Monthly Archives: April 2018

Stop The Spot

I am always amazed by the amount of wisdom Dr. Sandy shares with me. This weekend was the Arkansas Dermatology Society meeting. It was a perfect meeting. The speakers were amazing. I don’t know if it was because I could drive around Little Rock without seeing a single political sign(yes, when in Sebastian County I do count signs and stress about their placement and usefulness) or the amazing company that has me on a natural high. I drove home from Little Rock analyzing the meeting and reviewing in my head what I learned. Dr. Sandy then reminded me that my favorite part was the team building. The team of providers at JD really are amazing. Honey is a psoriasis expert that regularly teaches me about biologics and how to be a better person and provider. She is better than me and that’s what makes her so great to work with. Dr. Sandy, Dr. Brad and Dr.Nelson are all board certified dermatologists who help teach, work with me and make me better everyday. They care about their patients but they also care about mine, even the ones they have never met. They collaborate with me and hold me accountable to perform at the highest standards for my patients. And all these blogs from Dr. Sandy are free knowledge for you. Free advice from a board certified dermatologist right here on the skinny on skin. Knowledge is priceless so I would continue reading if I were you. From Dr. Sandy:

Stop the spot was the marketing campaign for our American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) a few years ago. This campaign was to help educate people to perform monthly self exams and have yearly full body skin exams by your dermatologist so that you can stop the spot or catch a skin cancer early while it is still easy to treat.

Most people however when they come to see us and want us to stop the spot, they are not referring to cancerous spots but are referring to brown spots. These spots are usually diagnosed as either lentigos or seborrheic keratosis. I have heard them called liver spots, age spots, wisdom spots, and many other untoward names. Whatever you call them, people want them GONE!

I thought now was the time to write a blog about stopping these spots because there is now a new product available called Eskata. It is a stick containing 40% hydrogen peroxide solution that is applied by us in the office to about 7-10 spots and costs $300. As with most treatments, more than one treatment may be needed.

We want you to know however that we have been stopping the spots at JD for a long time with at home and in office treatments. At home, we advise daily retinol, lytera and sun protection including TD&R. You can apply mentholatum (Vick’s vaporub) to the spots at home. In the office, we offer treatments aimed at treating spots with either acid, liquid nitrogen or laser. We only charge $10 per spot with a $75 minimum charge, again more than one treatment may be needed. We also offer treatments aimed at treating an area with a bunch of spots; these include chemical peels, lasers and intense pulsed light with radiofrequency. The cost for these treatments varies depending on how large of an area is treated. There is often some down time when treating these spots. These spots cannot be treated if you have any tan or recent sun exposure. Treatment is very rewarding but we need to be persistent since we continue to make more spots in the same area and other areas as we mature. Genetics play a role and since we did not pick our parents, we cannot control this. Sun exposure also plays a role so this is another good reason to be sun smart.

Anyways, make sure you keep an eye on your spots. Always have your spots checked by a Dermatologist before having them treated. Email kyana@johnsondermatology.com to make an appointment to see one of our providers: Dr Brad (at walk in clinic on Thursdays), Dr Nelson, Honey, Nina or myself. We can check your spots and discuss the best way to stop the spot. Stay skintastic.

Have a skintastic day, S

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Thanks Dr. Sandy

Thanks Nina for letting me write a 2 part blog.  I hope you and your loyal blog readers have not been too stressed waiting for part 2.  Well wait no longer.

We already discussed the SNL skit about if you look mahhhvelous then you will feel mahhhvelous OR if you feel mahhhvelous then you will look mahhhvelous.   A music video clip that makes me giggle is https://youtu.be/hXydX9p_ZxA  I hope each of you both looks maahhvelous and feels maahhvelous.  If you don’t look or feel maahvelous, we again encourage you to come visit us.  Until you are able to have the JD experience, here is part 2 of the blog.  The whole purpose of the blog is to remind all of us to “fake it until you make it”, “put on your big girl panties and get to work”, “suck it up”, “there’s no crying in baseball (or Dermatology or ???)”, etc so that we can approach each day looking maahhhvelous and feeling maahhhvelous.

The impetus to write these blogs is that one of my close friends is going through a very difficult time now.  She is constantly on my mind.  Maybe you are personally or you also have a good friend who is also personally going through a tough time.  Please know that you are not alone.  Your village is here for you.  When I am personally struggling, these are some of the thoughts that have helped me get through them while looking and feeling maahvelous.  These are some of the things that I keep reminding her…
1.  Eat well, stay hydrated, get enough sleep, exercise, pray…be ready to battle.
2.  Life is more like a marathon than a sprint.  Be ready to go the distance.
3.  That person/situation is not paying rent to live in your head so evict them.
4.  Stephen Covey has taught us to make our circle of influence (control what we can) larger and our circle of concern (what we cannot control, what we fret) smaller.  This is similar to the Serenity prayer, you know…God grant me the courage to change the things I can…..
5.  Fix your hair and makeup.  Look good.  The world doesn’t need to know how you feel.  After all, if you look mahhhvelous, you will start to feel mahhhvelous.  Fake it until you make it.
6.  Surround yourself with beauty.  Start with yourself.   Focus on the good things in life.  Count your blessings.  Look your best.  Hang out with beautiful (inside beauty is more important here) people who support you and remind you how beautiful (inside and outside) you are.
7.  Pay it forward.  There is always someone better off than you are.  There is also always someone suffering or worse off than you are.  Help someone who is suffering.  Smile at a stranger.  Volunteer.  Practice the corporal works of mercy…feed the hungry, visit the sick, etc.

