Everyone's free to wear Sunscreen: If I could offer you only one tip for the future,
Sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists...

However, generally speaking, those scientists have nothing credible to say about one's choices regarding health, wellness, or climate change, especially not viruses nor prevention of skin cancer...


Wishing you a good recovery, if you the OP are afflicted!

I had actinic keratoses all over my face, probably because in my youth I spent a great deal of time outside in the sun--playing sports, working out, delivering newspapers, etc. Back then (I'm 73 now), "suntan lotions" were to make you tan/burn short-term, not so much to protect skin long-term--the concept of SPF had not even been invented yet. If you only have a few keratoses, they can zap them with liquid nitrogen, but when they're everywhere, the cream is the treatment.

I looked just like the guy in the video. When I started treatment, I emailed the whole company email list to let them know what was happening so nobody would think I had some horrible contagious disease. I was supposed to use it for 14 days. My skin got to feeling like baked parchment paper--thin, brittle, tight, stretched, and very sensitive to touch and painful even without touch. I made it through 10 days before the pain was just too much and I couldn't do any more. My impression was that the dermatologist was actually pleased that I lasted that long and I thought that her reaction indicated that I outlasted most patients.

My experience was pretty much like the video. All the actinic keratoses went away. A few years later, a couple reappeared but few enough that they treated them with liquid nitrogen. No more since then.

I am a bit younger, but I did spend much of my youth tanning during the summer months/vacations, as well as partaking in several outdoor sports. Shite, I remember people using baby oil and iodine to get that perfect look! I have been sun adverse for over a couple of decades. Good lawd, though, I can still remember the pain of the sunburn after falling asleep on the beach for several hours when I was younger.

I did get cryosurgery for several spots, but one area was particularly difficult. Hence, the fluorouracil. It did find an undiscovered spot, so that is good! I was hoping that the difficult spot would/will have a better reaction because my doc said. "I don't want to have to cut you." Lol...

I’m using fluorouacil for the third or fourth time. I’ve been a surfer for almost 60 years, beginning at 11 in Hawaii I’m fair haired and light skinned. My nose burned and peeled for some part of all the years before real sunscreens became available. I’m a poster child for skin cancer risk. Iif I hadn’t moved to where you wear full wetsuits, booties and hoods I’d probably be a goner by now. At this point whenever anybody calls me a crusty old guy, they’re more right than they know.

I see my Dermo every 6 months without fail. That Porsche in his driveway? I paid for that and consider it a great investment. Each visit he burns stuff off, takes a couple of biopsies, and urges me to use more sunscreen.

(Side note: When i was still single i used to enjoy going to the cosmetics counter at Nordstrom or I Magnin, sitting down in the section of a cute cosmetics sales woman and asking for recommendations for the latest, greatest sunscreens. Those “line girls” a they were called at the time, never get to interact with guys, and once they saw I was an actual customer, we’re happy to show me how to apply it and explained the intranets of the t-zone. I later married the Clinique line girl.)

My first use of fluorouacil had everyone in my office worried that I had Karposis sarcoma ‘cause it was during that time. This time it’s for crusty patches along the natural part in my hair that presents when I would push through a wave and shake the water out of my eyes.

Next up is a Mohs treatment for a spot where the biopsy raised a red flag. In this procedure the plastic surgeon peels off a thin layer of flesh and that is sent of an instant biopsy to see if they’ve got it all. They keep skinning you until a sample is clean of any indications. I’ll probably end up with a scar at the spot on my forehead. Better than the alternative.

Moral of this story? Layer on the sunscreen. A teaspoon for your face. A teaspoon for each arm. A table spoon for each of the chest, back and legs. Use a mineral sunscreen with zinc and titanium dioxide. They give better protection and dont harm coral reefs like the ones with the chemical screens like oxybenzoate, etc.