Woohoo!

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I am a bastion of good mental health! Woohoo!

I ended up having my psych evaluation earlier than I planned and with the doctor that wasn't the one with whom I'd originally scheduled an appointment. Remember? Turns out that honey really works well, because Leslie called me yesterday and offered me an appointment for this morning. The doctor with whom I actually had the appointment has never called me back to confirm I have an appointment, so I decided not to risk saying no to this opportunity. Plus, I had already filled out Dr. M's hour-long questionnaire, which felt like a big waste of time when I realized my appointment was with Dr. C from a totally different practice. By the way, because we'll be talking about the questionnaire in a bit, I want to say for the record that I was absolutely as honest as humanly possible on it!

I arrived before my appointment, in case I needed to fill anything out, etc., which was good because they took height and weight measurements (I've lost 6 lbs since Oct. 28th!) and took my blood pressure (a tad high, but not too bad). I sat down and my cell phone showed 8:28, my appointment was for 8:30. I'm not a very patient person and am at the height of impatience when people are late, so imagine how not happy I was when I called my coworker at 9:25 to tell her I'd be back to work later than planned because I was still waiting to see the doctor. Yeah, not very happy at all. Fortunately, I only had to wait 5 minutes longer.

Fortunately, Dr. M is a really cool guy. AND he had lots of nice things to say to me - that always puts me in a better mood! He told me that the questionnaire contains 5 pysch tests and I passed all of them. He said that one of the tests shows that I'm a passionate person - dependable, loving, independent. Passionate! I've always wanted to be passionate! The tests also indicate that I'm not prone to depression, delusions, or anxiety disorders. Wow, I exclaimed, the good new just keeps coming! He laughed. I also don't have eating disorders (except for the obvious one that made me overweight), personality disorders, or anger management problems. Woohoo! And, here's the kicker - no signs of OCD! Awesome! I was kind of worried.

We chatted about my job, family, life goals, and some other stuff. We laughed a lot. I had him in stitches, quite honestly. I wasn't even trying that hard! Towards the end of the appointment, he checked something in my file then verified that I'm single. I nodded enthusiastically and he said, Are the men up there (I had to travel south for the appointment) crazy or what? How are you not taken, you're absolutely delightful! I blushed and beamed at the same time, I'm sure. (And, before you start thinking what you might be thinking, he was married and in his mid to late 40's.)

We talked about my expectations for life after the surgery and he said he feels confident telling the surgeon that my expectations are realistic and healthy and that I am a good candidate. I asked why a psych evaluation was necesssary, and he told me that one of the major reasons is to check for potential depression. In gastric bypass there is a 30% rate of depression after the surgery. The percentage is a lot lower for lap band, but it's still possible. So, I asked him if I should expect to feel kind of down afterward. He assured me that after looking at my results and talking to me that I should feel just fine. He said he'd be really surprised if I wasn't. No pressure. He laughed. We also talked about my support system and I was proud to say that I have a wonderful support system - lots of loving family and friends who are super supportive. (Thank you!!!)

I've never been psycho-analyzed before. It was kind of neat (probably because my results were so positive and happy!) but it was also a little disconcerting. I have self-diagnosed restless leg syndrome and halfway through the appointment my right leg started bouncing. When I realized it, I stopped it, wondering if the doctor would think it was a nervous twitch that meant I was lying. I wondered if he was analyzing my posture and body language. It was kind of weird to know I was being analyzed even if it wasn't to the degree I was imagining.

The end conclusion is that I'm mentally healthy and am clear for the surgery. Woohoo!