Trying To Be Prepared

[IsaacsGram 58]

Just made my appointments for all the pre-op clearance - cardiologist, pulmonologist, psychologist, and 3 hour class required by my insurance for weight loss education.

I realize each of these docs may order an array of tests for my clearance, but I am wondering about the psychologist. When making my appointment they said there was a 3 hour test follow by the meeting with the psychologist. I've read here in VST that not all psych docs have such a "test". I'm not terribly worried, just trying to be prepared. I, like many others, have a long history of weight issues and some social issues as well-which are now past history, but I hope they don't cause me to be disqualified.

Secondly, I was going to purchase a wide variety of Protein drinks/shakes/etc, but read here that people's tastes change after surgery. I don't want to come home from surgery and have nothing to drink, so what does everyone suggest?

Thank you for your advice, I really have enjoyed learning so much on VST and hope to continue to post and have my day on "the losers bench"!

Brigitte

[kyllfalcon 768]

The test I took was utterly ridiculous. It was pages and pages long, but thankfully it did not take a full three hours to complete. It asked the same questions in several forms, and for so many, there simply was not a good answer. For example, "How has your drug problem affected your life...?" None of the multiple-choice answers were "Not al all" or "I don't have a drug problem". Some form of that stupid question presented itself at least a dozen times. And that is just one example. I won't go into how many ways it asked about my non-existent suicidal tendencies.

In the end, when I met with the guy, he said he had a problem with my results, which showed that I had a tendency to downplay my problems and that I saw myself as a strong go-to person. Well, yeah, I am a strong go-to person. And well, no, I don't dwell on the negative.

After a very short heated exchange, he okayed me.

Try not to worry about it. Just go in there and do your best. I don't remember seeing on this forum that someone was disqualified due to the psych evaluation (that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, I just happened not to see it).

Best of luck!!!

[IsaacsGram 58]

Thank you for the info! That sounds like it will be a lot of fun- NOT!

BTW I did read on here somewhere that a guy had to appeal his disqualification due to his psych person claiming he lead too rebellious of a lifestyle to comply with post surgical instructions- this was due to him admitting he did a little marijuana in college decades ago!

I fear they will say I have too much unfinished issues to deal with. I'm 48 years old, I made some bad choices and was a victim too many times, but that has all changed, and I've been in control of my life for a long time now. Anyway, I guess we will see....

[clk 3,519]

Best of luck with your eval. I can't give you advice there since I self-paid.

For Protein I can help, though! Buy samples - lots and lots of samples. I kept mine aside in a box for post op and slowly worked my way through them, taking note of what I liked and disliked so I could choose a larger tub of powder that I knew I could tolerate. There are a number of sites that offer samples, but I always used Vitalady.

~Cheri