ahillig

I had my psych eval yesterday and it all went really well. We spent the first half of the appointment just talking and then I did three standardized psych tests, the first two were just anxiety/depression screenings which he saw no concerns with and the third one was 175 true/false questions. FWIW, I feel bad for anyone with severe paranoia that has to take that test, holy moly it was making me paranoid! Anyways, I took it on paper but he said normally they do it via computer and the program wasn't working right but at a glance he said that I am super organized, a perfectionist with perhaps a touch of OCD, and that I was a repressor. When he asked how I handle emotions I told him I walk away and do something else so that last test just confirmed it.

He also just wanted to hear my why for wanting surgery and what has or hasn't worked in the past. I was 100% honest with him on everything he asked and it went well. He said he gives very few no's for surgery and gives out either yes with no recommendations or yes with recommendations. He said I would might benefit from therapy in the future to help with leaning on others and letting them see emotion but it could also just be who I am and that's ok too. He said that because I'm a paramedic and in the health care field that repression might be completely normal and not detrimental to me psychologically but some therapy might be beneficial to help me share other emotions. So it sounds like I'm getting the green light from his side and I might consider therapy this summer when my schedule frees up a bit. One thing he said about my perfectionism and organization its that it helps to make the surgery successful long term so he said that's a big positive.

So just be 100% honest if you're nervous about it. There are ways to still get approved. Just thought I'd share my story

My surgeons office referred me to someone they use for this purpose. Check with your surgeons office and see if they have someone they recommend.

I have BCBS federal and they say BMI of 40 with no comorbidities or a BMI of 35 with one or more comorbidities. I do have arthritis diagnosed in my knee so that counts but it's stories like this that make me weary of letting my BMI drop below 40, I'm sitting at 42 right now so I feel like I'm teetering. Hopefully you'll get it sorted out soon and get approved!

I saw my surgeon for my consult last month but April is the month everything gets going for me. I have my psych eval on Tuesday, have my first nutrition visit on the 8th, and then my EGD on the 11th. Having a month between the initial consult and then scheduling the appts to get me to the surgery date has given me time to really let it settle that this process is going.

The surgeons office had emailed me a bunch of paperwork to fill out ahead of time otherwise they wanted me to come in earlier to fill it out. My consultation was about an hour, we discussed past attempts at weight loss, current/previous health problems and surgeries, discussed mostly the sleeve & RNY because I'm against the band, went through a presentation that he gives with statistics and such, and then discussed what surgery I want and the path to getting there. It was a lot of information and being that I was uber prepared it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as it could've been. My surgeons only requirement is an EGD, the rest of the requirements come from my insurance company.

I made a list of questions that I wanted to ask and he answered all of them without my having to really ask them. The best thing you can do is research and educate yourself. Your surgeon or their office will do a lot of education as well but being prepared yourself is invaluable.

I have used Protein Shakes in the past for supplementation and I like the Unico brand, lots of flavors and meets typical guidelines for Protein shakes after surgery. The birthday cupcake flavor has a strong taste of artificial sugar but the chocolate Peanut Butter and the Cookies and cream are my favorite. They have 1g of sugar for all flavors, are Keto friendly, and all except one are gluten free. The best part is they have samples you can buy before committing to a huge tub of it. I have had them with Water, milk, ice, and blended and they're all good.

Muscle milk has some really good flavors as well which you can get just about anywhere. GNC is decent as far as taste but for the price I'd rather go with muscle milk, especially for the ready to drink.

I haven't had mine yet but I spoke with the psychologist that I will have my appointment with and it's an hour long with 3 questionnaires, one of them consisting of 175 true/false questions.

I have mine scheduled a couple weeks from now and I'm not going to lie, I'm nervous about it but I believe honesty is best with any provider. My childhood was pretty sucky but I've always been a glass half full type of person and am able to quickly move beyond a set back. I'm kind of thankful for a sucky childhood because it made me resilient and able to handle anything life threw at me. Just be honest and truthful, many of these psychologists and psychiatrists can see right through the lies, and if they give you standardized questionnaires there are built in "lie detectors" that can tell when you're trying to cheat the system.

You are better than an abusive relationship. No one deserves to be treated that way. Your kids are seeing how he treats you and that will become learned behavior. My ex-husband used to physically abuse me and now our 11 year old son's first instinct when he doesn't get his way is to hit, he was 2 when this was happening. My 15 year old daughter has PTSD as a result of what she witnessed back then and I left him almost 9 years ago. I was so relieved the day I ended things for good, the stress of the world was lifted from med. If you don't do it for you, do it for your kids.

Hey all! I'm new here but have been lurking for a bit.

I have my initial consultation next week but I'm curious to know what sort of pre-op things you had to do before the surgery whether required by insurance or your surgeon. My insurance requires a 3 mo physician supervised diet, 1 year of documented morbid obesity, psych eval (I'm a paramedic passing that will be a challenge 🤣), evidence past weight loss attempts were unsuccessful, and a visit with a nutritionist for pre-op/post-op diet counseling.

I have been seeing that people have been doing EGDs and swallow evals as pre-op requirements, if your surgeon required these what was the reasoning behind that? I have no stomach problems like GERD. Obviously, I plan to ask about that when I see him next week but for now I'm in the question gathering phase. I've also been trialing a full-liquid diet on my days off an it's surprisingly manageable, not as awful as I thought it would be.

Thanks for any insight!