Carac, Part 2

 Day 8 of the Carac treatment might have been tolerable, but by day 10, things were going downhill fast.  I woke up Saturday morning with skin on fire and red dots all over like measles.  Nothing but a cold compress could ease the pain.  I looked like I had a very severe sunburn.  I had to go to a funeral for a friend and speak about her.  I think some of the people there did not even know it was me.  On Sunday, it was worse and while I managed to go to church to teach a brief Sunday School lesson, I spent the rest of the day feeling sorry for myself and watching my face swell into a round discolored balloon.  On Monday, I woke up to purple colored crusty skin, so called the doctor for advice.   I had to leave a message on a machine that promised a response by the end of the day.  I went to work for a few hours and came home in agony.  No phone call from the doctor ever came.  Today, I called again, but could barely talk.  My face was so swollen my eyes were slits and my mouth couldn’t even open wide enough to put a small bite of food inside.  A clear discharged oozed from my skin.  By this time, I could only sit and cry from pain and from fear.  Fortunately, I reached a human being who tried to give me an excuse about why I had not been called back, but I was in no mood to be placated.  I was told to come in within the hour, and I would be worked in.  Once they saw my face, everyone was eager to help.  I think another reason I was rushed back to an exam room was so the other patients could not see me.  The doctor was sympathetic, but had plenty of reasons why this might have happened including the thought that perhaps I had gotten sunburned recently and not told her about it?  No, not a chance.   She says that because the Carac attacks the precancer cells, I might have had more than were visible to the naked eye and thus, the severe reaction.   I left with an antibiotic cream, a steroid cream and an oral antibiotic since there is a chance that I might have gotten a staph infection in my skin.  And a note to stay home from work the rest of the week.  Of course, I was finally told to stop using the Carac.  After only twelve days of treatment.   Within ten minutes of using the two creams, my face felt much better and the swelling is gone.  I still have the terrible itching which may drive me crazy, but the doctor’s warning not to scratch or I could have scars resonates within me.   What good will it do to look younger if I have scars?   I am a victim of my own vanity.  But, it won’t happen again.   No, never again.