Vital Signs Volume 11, Issue 1 | Page 4

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