Vitalogy Skincare - San Marcos

First time visiting a dematologist. Reason I was there was that I have a small opening on side of face (probably from popping a pimple a few months ago) and because of the location, it doesn’t seem to heal. Visiting with the doctor at the San Marics location, I explained the situation and of course you get asked the typical questions: “Does your family have a history of melanoma? Where do you work (inside or outside etc.) At the end of the day the takeaway from the visit was: The doctor failed to give me options on my facial opening, (out a band aid on it all the time, here’s a prescription to improve healing, or come back in 3 or 6 months and if it not healed, we can look at surgical options.Instead the doctor focused on looking at my face and then saying “we can test the problem area for melanoma and by the way you have other marks on your face the we recommend being tested.” Removal of the samples is done by spraying nitrogen to freeze the skin and remove the needed samples. I consented and it happened. They said results would be in within 2 weeks. My issue is that the doctor and the team were so focused on think everything they didn’t look right on my face was a potential melanoma risk and that had to be verified. Fine, they are the medical experts, they see patients with melanoma risks and confirmations all the time, but for goodness sakes, couldn’t then have given me options for my initial issue beyond taking a sample to test for cancer? Then on the way out, if I wanted a follow up doctor visit it would not happen (unless there are cancellations) until February. My overall impression of this location is they play defensive medicine that focuses on making sure they are not sued for not finding cancer. I get the feeling that finding cancer is their jackpot. That means continual patient visits to bill insurance companies and patient co-pays. It certainly seem to keep the place very busy. Why else would one have to wait till February (my visit was on July 20th) for a Schedule visit. Let’s see what happens with my test results. I suspect they may be disappointed if they come our negative. Overall they seem to know what they are doing, everything thing seems to be about melanoma risk and they failed to give me options (outside of testing for melanoma) about my issue that led to the visit.

Dr. Sayed is amazing and honest and very good at her job! I highly recommend her and this entire practice. The staff is so friendly and pleasant and such a refreshing breath of fresh air.

Dr. Sayed is very good. She seems to be extremely thorough and has caught several skin cancers on me that I didn't even know were there. She is straight to the point she doesn't talk a lot. there is definitely is no room for chit chat. But I really like her , i've been seeing her for years.

As a nurse I can tell you, and also as a patient, that Dr. Sayed is a rare find, being a compassionate, and a Dr. that pays attention to details. She will go the extra mile to address your problem. Even down to the orders for medications, she is very specific on how to use them. I am so glad she is my Dr. and trust her fully for my care.

I found this group to be extremely polite, patient kind, helpful, and good at their work, however I would have been in trouble when at home hrs later the feeling in my face starting to come back, because they don't prescribe pain meds because it's non-invasive in their opinion. I beg to differ, when 3/4 of my face is sliced open, for 24 hrs I'll be looking for drug dealers. Tylenol and Ibupro isn't strong enough. I had some left from dental, or you'd have seen me on the 10 oclock news causing problems. I'll use them again anyway.