So I had my psych eval this afternoon. I found myself wondering on the drive there what kinds of questions they would ask. I really didn't worry about it but I was curious.

Since I wasn't a patient, I had to fill out all the new patient stuff...but it was kind of cool because it was all on a tablet and went pretty quickly. The Dr. was able to see my responses as I entered them and since I was the last patient of the afternoon I actually went in about 10 minutes early.

I'll try to list as many questions as I can remember:

1. How long have you been married?

2. Why are you here today?

3. How long have you been considering WLS?

4. Which surgery do you think you want? This one was followed by a discussion about talking to the surgeon, what did the surgeon recommend...etc

5. What are the cons to the surgery? I started with the medical ones...he pushed towards the "other ones" things like changing behaviors, social situations, family issues....

6. What are the pros to the surgery?

7. How long has weight been an issue? I briefly wondered if this was a trick question....like "when did you stop kicking your dog...lol

8. What else do you hope to accomplish with your surgery?

9. Have you ever been in a psychiatric hospital?

10. Tell me about your depression. (self reported by me, have been on anti depressant for about 6 years and it runs in my family)

11. Tell me about your family's weight/relation to food.

Then we did some memory stuff...he asked me to remember three words, then asked me to spell world, then spell it backward (harder than you think under pressure ), who was president..before him...before him....and then he asked me what the 3 words were. I can only guess that this was to make sure I was able to follow things????

12. Have you ever binged and then purged?

13.Ever been treated for drug or alcohol abuse?

When we were done he said he thought there were 4 main reasons insurance companies require the psych eval:

1. To ensure the person has a good understanding of the commitment level/risks (although the surgeons office also assess this I would think especially if you have a supervised diet period)

2. To ensure that there aren't any environmental issues that might keep you from being successful

3. To help ensure you are able to follow instructions/guidelines

4. To help ensure that you will be a good patient for the surgeon (although he didn't elaborate on that one).

All in all easy peasy.

Next Monday is a busy day for pre-insurance testing...I have my second NUT apt, an upper GI, an EKG and my cardiac clearance apt! Beth