Not Too Painful - Edmonton, AB

Had 31 years of frequent basal cell, squamous cell carcinomas and AK's treated with surgery, Aldara, Interferon injections, you name it. Fair skin, hazel eyes, family history of these types of cancers. I suspect a weak immune system is at fault for many of the cancers because the incidence of cancers greatly diminished after introducing many immune boosting vitamins and 10,000 IU per day of vitamin D3 to my diet. 3 different Dermatologists have recommended Levulan treatment to me. Scared witless going in. Took Tylenol, wore earbuds listening to loud music. The acid application to my face was very hot feeling, like an extreme flush sensation but the nurse put cold towels on it immediately which helped and was very tolerable. Waited 60 minutes then 6 minutes under the blue light with a built in cooling fan. Not painful at all. I double wrapped my head and face in a scarf with slits for the eyes then went home and spent from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in my lightless bedroom for 2 days. This is really important to stay out of daylight as it causes a lot of extra pain with the acid chemicals interacting with wavelengths of blue and red light bombarding your skin. The nurses were great and they answered a 1000 questions. First day just red skin. Slathered on good olive oil. Second day thickening feeling on the skin, redness and patchy dark spots and numbness; more olive oil. Third day face was very tight and had a mild headache from the facial skin feeling like it was pulling on my scalp. Skin starting to scale. Day 4, massive scaling, applying petroleum jelly now. Keep the skin on as long as you can. Day 5, golfed 9 holes with sunscreen and zinc slathered on and a ski tube pulled up to my eyes and a headband over my forehead plus a broad brimmed hat on.
My Doctor would like to repeat this procedure once more, maybe twice. I feel that 2 or 3 treatments with less time under the lights and with less time with acid on the skin is preferable to suffering excruciating pain in one large and lengthy treatment and I do have a low pain threshold. Good luck!