My skirmish with skin cancer took a decidedly ugly turn over the weekend. When I say ugly I don’t mean unhealthy, I mean ugly as in looks bad. Indeed the cure looks worse than the disease (though I’m sure it’s not).
The story so far has me deciding to get checked by a dermatologist before the holidays. I was going to be turning 50 and had never been to one. Since I live in Hawaii where, except when tourists I know visit, the sun always shines, it’s probably a good idea. The CDC says Hawaii isn’t the worse state in the Union, but any cancer can’t be good.
So I went to a doctor. He took a look all over and none of that I thought was a possibility turned out to be anything except stuff that happens when we age. But he did find a spot on my left cheek he suspected. To be completely honest, I couldn’t see a thing, but then, I don’t know what to look for and he does.
Out came the knife and he took a nice slice for biopsy. The results came back in a couple of days, a not particularly virulent form of skin cancer. They asked me to wait till my face had healed, then come back.
I did. The doc wasn’t sure they’d gotten it all, so he prescribed Fluorouracil topically. This stuff, rubbed in twice a day, is supposed to knock off the cancer cells underneath the outer skin. What it seems to do to me is kill my face, hopefully killing the cancer faster.
The doc did warn me of inflammation and a bit of pain, but I’ve got a silver dollar sized round welt on my face that looks like I just went a round with a heavyweight. The problem isn’t the looks so much as it is explaining that I wasn’t in a fight. It might just be easier to say, “yeah, but you should see the other guy.”
Here’s what some skin looks like and where these cancers start…
Here’s an article on the whole mess.
WebMD has this to say about Fluorouracil…
Side Effects
Side effects from fluorouracil (5-FU) treatment are common and include:
* Redness.
* Signs of infection.
* Burning and oozing.
* Pain and itching.
* Skin color changes.
It is expected that people receiving 5-FU treatment will experience pain and burning while the medication works to destroy the skin disease. It may be difficult to tell the difference between the expected action of 5-FU on your skin and an allergic reaction.
I especially like the part about not being able to tell the difference between expected reaction and allergic reaction. My, my.
Anyway, I go back on Friday and if my face doesn’t fall off by then, I suspect I’ll survive.
Aloha!