My surgeon requires that his patients have a psyche evaluation before having the lap band procedure.

Okay, so I took the tests the psychiatrist told me to take. You know the kind……you use a Number 2 Pencil and fill in the bubbles. Two different personality tests, et al. I called his office last week and left a voicemail, asking him to please fax the results to my surgeon. He calls me back and tells me that he wants to discuss a few things with me.

Uh oh. Hmmm. Okay.

So I go into his office yesterday to discuss the results. He’s ‘troubled’ by some of my answers, and thinks I need to see him once a week for three months to work on some of my ‘issues’. This guy thinks I’m certifiable, and is going to tell my surgeon that I shouldn’t have the lap band procedure at this time.

What the Hell?

I guess that’s what I get for being completely honest in my answers. He went over those answers with me, and I gave him my explanations for giving those answers. Each time I gave him an explanation, he gave me the once-over and mumbled, “Uh HUH.” And then scribbled something on his note pad.

Sanctimonious, judgmental sonofabi-otch.

Here’s your explanations, buddy. The REASON I have nightmares each night is because I’m wearing a freakin’ nicotine patch. The nicotine patch is notorious for causing nightmares. My surgeon told me I hafta quit smoking, so I haven’t had a cigarette in 33 days now. The nicotine patch helps takes some of the edginess away.

The REASON I am anxious and edgy is because I haven’t had a cigarette in 33 days, after having smoked for over 20 years.

The REASON I experience "sweating for no reason" is because I am menopausal. They are called NIGHT SWEATS and HOT FLASHES, you moron.

The REASON I feel pain in the back of my neck is because I have a C5/C6 vertebrae problem. What the Hell else did YOU think it was?

The REASON I have a ringing in my right ear is because I had an inner ear infection with I took the freakin' test. It's not because "I hear things" or "I see dead people" type of situation. Get yer mind out of your ass.

The REASON I said that people talk about me is because, uh, HELLO, they DO. I walked in from the plant the other day at work to find my boss and a co-worker saying something about my pretty, red sweater. So, I answered your question honestly, you dolt. It's not because I'm paranoid or anything. My answer wasn't a NEGATIVE connotation. And I joined into that conversation with my peers about my sweater. What the Hell were YOU thinking???

The REASON I have dizzy spells is because of the aforementioned inner ear infection, causing a little vertigo. Why the Hell do you feel the need to read things into my HONEST answers?

The REASON I’m a little depressed at this time of year is because I don’t get to see my family. Holy Crap. ANYONE would be a tad depressed because of missing family members at the holidays. Add to the equation that people trying to quit smoking experience depression and, voila, you have a patient, such as I, stating: “Yes, I experience depression.”

Stupid freakin’ “read everything negative you can about this woman and her answers” doctor (and I use the term ‘doctor’ loosely).

The REASON I nibble on food – even when I’m not hungry – is because I’m trying to find a substitute for sticking a damn cigarette into my mouth. You call it bingeing. I call it finding a substitute for a cigarette. It’s not bingeing, you idiot. Why the Hell do you think I want this surgery? People who nibble all night long after dinner NEED to be banded so that overeating will become physically impossible.

So, this unprepossessing fool holds the keys, as it were, to me having this lap band procedure. With one sweeping, generalization about me to my surgeon, he holds the power to either allow me to have this life-altering surgery, or to deny me the hope I’ve built upon for the past year that I’ve been researching this procedure.

Man, I want a cigarette. Bad. It’s seven o’clock in the freakin' morning, on Christmas Eve, and I’m thinking of hoofing it down to the local convenience store and getting a pack.

I emailed my surgeon when I got home yesterday from Doctor Whats-his-face, and told him just what I think of the so-and-so, and WHY I answered the way I did to some of those questions. With everything I’ve read about my surgeon – and from my assessment when I met him in person – he strikes me as genuinely interested in helping people like me who have tried and exhausted every other avenue to permanent weight loss. I'm thinking of sending the link to this thread to him, since he frequents this message board.

*sigh* I need a cigarette in a very bad way.

"WHY" do we have to see a psych? What are they "looking" for? Just curious on why the docs want us to see one?

