Okay.

I am about to lose it totally! :mad:

I have been working my tail off (exercising, eating good, millions of appointments and group meetings) and now I am at a long stand still.

I was never given a "list" of things I needed to do until I had gone through almost every one of my dietician appointments (6 months worth). When I did and I'd seen all the different pre-op appointments I had, which included a consultation with the BC (Bariatric Coord.) and a whole other appt with the hospitals' program dietician, and another mess of things (xrays, ultrasounds, pap tests, u name it) I'd done it - quickly. Then I get a hold up because I also had to have a Psych Eval. Okay. Fine.

So I call the Psychiatrist who is THE ONLY approved PSYCH to do this according to my HEALTH PLAN. Great. No Problem! Yeah, that's what I thought. Don't even think about an answer from this guy. He has to call you because he simply does not answer his phone! :cry Okay, well I guess he is a busy guy. Free pass. He just so happens to call while I am at my monthly group support meeting, and my phone is on silent so I don't get his call. He mentions to me that he is going out of town until a weeks worth of time and says there is no way to book an appointment until he gets back!! By now I'm starting to get a little perturbed because I want to get in ASAP! I have been putting up with enough already for many months.

Finally a week goes by and I even leave him a message to remind him I need an appointment the day before he is schedule to return to the office. He calls back when I am away from my phone and we do some phone tag until the end of the day. Like I said, he never answers his phone, so if I miss his - well, tough luck - even though I called him back only seconds off missing his call!! When he does finally get ahold of me, he makes my appointment for THREE WEEKS because he just so happens to be going on vacation at the same time... :tired

Okay, I'm already going stir crazy at this point - but guess what. He called my cell last night (and when you call my cell at night you will never reach me) and tells me he has to re-schedule me from Monday to Friday 10/19 because he forgot he will be out of town on that Monday 10/15!!! AUUUGGHHHHH!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad: I even took the day off from work because the appointment is supposed to last about 3 hours! I wonder if he is doing this on purpose to see how well I handle difficult situations??? Okay, maybe not - but still...

He did mention however that I could talk with his secretary, so I left her a message. It's still early here in Cali, so I knew I'd get a voicemail. I did also ask her to put me on a waiting list too... in case of a cancellation. I asked her to call me back to be sure she got the message.

Anyway, I am stuck right now because my surgeon won't do anything more until I get this done. Believe me, I tried...

Okay, I just needed to vent and now that I did, I feel somewhat better. It can be so frustrating sometimes though. I have had a looooong journey so far, and I just want to get this darn thing put in me already.

Did anyone else suffer so much pre-surgery? Anyone? Help?

If you can pay for the psych eval and don't stress yourself out. Remember its all about the hoop jumping. Just get through these last hoops and your done.

Seriously, any Psychiatrist worth his license could not meet with any of us ONCE and really tell anything about us! My "Psych Evalulation" took about 45 minutes and the guy ended up writing the wrong name on the evaluation that's how involved/interested he was in me or maybe I was just not that impressive! :heh:

I don't disagree with you at all, but the problem was - the psych eval was stressing me out. That is why I chose to go with another doctor, and I'm sure glad I did. In fact, everything had been going quite smoothly with all my insurance hoops up until that point.

I don't think he was completely disinterested in me, however. His report was pretty detailed, and kept good notes on what we discussed. For me and my other co-patients, going to our eval are just being judged on whether or not we have any major psychological worries, that might need to be addressed prior to surgery.

Anyway, I'm just glad it's over... :clap2: