As a nurse practitioner in a dermatology practice for more than five years, the range of questions and concerns my patients brought to me about their skin was incredible. Sometimes, the questions were simple and easy – do I need to wear sunscreen all of the time? What’s the difference between waxing and lasering? What makeup should I wear?
Sometimes, the questions were hard and serious – should I be worried about this mole? Why do I have acne? Why is my skin always dry and cracking?
Sometimes, the questions were funny – at least to me – is this contagious? How did that get there? Oh no, what did I do last night?
Outside of the office, my friends and family routinely brought the same sorts of questions my way. It really seems that our skin – our largest, most visible organ – is a mystery to almost everyone.
Now that I have left patient care for a life not defined by appointments every 15 minutes, and double-bookings every hour, I have found that the questions have not stopped – whether at home with my husband and son, at the pool with my girlfriends, or at the park with the other mothers and fathers in our neighborhood.
My goal in SkinTranslations is to take complicated dermatology information and break it down into a useful and practical form. I will try to stick to topics that seemed to come up almost every day in my clinical experience, as well as in my personal life. I also will stay up on skin-related news and products, sort through it as best as I can, and provide opinions, summaries, and thoughts.
Of course, I will not be providing medical advice, diagnoses, or treatments, and you should not mistake anything I write as taking the place of the advice of your dermatologist. To the extent I get into scientific or medical topics, I will always provide you with links to the applicable resources, so that you can investigate more on your own.
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