bluejay26

So, my younger brother has had really bad acne for a few years now. After trying every option available to him, his doctors came to the conclusion that the only option he had left was to start taking Accutane. This Friday he will have been taking it for two weeks. Since he started taking it, his skin has become extremely dry and flaky. He's tried a number of moisturizers and all of them cause his face to burn so badly that he has to wash them off. So, what I'm asking is if anyone has any suggestions of a moisturizer he could use that won't cause his skin to burn? I've read a little bit about jojoba oil, but I can't find enough information about it online to know if it's the right thing for him to use, and some of the information on one site contradicts information found on another site, as is customary with the internet. So, if anyone has any advice or suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Thank you both for your help! I really appreciate it! I'll let my brother know and hopefully one of your suggestions will work for him!

Hey there! Glad to hear that you're doing so well! Congratulations on your weight loss so far! You're doing great! In order to get the ticker to show up every time you make a post, you have to go to your profile page, click on "Edit Profile", and on the left side there will be about 9 tabs to choose from. The 3rd one down will say "Change Signature." Click on that and then you can paste the information for your ticker in there and anything else you want it to say. Hope I was able to help! :]

Hey there! I see we both got banded today(or yesterday, technically). Thanks for adding me as your friend! When you're feeling up to it, let me know how you're doing! I've been having a pretty good amount of pain, mostly just from the gas and around my port I think. I have medication for it though, so it's manageable and getting up and walking really helps. I'm also having a little trouble sleeping, but that's nothing new for me! Lol. I fell asleep at around 7:30 PM and woke up around 11:30 PM. Hopefully I'll be able to catch a few more Z's. Like I said, let me know how you're doing when you feel up to it! I hope everything is going well for you! :]

Woo!! Good luck to you as well! I'm very happy for you! My thoughts will be with you on the day of our surgeries!

I'm scheduled for April 27th!

Thank you! I'm very excited! I see that you recently had your surgery; how did it go? How are you feeling?

My surgery is scheduled for April 27th, the day after my 19th birthday!

Hey guys! I've never had any kind of surgery before, so I really know nothing about the day of surgery. I just want to know if you have any piercings did you have to take them out when you went in for surgery? I have several piercings and a couple of them are pretty new and I'm worried about them closing up if they have to be taken out. Also, this may be a stupid question, but I was wondering if you were allowed to wear panties into surgery. I'm worried about those horrible hospital gowns with the opening in back! Haha.

Thank you all for responding! I guess I'll be looking for retainers for my piercings!

I am hoping and praying for January! Otherwise I won't be able to get it until the next time I have some time off from school in March! That's way too far away!

Hi Lulu! The LapBand website (www.lapband.com) is also a great resource for information on the LapBand procedure. I found my surgeon through their website. You can also find out the requirements for surgery and all that jazz. As far as price goes, there are a lot of factors that can affect the price of the surgery, including your health plan, the surgeon and hospital you choose, and whether you have an inpatient or outpatient procedure. There's also a lot of good information on the forum here and many people who are willing to help. If you have any questions, please get in touch with me, I'm happy to help you out. :]

Hey there! According to the LapBand website, you qualify for LapBand if you have a BMI of at least 40, OR you have a BMI of 35 with at least one obesity-related health condition, OR you are at least 100 pounds overweight. Also, I've been hearing on the news recently that they're trying to lower the BMI requirement so that people that are less overweight will qualify for surgery. I think the easiest way to figure out if you qualify for the surgery would be to set up an appointment with a physician; he or she will know what the requirements are. The first step that was required by my physician was to attend a LapBand seminar. I don't know if this is a requirement for everyone or if it was just my surgeon, but if there are seminars available to you, I definitely recommend that you attend one. I found the seminar to be very helpful and informative. Next, I set up the initial consultation with my surgeon. I met with his physician assistant first and then with him. Basically it was just to get to know each other a little bit, discuss the surgery, make sure I knew what I was getting into. Then there are the things that are required by the insurance company, which varies from company to company, as I understand it. For my insurance company(Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey) there is a 6 month diet you have to do before they will approve you for the surgery. I'm on month 5 right now, but we're going to send in my paperwork early because my surgeon heard they were approving some people earlier than 6 months. I also had to get a letter from my primary doctor saying that it would be good for me to get the surgery, I've been overweight for X amount of time, blah blah blah. Last week I had my psychological evaluation, which I was so freaked out about, but it was a piece of cake. Next week I'm meeting with a nutritionist to discuss the things that I'm eating now, the things I should be eating, the things I can and can't eat after surgery, etc. After I've done that we'll send my paperwork to BCBS and pray that they approve me quickly. Haha. I think that, generally, those are the steps that need to be taken. I hope I haven't left anything out. Good luck on your journey! If you have any other questions or you just want a friend to talk to, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me! :]

Hey! I just wanted to thank all of you for replying. Your responses made me feel a lot better and a lot more comfortable. As it turns out, I was all freaked out over nothing. All I had to do was fill out a few surveys, which took about 25 minutes, and then I spoke to the psychologist for about 10 minutes. He told me my doctor would have his letter the next morning! In two weeks I'm meeting with the nutritionist and once I have the letter from her we can send all of the paperwork to the insurance company. Hopefully it won't take too long for them to approve me and I can get on with this already! Haha.

So, I have my psychological evaluation tomorrow and I'm starting to freak out a little bit. I've only spoken to a psychologist once in my life and I had a pretty bad experience with him. I'm just curious to know what kinds of questions you guys were asked/what kinds of questions I should expect?