WHAT DOES THE FOLLOW-UP TREATMENT
LOOK LIKE FOR MELANOMA RECOVERY?
If you’ve had melanoma and had surgery to remove
it, you have to come see us every three months for a
year, then every six months for five years, then we let
you go down to once a year if you like. Some people
are still pretty nervous about it and want to come every
six months. I sure let them, because I don’t want them
to have that anxiety.
YOU MENTIONED SOME OTHER SKIN
AILMENTS YOU SEE FREQUENTLY, COULD
YOU LEAD ME THROUGH THOSE? HOW DOES
YOUR OFFICE TREAT ACNE FOR INSTANCE?
We use lots of different treatments actually. Every dermatologist has their own way of treating acne and some
treatments work for some patients and some don’t. Every
case is different.
Acne is my favorite thing to treat, because people who
don’t have it don’t realize how much acne impacts
people who do. I see teenagers who don’t want to go
out of the house. They don’t want to get a job. They
don’t want to date. They have real depression over this.
For me, it’s really fun to treat because everyone is unique,
and different treatments work for different people. The
thing that’s exciting for me is to see someone who has
been to three other doctors and nothing’s worked, but
we’re able to work it out and find the perfect treatment.
They’re so happy. They look better. They feel better. It’s
so fun!
HOW DOES YOUR OFFICE TREAT WARTS?
Well, we like to start out with the simple things. If you
come in and only have one wart on your finger, we
freeze it and try to make it go away. The challenging
patients are those who have lots of warts. Or, they’ve
been to three different doctors and nothing is making
the warts go away. Then we can do a lot of things
with immunotherapy, getting the immune system to try
and remove the wart virus. We then combine that with
freezing or acid to remove them initially.
The immune system is the big black box for all this. How
does each individual respond to treatment? So we’re
just trying to do the best we can to make the patients
better and not worse. Even if we don’t cure everyone,
4
we can educate our patients and give everyone some
hope and comfort.
BECAUSE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF ONE’S
SELF-IMAGE, IT SEEMS LIKE SUCCESSFUL
DERMATOLOGY TREATMENTS CAN HAVE A
MAJOR IMPACT ON A PATIENT’S MENTAL
HEALTH. HAVE YOU SEEN THAT IN
YOUR OFFICE?
People are aware of what they can see on themselves.
They may have high blood pressure or diabetes and not
have any idea. But, if they see something on their hand
getting bigger every day and they know they’ve had a
lot of sunburns, they’re going to come right in. Or, if this
16-year-old comes in with acne and scarring on her face,
you can really change her life. It is so satisfying to see
them leave happier.
WHAT SHOULD THE GENERAL PUBLIC KNOW
ABOUT PSORIASIS?
Psoriasis is typically seen as red raised areas which
have really thick scales. Any area on the body can be
affected. I saw a man yesterday who was covered
from top to bottom. It’s such a discouraging disease
for some people, but there are a lot of new treatments
that are life changing. If people have psoriasis or they
have friends who do and were discouraged from past
treatments, they should really check back with their
dermatologist because there are so many new ways to
fight the disease.
COULD YOU EXPLAIN WHAT THE SYMPTOMS
OF ECZEMA ARE?
Eczema is kind of a general term, but the most frequent
type is genetic and is called atopic dermatitis. With eczema, your skin barrier isn’t as developed as a normal
person’s, so you’re more likely to develop rashes. A lot
of times, babies may have it and their sleep is affected
which touches everyone in the house too. Eczema is
a lifelong condition so you have to educate people on
how to take care of their skin so they don’t have any
more problems. Some flare ups are inevitable where they
get redness, rash and itching, but a lot of it has to do
with how you take care of your skin on a daily basis.
Don’t over wash, make sure to moisturize properly, avoid
irritants, things like that.
VITAL SIGNS Volume 11 • Issue 1