Guest guest Posted June 18, 2002 Report Share Posted June 18, 2002 Thanx for the info Marjorie. I did review your comments last week re. antibiotics. What concerns me most is that you identified my course as untraditional. May I ask in what way? My derm. is sympathetic and rosacea friendly and I am fairly well informed, but sometimes one forgets to ask pertinent questions especially when out of one's speciality. I'm guessing that the four week run is short, but how is the dosage, 500 mg twice a day, untraditional? She, the derm., seemed to suggest that such a pattern would be how I would progress with managing the disease, ie, 4 week courses of antibiotics when my rosacea flared. I have a degree in physics, but understanding and managing this disease is more complicated than anything I can imagine. thanks for your help, Deryk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 19, 2002 Report Share Posted June 19, 2002 Oh, Deryk, I didn't mean to raise your concerns at all. I'm glad you posted, so I can better articulate what I meant. Practicing medicine really is as much an art as a science. Your physician's prescribing schedule may be part of her magic in caring for rosacea, based on years/decades of experience. Traditionally tetracycline is prescribed 250 mg every 6 hours; there's nothing wrong with 500 mg every 12 hours -- it's the same 1 gram dose, and it's certainly easier to remember to take twice instead of four times a day. (As a physics major, you may enjoy imagining the difference in blood level between a drug given every 6 hours, or twice the dose given half as often. There are different pharmacokinetics, and I can only guess whether for rosacea they are important or irrelevent). A four week course is short, but she probably wants to reassess you after those four weeks, and depending upon your progress or lack thereof, will treat you further. It may be all you need is 4 weeks, or maybe you'll need more time, or a different antibiotic or a different strength. It sounds like you trust her. I've not heard anything to suggest you do anything other than relax and let her care for your skin, let her work her magic, and see what happens over the next few months. I always ask to forget pertinent questions too. I'm not shy about calling the office and leave the question and a request for the doctor or the staff to call me back with the answer. If the questions are not urgent I write them in my Visor to remind myself to ask at the next visit. As a physician, I always like it when a patient asks questions, at the time or when they call back. Dare to dream about the patient who actually pulls out his/her Visor and fields me their questions! <g> Marjorie Marjorie Lazoff, MD > > Thanx for the info Marjorie. I did review your comments last week re. > antibiotics. What concerns me most is that you identified my course > as untraditional. May I ask in what way? My derm. is sympathetic and > rosacea friendly and I am fairly well informed, but sometimes one > forgets to ask pertinent questions especially when out of one's > speciality. I'm guessing that the four week run is short, but how is > the dosage, 500 mg twice a day, untraditional? She, the derm., seemed > to suggest that such a pattern would be how I would progress with > managing the disease, ie, 4 week courses of antibiotics when my > rosacea flared. I have a degree in physics, but understanding and > managing this disease is more complicated than anything I can imagine. > > thanks for your help, > Deryk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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