Barb, quite a bit of my neck skin came off. The problem was probably accelerated by the Iressa, but it was so oozy I felt bad that my pillowcases were getting crusty, and the fact that just to put my head back on a pillow hurt something terrible. They gave me those petroleum soaked gauze pads at the end. Not only the skin, but quite a bit of the bottom part of my lower back scalp seemed to come off.

Anyway, that all healed up. It took well over a month past treatment to heal up, but they at least gave it two good months because the neck dissection couldn't be done until the skin healed up.

I don't remember it peeling like a sunburn, but I think it just sloughed off every time I got in the shower. It was during this period that I began to appreciate the shower, because the water and soap felt good on the neck and at least I could get the crusty ooze off me.

Seems scary, but boy, I think there's lots of scary stuff on this journey anyway. Even though I'm done for now, I'm hoping there's no more "scary" ahead.

Jen