Now I don’t want to make anyone else jealous, but I just finished my psychiatric evaluation over the phone and it took all of 15 minutes. That’s it. No paperwork. No questionnaires. Done over the phone. No sweat. Granted, this did cost me $400 and it is not covered by my PPO. There was also the option of doing it via skype but since I'd have to do it during work hours and i can't use my company laptop for personal use, so I opted for phone.

We arranged for a time for me to call her last week so I called her right on time as planned. She first asked why I was pursuing the surgery. I explained that while my eating has not gotten out of control, my various ailments including a bad back that may require surgery, arthritis in my shoulders and bone spurs in both big toes have made it difficult if not impossible to exercise without pain. I have not been increasing my portion sizes over the last few years as my weight climbed, but without the ability to burn off the excess calories I just kept getting bigger.

Next, she asked some medical history questions (I never drink to excess because I’m allergic to alcohol and I’ve never smoked or taken illegal drugs) then asked if I was an emotional eater, a binge eater, a habitual eater or a miscellaneous eater, i.e. problems like portion control, which we’d already covered and I’d already identified myself as being.

We went into a little detail about my current eating habits and previous weight loss attempts, which had mostly been successful when I could exercise freely.

She asked about the kind of support I’ll have for the surgery and during my recovery at home. I explained that my daughter (who graduates from college this Friday with a BS in psych and a 3.7 GPA, thank you very much) will be taking me to and from the surgery. That’s because when I have it in late May/early June, my wife will still be recovering from knee replacement surgery. So, my kids (my freshman son was nominated by a professor for membership in an honors society that only admits 15 kids from each graduating class at his school, again, thank you very much) will be taking care of both of us. We consider it only a tiny portion of the payback they owe us for putting them through a private college.

Finally, she went into a little detail about the required post-surgical changes in habits, such as measuring and logging food and sticking to the prescribed post-surgical plans, and asked if I thought I’d be able to handle. Having read through this board, some FB groups and all the literature I got from the surgeon’s office at my initial consult, I repeated everything back to her chapter and verse to confirm I know exactly what’s expected of me. I also told her that I’m far too cheap to spend all the money on the surgery only to throw it all away with bad habits.

She asked if I knew about the types of complications that could arise, so again I referenced this board and the FB groups, explaining I’ve learned a lot about the types of problems that come up most frequently. She asked if I had any fear of the surgery and I said I’ve had many surgeries in my life, so I’m not afraid of it, plus I know that for each person who complains about a post-surgical ailment, there are probably fifty who do not have that problem so the odds are clearly in favor of not having complications.

That was pretty much it. She said the approval will be on its way to my surgeon by the end of the day. I gave her my email address so she could send me some literature she likes to send all of her patients and her contact information in case I had any further questions. I am not kidding when I say it took me twice as long to write this as the phone call itself.

With this and my endoscopy both out of the way, all I’ve got left before submitting for approval is my final visit with the nutritionist and the pre-op visit with my PCP who’ll also take care of my chest x-ray and EKG. The only real problem between now and the surgery is avoiding the temptation of pigging out at my daughter's graduation party...

Edited April 16, 20188 yr by elforman

Glad it went well! I did hear of someone who had theirs that consisted of this:

" Hi, I'm doctor _______. My office is at the end of the hall on the left, I'll meet you there".- Doctor

*Patient patiently waits in office*

*Doctor walks in with piece of paper*

"Here is your surgical release, you are all set!"- Doctor

*Patient, blink blink*

"That's it?!"- Patient

"You can obviously follow directions, so you are approved"- Doctor

1 minute ago, AshAsh1 said:

Glad it went well! I did hear of someone who had theirs that consisted of this:

" Hi, I'm doctor _______. My office is at the end of the hall on the left, I'll meet you there".- Doctor

*Patient patiently waits in office*

*Doctor walks in with piece of paper*

"Here is your surgical release, you are all set!"- Doctor

*Patient, blink blink*

"That's it?!"- Patient

"You can obviously follow directions, so you are approved"- Doctor

If mine had gone like that I'd demand $390 of my $400 back.

Why couldn't I have had one like the piece of paper one? That way I would have had a sterling clearance and surgery and would have escaped the heart aches and disappointments of the past 2 months.???

Mine was much more in depth. I had to have a consultation and 4 hours worth of multiple test, followed by a visit for clearance where he explained my clearance in depth and my personality. I also got an entire report which was scarily accurate and gave me chills on who I am. He took his time (3 months) waiting list for results and evaluates every person in depth and writes up a 10+ page report. He said my behavior is a perfectionist so I have a higher chance of success since I am so hard and strict on myself.

Wow @michjoann 132010 that is so eerie, but he obviously is very meticulous and also,a perfectionist as well.

I know right!

When I was trying to have surgery three years ago, the doctor who did my psych eval spent about 2 minutes checking off boxes on his form and another 20 minutes ranting about politics. I honestly couldn't tell if this was some crazy test of my self control or if he was just nuts. I wanted my paper so I kept my mouth shut [emoji16]

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You wanted to convert your body, he wanted to convert your politics! Houston, we have a lack of Communication here! ? You handled it admirably Syrina.

Mine was with my regular psychiatrist. I was there to have my prescriptions refilled. He asked me why I wanted to have surgery, what my expectations were, and about my support system. Then he wrote me a very nice letter of recommendation.

My psych appt was in and out probably 10 min and I did this 3 times bc I was scared of surgery so had to redo paperwork multiple times

You wanted to convert your body, he wanted to convert your politics! Houston, we have a lack of Communication here! [emoji14] You handled it admirably Syrina.

I don't even think he was trying to convince me of anything. I think he just liked ranting. It was surreal LOL.

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That is a unique situation lol, you were very diligent in that situation, I probably would have blurted out (politely) if this was for the surgery so I could take notes.