They Can Fix My Face!

Last week, before I went back to work, I went to a new place in Albertville called Refine Dermatique. It's one of those medi-spas that is run by a licensed dermatologist from St. Cloud. The guy works full time in a medical practice up there and then works a few evenings at the medi-spa doing other types of treatments. Anyway, I've driven by this place a million times and thought about going in...but never did. Finally I made an appointment for a free evaluation. While I was there they took detailed images of my face to analyze. Normally they would provide recommendations on the types of treatments that would benefit the client the most as they reviewed the slides, however the technician wanted to show my images to the dermatologist before going any further. As most of you know, I have rosacea and over the last couple of years it has gotten significantly worse. I'm not sure if it was the pregnancies, or.....? All I know is that I now have a splotchy, red crater face and it's gotten to the point where I am really embarrassed by it. For awhile I tried to cover it up with heavy foundation, but that seemed to be making things worse and eventually became noticeable that I was attempting to hide it. In the end, I stopped putting the extra effort into it altogether, but I can't stand the fact that my skin has gotten this bad. I am very self-conscious about it! I also have excessive facial sweating. I know...sounds bizarre, right? It is. I can just be sitting here...doing nothing...not moving...and my upper lip will be lined with beads of sweat! You have no idea how many people have commented on it! I don't sweat anywhere else on my body (at least not much)...just my face! I also don't understand why I'm sweating if I'm not working out or expending a lot of energy? So...back to my point... The dermatologist reviewed my images and the problems that I discussed with the technician and he now wants to see me at his St. Cloud office to see what we can do from a medical standpoint first. Due to the severity of my issues, chemical peels and laser treatments apparently aren't a good way to start. Luckily my insurance will allow me to make this appointment and simply pay the copay to be evaluated. The unlucky part is that with me being on leave for so long and not getting paid, I may need to wait a little bit on the actual treatments until we can afford them. My goal for now is to get in touch with someone who can actually HELP ME and identify a plan going forward. Then, when I'm ready financially, I can give them a call and get started! At least then the legwork will be done up front! Another thing I plan to do is to call Blue Cross to see what types of dermatological services they DO cover. It's not as if I'm trying to look 10 years younger or reconstruct my face to look like Angelina Jolie (can we say Nadya Suleman?)...I just want to be able to walk out of my house with a reasonable amount of makeup on and not feel like everyone is staring at my problem areas. I also don't want to sweat it off! Yuck!!