I was just reading what another patient, age about 40, wrote pre-op about her wls goals. She said that she wanted to fall in love and get married. NOT that she wanted to be healthy, or to move better (her pre-op BMI was around 55), or to be able to fit in normal-sized places, or to NOT be pre-judged by strangers based on her obesity, or to be able to go shopping without becoming exhausted or needing a helper, or to NOT base her restaurant choices on which ones had armless chairs, or to be able to go out of town and know that if her luggage was lost she could buy clothes...etc. Nope, she had an adolescent, romantic vision of what wls would do for her. So, after this woman lost a considerable amount of weight and got down to a BMI of 27 or so...and she hadn't found Prince Charming...she picked up drinking as a substitute behavior...and regained to a BMI of 35...so far.

I would HOPE that any mental health professional or bariatric surgeon would recognize that having the dream of falling in love and getting married at the top of her list was like a warning flag. This woman doesn't know who she is or what she wants, other than she just wants to be acceptable to a man.

WLS does what it does. People who are counting on it to solve all of their problems should be educated on what they can reasonably expect the surgery to do and what needs another approach.

So we should lie when taking the eval with the physc. doc! Anyone else have anyother hints to passing this test. Is there any trick questions?

Kitty

Print off your thread, which pretty much says it all, and give it to your doctor. That should answer every question.

Good luck!

Wow. Thanks for all of the comments, folks.

I am waiting to hear from Dr. Curry's office about this. I still haven't received an email in response to my request to see another psychiatrist. I'm thinking his office was closed yesterday.

Emailing my "rant" to him is an option, and I'll probably do that if he says that he wont' perform the surgery based on Dr. Whats-his-face's assessment of me.

I'll let you all know what the outcome is, if you'd like.

Hi bullwinkle,

I "flunked" my MMP and I was told the same thing. They wanted me to take 12 sessions for anger management issues which in my opinion were totally unband related. All of this was really about the shrink's office who was just pissed off that I called a half dozen times after waiting almost a month for test results. I got angry wiht her receptionist since they kept putting me off with no answers and they didnt like me pushing them.

I had to find another surgeon since they were tied to a training hospital and I had to meet the criteria even though it wasnt a trial and my insurance was paying. I went to a second shirnk specializing in food disorders who actually interviewed me for two hours instead of taking a test, which was not a requirement for my insurance anyway. She wrote a letter saying that I wasnt insane and although she didnt support bariatric surgery, she felt I knew what i was doing and cleared me on the mental front.

I DID on my own go to a therapist post band for almost a year to try to resolve some of my issues. Not anger management, but the other stuff that happens when you lose a lot of weight. I advise everyone who has insurance that will cover therapy to take advantage of that if you can. It didnt solve my problems but it sure helped me to "think" differently.

Good luck!!!

Babs in TX

334/190 ish

3 1/2 years and counting.... and still insane!!!

So we should lie when taking the eval with the physc. doc! Anyone else have anyother hints to passing this test. Is there any trick questions?

Kitty

Lying is a good idea if--and only if--you want to find yourself having a surgery that isn't right for you, not having the surgery "deliver" what you thought it would deliver, and if you don't mind dealing with severe depression, substitute addictions and/or thoughts of suicide.

If one shrink give you an MMPI or similar multiple choice test and you "fail" the test, look for one who will interview you. If TWO or more shrinks--using different assessment tools--agree that you are not currently a good candidate for wls, you might want to find out why.

You poor thing! Congrats on quitting smoking though. That is a tough one, but worth the struggle. My mom died from smoking complications (a slow miserable death with too much wrong with her to list here). I agree with the others to get a psych eval from someone who is familiar with what the band is. They mostly want to know that you are not bulimic, anorexic, or psycotic ( sorry about the spelling errors). I can tell you though, if you go into a shrinks office madder than a hornet about anything their radar goes off. Even if you are mad at the incompetance of the shrink!

I don't advocate lying. That would be wrong.

I agree with another poster here, however. Had this doctor sat down and spoken with me face-to-face for those three sessions, instead of saying "Hi" and then sticking me into a room with tests and pencils, and then simply collecting my co-pay on the way out, he would have found out WHY I answered those questions the way I did at the time.

I called my surgeon's office a while ago, and I DO have an appointment with another psychiatrist, and she will interview me in his office.

Like I said, I've always belived my surgeon to be THE BEST in this area -- BAR NONE -- because I've done much research about the lap band procedure in thie area. I also believe him to be a fair person, from everything I've read about his encounters with his other patients, some of whom post to these boards.

I know that I will "pass" the next exam. It is slated for 01-15-07.