my 1st visit at Dr. Bitter's office

[Guest guest]

hi all, its me again the one who was so desperate during my last

major flare-up. i finally visited Dr. bitter's office in los gatos

today. i made a mistake and misjudged the traffic, there was none! it

was only a 30 minute drive to los gatos and i arrived an hour and a

half early!!!! ooops:-) saw a female dr. (dr. kate i think her name

was....i'm bad with names). anyway, they were very, very nice. she

agreed that i had rosacea, but not a typical run-of-the-mill rosacea.

she said as she saw it, it was moderate to severe rosacea with

unusually extreme pain sensations.

she pointed out one other case story she had that was very similar to

mine. a younger woman who had rosacea similar to mine, but also with

pain so bad she could not take care of her 2 children. this sounds

just like me (although i don't have kids) in that i was seriously

disabled by the pain. only vicodin helped me.

therefore she said with me (unfortunately) that she would not be

quick to say that the photofacial treatments would offer me a 80-90%

cure as is usually said in most rosacea cases. although she did say

the pain was helped in this woman and there was hope for me.

she asked my triggers, as i was starting to blush in her office

because it was heated. heat is definately one trigger, so is spicy

foods, but the biggest culprit is hormonal...something i can not

avoid (which is why i'm going to look into a hysterectomy).

she asked that i stop the doxycycline as it is contridicted in

photofacial treatments and get my HMO to give me the more expensive

minocycline instead. she also looked up the drug Aldactone as i take

that drug to help facial hair and acne caused by an extremely high

level of androgens (my androgen levels are 3x normal...i have PCOS),

but could find no problem with it. she said continue with my

metrocream and cetaphil cream (only mosturizer that helps me and she

said the best i could use).

she is also taking the time to find out if there is any contridiction

with my neuromuscular disease (similar to Parkinson's Disease) and

the scoliosis i have, but she says there is probably no problem there.

so, she is going to start off my photofacials in a few weeks, but she

says because of my unusual case of very bad pain she wants Dr. Bitter

to perform the last 2 series of treatments. she said in the beggining

the pulse is very low and she is very capable of treating me, but the

more aggressive treatments she wants to be done by Dr. Bitter because

of my pain.

so that's about it. i was impressed by how nice they were. i was not

rushed in and out and treated very well. they will even help transfer

me out of my wheelchair if i need it during my treatments. so far so

good. she is going to run my case by dr. bitter tomorrow and then

call me at home. i like her alot:-)

i guess i'll keep everyone posted. i am very anxious and am praying

this works for me and gets rid of the pain. i want to throw out all

my vicodin pills :-)

any questions i'll do my best to help share my experience as i go

through this. BTW, the cost was $2300 (ouch).

Angie