Grace 26, Nothing seemed to work before I went to DermView, It is a massive weight off my shoulders. I had all the treatment I needed completed within six weeks.
Grace (26) County Kildare.
I didn’t suffer from acne when I was a teenager, but it started to become an issue in 2019 and since then I haven’t been able to resolve it. I tried everything under the sun to try and get rid of it and spent so much money in the process. I put a lot of effort into eating the right food and paying a fortune for various different creams without any success.
Wearing a mask covered the acne, but I felt this irritated it. It was torture. Working as a hairdresser in the beauty industry you can’t hide your face, which is the first thing people see. It looked as if my face was dirty or I wasn’t eating properly even though I was drinking a lot of water and not eating gluten to try and resolve it. It was a major issue for a long time.
“Nothing seemed to work. Then I went on antibiotics for three months twice on two different occasions but still this didn’t work. It was soul-destroying for me trying to sort it out.
Two months after I had tried a second type of antibiotics, I went in to my GP in early September and asked her to give me a letter for a public consultant dermatologist.
After a few weeks, I thought this was stupid. I work in Naas a short distance away from the DermView clinic. I decided I should go to a consultant dermatologist in DermView and finally get an answer. I could have waited up to five years as a public patient.
I had mentioned my issue to a few girls that I work with and they felt DermView had a clinic in Naas. After going on the internet, I did my research and found DermView provided a dermatology clinic in the town.
My GP had referred me for an appointment with DermView. About ten days later, I was in work and I looked at the appointments they had available and I booked myself in to the clinic.
I was able to work it for a day I was on a break for lunch and could pop over to the clinic. It worked out fabulously from a work point of view.
I was never inside the clinic previously but I felt very comfortable once I went in. I was wearing a mask and all the staff wore masks. All the Covid-19 precautions such as hand sanitiser were in place. The waiting room was great because there wasn’t anyone else around. The nurse explained what she was going to do during the consultation. She took photographs and applied sanitiser every time she touched something. I felt really at ease.
She took photographs with what looked like special lenses to get a closer look of my spots. I got the photographs, which were really high quality. The nurse informed me all my photographs and medical information would be sent to a team of dermatologists for a review and they would inform me of the next course of action.
Three weeks after my initial appointment, I got an email from DermView about my scans. The consultant was able to diagnose my acne as Acne Vulgaris. He told me he wanted to prescribe a drug called Roaccutane. It is quite a harsh drug so I had to go in and see the consultant in person in St James’ Hospital. The consultant had a lengthy thorough discussion with me about the possible side effects and examined my face.
He was very informative and gave me the time to think of and ask any questions I had. Roaccutane completely stops the oil production in your body head to toe. Your skin becomes very sensitive to light, you can get nose bleeds if you don’t look after yourself, your eyes can get itchy among other things.
Dr Barry warned me not to get pregnant while I am taking this medication. I have to take a pregnancy test and show it to Dr Barry or a nurse with a negative result before I get my month’s prescription.
It is huge for me to finally have a name for my acne because I was treating it for fungal and other different forms of acne. I was trying different creams but none of them worked.
If I had known about DermView sooner, it would have saved me 18 months of heartache and I would have gone to their clinic straight away. It is a massive weight off my shoulders.
I felt DermView’s service was very professional. The staff are brilliant, my care was amazing and I am really happy with the outcome.
I had all the treatment I needed completed within six weeks.