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I grew up in a small East-Texas farming community where kids starting at the age of seven or eight were expected to be in the fields working by day-break each morning. It was an all day affair which means I, like many of you, unwittingly absorbed high doses of harmful ultra-violet sun rays. Of course, this led to my later having an abundance of Bcc, Scc, and AK skin cancer treatments. Thus far, thank God, I have had no melanoma's, but since around 1980, I have had over thirty Moh's surgeries, literally hundreds of liquid nitrogen freeze-treatments, and dozens of curettage removals not to mention all the numerous treatments involving creams such as Efudex, Solaraze, Carac, and of course Aldara.
Traditional treatments had all gone quite well using the proven methods of cancer treatments until that unfortunate day back in January of 2000 when my Dermatologist, of a couple of years, decided that the nickel-sized Bcc on my upper forehead near my hair line was perhaps too large to allow for closure after Moh's surgery; his first choice for treating my Bcc cancers.
TREATMENT AREA ONE YEAR LATER
He told me he had read (this clinical trial) where they were using a new drug, Aldara, which was actually used in the control of genital warts but had also been successfully used in the treatment of skin cancers and would I like to try it. I asked what kind of side-effects had been determined thus far with the drug and he said maybe light flu-like symptoms but that's basically all.
Like most of you, I relied on my, great, past relationship with this physician to guide me in ultimately making the decision. I trusted his judgment call as to which one of all the many SAFE treatments he had available to him at the time, to use, in this particular instance. WE, chose to use Aldara because taking the sure route with Moh's surgery "might" have led to a complicated and expensive skin graft "if" there had not been enough available post-surgery skin left over for closure of the resulting wound. So, I left his office with a prescription for Aldara.
As fate would have it, I was scheduled for an annual complete physical the next day. I filled the prescription after having my physical so I had the before Aldara and after Aldara medical data from which my doctors would later use to try and determine what Aldara had done to me, physiologically speaking.
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On January 26, 2000, at age 51, I received a perfect score on my yearlycomplete physical and was enjoying very good health, working 14 – 16 hour days in one of my
businesses. I had gone years without contracting even so much as a common cold.
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On January 28, 2000, I began treating the BCC on my forehead with Aldara.• The treatment site was raw and inflamed on the 4
th day
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6th day, the site was an open, weeping, bloody wound the size of a credit card and I wasexperiencing serious flu-like symptoms.
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7th day, I was rushed to the emergency room with a severe nose-bleed, spitting upblood, severe head congestion, nauseated, joint and muscle pains, neck pains, coughing,
shortness of breath, stomach cramps, blurred vision, pounding headache and lower back pain.
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9th day, Dermatologist stopped the application of Aldara in open wound and prescribedadditional applications to five other BCC’s on my face. He was not at all suspicious of
the many serious symptoms I was presenting.
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11th day, I had all the same symptoms described above plus diarrhea, fainting spells,blurred vision, metallic taste in my mouth, hoarseness, lower back-pain, and trouble with
my balance when walking (all are known side-effects of Aldara). I had constant whole
body pains and remained in bed most of the day. I had lost 13-pounds.
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21st day, I took myself off Aldara due to the severe complications. By this time I wasbedridden, still loosing weight, nauseated, weak, and highly disorientated along with all
the other symptoms described above. The whole body pain was unbearable.
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31st day, I had lost a total of 20-pounds and my symptoms were still in full force.Between Ensure and regular food, I was eating 3,000 to 4,000 calories / day. By this time,
my physicians in oncology, pulmonary, gastroenterology, and more were frantically
running all kinds of tests and scans trying to reach an understanding of what was causing
all my serious symptoms. I was placed on guarded watch for 30-days and ultimately began
responding to treatments. Eventually, over months, I regained my weight and was able to
function once again on my own.
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The following year, I had numerous lengthy stays in the hospital for treatmentsconsisting of mysterious internal infections and inflammations, abnormalities in blood
tests, and dehydration. Over time, tests would finally reveal systemic autoimmune like
disorders, fibromyalgia, unnatural degenerative hearing losses in both ears, suspected
cytokine involvement in systemic muscle and joint disorders causing severe whole body
pain from inflammation, severe dry eyes, a neurological condition causing severe
headaches, celiac disease, and out breaks of blisters in mouth and on
my scalp.
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Today, over 10- years later, I am still unable to work, still have severe whole body painconsisting of joint and muscle inflammation, stiffness, headaches, fatigue, diarrhea, lower back
pains, trouble walking distances, lost even more of my hearing, memory loss,
complications from both fibromyalgia and celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome,
Parkinson's Disease, sjogrens syndrome, stomach cramps, explosion of BCC’s and AK’s
and never have a good day regardless of how hard I try.
None of my existing conditions are found in either side of my
family's medical histories SO I DOUBT THIS IS ALL A COINCIDENTAL
LIST OF DISEASES AND CONDITIONS i WOULD HAVE BEEN EXPECTED TO CONTRACT
IN THE ABSENCE OF MY
USE OF aLDARA/IMIQUIMOD BACK IN fEBRUARY OF 2000..
March of 2010, I had Moh's surgery on the same area of my forehead (line scar in photo below) previously treated with Aldara back in 2000. Unfortunately, Aldara did not eradicate the Bcc at that time and it reappeared 10-years later even though the Aldara had significantly destroyed the entire area.
MOH'S SURGERY ON TREATMENT AREA 10-YEARS LATER
Of all the Moh's surgeries I have had, not one has resulted in any form of treatment for reoccurring cancers. Please think of this statement the next time you consider taking the easy road with your treatments by using creams, more especially Aldara.