Clean and Clear

I went to the dermatologist today. I finally found a GREAT guy. Awesome, awesome, awesome guy. The doctor I went to last year… where she was nice, her priorities and mine were not in the same order.

For instance, I have what I call Karate feet. For 3 years I trained Karate, just recently quitting when our dojo closed, and my feet are heavily calloused. It does not bother me in the least. I go to see her about some SERIOUS issues and she kept focusing on my feet and how I need to moisturize them. Please. I looked at her and said, “They’re FEET. They are functional tools. I’m doing nothing to them.” End of story.

Did she catch the fact I have rosacea? No. And to those who know this skin disorder, it is obvious. She should have frickin’ caught it. (No, I do not have a red bulbous nose! I just have no real need for blush.)

So flash forward to today. New GREAT and Awesome dermatologist walks in, shakes my hand and says, “So, tell me, how long have you had rosacea?” and my reply was, “I don’t know, but I was diagnosed with it by my MOM in July.”

That’s right. My frickin’ MOM diagnosed me with it this past summer and gave me some of her extra gel for it until I got in with a doctor to get my own. Did I say my Mom isn’t a doctor? She isn’t. So why is it that she catches it as soon as I walk in the door to visit last year and my then dermatologist has me in her office no less than 3 times in 2 weeks and she NEVER catches it?

But, it’s officially diagnosed now and he gave me good stuff to clear it up. My skin should be clear and pink within the next few weeks and I’m very excited. I kept saying, “Now, you’re sure that this skin problem I have is NOT a factor of age… that I’m 39, about to turn 40 and it’s not some hormonal issue I have to deal with like being 16?” and he said, ‘NO, I assure you, all of this (he ran his hands over my face) is rosacea. All of it.”

Thank heavens for my Mom… who is the one who figured it out first… and pushed me to see someone else.

And the other positive thing is he carried on about how great my skin is (other than my face)… no visible skin damage yet, considering I spent my entire growing up years in the tropics… Hawaii, Taipei, Taiwan, California, Florida… courtesy of the United States Navy, and with that came a lot of serious ‘sun time’. I tan, unlike a lot of those of Celtic heritage, and this is in part due to the fact my Mom has some French and German thrown in. (I'm brown haired, blue eyed, white skinned... but I tan.) So we can withstand some sun… we don’t readily burn as, for instance, The Great Omnipotent One who is 100% Scottish with a wee bit of Irish heritage.

It appears I got blessed with her good skin genes. My Mom looks great. A couple years ago, I was in the car with my husband and we were talking about someone I thought looked rather old and my husband said this person was my Mom’s age. I said, “NO.WAY. She doesn’t look anywhere like my Mom. My Mom doesn’t look anything like that!” to which my husband in turn said, “Babe, don’t ever use YOUR Mom as a yard stick to measuring others. That’s not fair to everyone else. Your Mom looks frickin’ awesome.”

So good news all around. The damage I did to my skin isn’t appearing yet and my face should be clearing up. We’ll check again next year…