive. The rest of those spots? They chafe and itch and burn slightly, especially after I wash my face or touch it or think about touching it or think I might want to someday touch or wash it.



Mind you - I just did my forehead and nose (and upper chest, but you know, I'm not cozy with the chestal pics. It's not that they show anything, it's just that that area is really unattractive right now and I'm not going to put that out there. "Worse than the FACE pics?", you ask in shock. "No," I say, "Just worse that I thought it should look.").

Just so you know, of ye of boundless curiosity, I started the rest of my face today. If events warrant, there will be pictures of that as well. Judging from the several hits on this site I've gotten from the search "efudex pictures," I'm pretty sure there's a market our there for this kind of thing for people interested in either 1) what they're getting into when they're prescribed this cell-death-in-a-tube or 2) really gross stuff.

Take heart, all y'all that are in the former category - if you're doing the Efudex for suspected subclinical issues, it will only feel as though you've smeared weak hydrochloric acid on your face for about an hour or so after application, and that CoverGirl makeup does indeed provide plenty of coverage. In truth, no matter how uncomfortable, this treatment is very much better than getting actual-factual skin cancer.

Take it from this freckled Irish/German/Englighwoman who had several blistering sunburns as a child and young adult, and to boot spent several summers as a lifeguard without "proper protection" - I wish I'd known then what I know now. I would have rivaled "Powder" in my whiteness to avoid this kind of foolishness.