In summary, there will be joy and pain in life.  There will be good times and not so good times.  All of this will pass.  Remember, we are all in this world together.  Let us help make the world a little bit better for each other.  Here is to hoping you both feel mahhhvelous and look mahhhvelous.  If there is anything we at JD can do to help you feel mahhhvelous or look more mahhhvelous, we are only a visit, blog, post, etc away.

Stay skintastic aka mahhhvelous!
Have a skintastic day, S

Our Mission

By the time my husbands election is over I fear my kids will call the baby sitter Mom and y’all will call my blog Dr. Sandy’s blog. But hey, if that’s the only fear I’m dealing with life is GREAT! I thank my baby sitter and all the women at Jack and Jill (the preschool my 3 and 5 year old go to) as often as possible letting them know I appreciate their help in raising our children! If I didn’t have such amazing people to leave my children with I may not ever be able to leave them. Likewise, I worry none when Dr. Sandy writes a blog for me. She is my mentor in Dermatology and has taught me more about leadership than I’ve ever dreamed of knowing. Everything is better with a team. One brain is never as good as two. What makes Johnson Dermatology great is the team. We have the best team. Team work makes the dream work. When I was a birthday coordinator at Chuck E. Cheese all the T.E.A.M leaders knew that was an acronym for teaching everyone about making magic. Today Dr. Sandy talks about how our team at JD makes magic.

When I was a child, it was a luxury to stay up late on Saturday nights and watch SNL with my dad. One of his favorite skits was “you look mahhhhhvelous”. Billy Crystal even made a music video because it was such a hit. A link to the video is https://youtu.be/hXydX9p_ZxA There would be some debate whether it is better to look great or feel great. The consensus would usually be that if you look good then you feel good AND if you feel good then you look good. (Classic chicken and egg Story) This skit and it’s deeper meaning ( I can’t believe I am looking for deeper meaning from SNL.) really resonated with me. I feel that my calling in life is to help people feel and look marvelous/skintastic. I am honored to live out this calling with 50 other skintastic people at JD. When you come to JD, we want you to leave even more marvelous/skintastic. We accomplish this best when we are at the top of our game and following our vision to provide the most effective, efficient, empathic and empowering care. I will summarize our 4 E’s vision in this blog. There will be a part 2 blog coming soon explaining why I have been thinking about Billy Crystal, SNL, parodies, and the importance of looking mahhvelous to help you feel mahhvelous.

Effective— we only offer treatments and recommendations that are effective and that have good scientific evidence. We enjoy feel good treatments as much as anyone but we have decided to focus only on results oriented treatments and products to help you look marvelous. We are your partner in skin care….in sickness and in health….through better and through worse. We are here to help you look skintastic.

Efficient— your time and money is valuable. We try to see people within 20 minutes of their appointment time. We try to offer products with good science and ingredients that give the best results. We offer colored cosmetics that help you look good and do not cause any issues. We respect your time and money. We want to be your skin partner in life. We offer loyalty rewards with our Elite Skinvestment club, BD, and aspire programs. We offer cost effective treatments. We are well trained. A syringe of filler in Nina or my hands will usually give much better results than a syringe by a less experienced injector. Dr Brad and Dr Nelson performed more than 2000 skin cancer surgeries last year. We have experience in all areas of skin and skin care…medical, pediatric, cosmetic, surgical, pathological, lasers, skin care, etc to help you feel skintastic.

Empathic—we care about you. We appreciate that you chose to partner with JD to look and feel skintastic. We want your inner beauty to shine through. We all have heard that beauty is skin deep but ugly goes all the way to the core. We want you to have a great experience. We want you to feel valued and appreciated so that we can help your inner beauty shine even more than your outer beauty. We try to pay it forward. We smile. We want you to know that you are important, valued and appreciated. We want you to feel cared for by the JD team.

Empowering— we want you to know that you can accomplish whatever you want, including conquering the world if that is your desire. We want you to both look marvelous and feel marvelous because of your experience at JD. We want you to love the results from the treatments performed in the clinic. We want you to feel empowered every morning and every night when you put on your skin care. We want to help you know that you are great, skintastic and marvelous. We are your partner in skin care. We are on the same TEAM. With a TEAM, Together Everyone Achieves More! Here’s to hoping you feel and look mahhhvelous!

Here’s to hoping you both look mahhvelous and feel maahvelous. If there is anything we can do to help you look and feel maahhvelous with our effective, efficient, empathic and empowering care please email margaret@johnsondermatology.com (Nina’s skin care coordinator i.e. your maahhvelous skin care concierge). I encourage you to check out some of our videos and posts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and our video. Be on the look out for Part 2 of being maahhhvelous/skintastic. Stay skintastic friends. From Dr Sandy