Big Week

What a busy, exciting, big week this has been! So many great things have happened – let me share them with you. Monday – I met with Hurley’s recommended psychologist for my psych evaluation. This was my second one, so I knew what to expect. Obviously, the doctor questioned why I was getting another evaluation and I had to give him the sob story of my lame doctor who can’t take good notes about what happens during office visits. So I took the 300-question Personality Assessment Testing after a short conversation with the doctor about my general mental state. The thing I like about this doctor is that he goes over the testing results during the same appointment (I’ve heard of others who have to wait 6 weeks for their results). My personality shows that I’m caring, compassionate, assertive and forthright and that I’m an excellent candidate for Bariatric surgery. He also noted that my personality test results reveal that my personality hasn’t changed in the year since my last test – this shows that I’ve got a stable mental capacity and don’t have dramatic mood swings. Gee, I sound normal, huh? Wednesday – I met with my peer support group for dinner on Wednesday evening. I know I’ve said it before, but I really do love these women! Everyone is so supportive and caring – I have truly developed some lasting friendships with this group. I also received in the mail the psych eval results from the doctor’s office (he makes sure that I get the same thing the surgeon’s office gets). Thursday – I stopped off at Hurley Health and Fitness Center this morning on the way in to work for my FINAL monthly weigh-in. So it’s official. My 12 month doctor-supervised diet documentation is complete. Bob will compile all the paperwork and fax it over to the surgeon’s office in the next day or two. I got a little teary-eyed as I hugged Bob goodbye and told him thank you for all he’s done for me over the past year. He’s been a great support and I’m glad I used their program for my diet documentation. I also made a few calls today. First to the surgeon’s office to alert them that things were moving again. They’d already received my psych eval paperwork and would keep an eye out for the diet documentation stuff too. I asked what the next steps were and they said I needed to get my medical clearance and letter of support from my family doctor. Once they have all the paperwork then they’ll submit all the paperwork for approval from the insurance company. So my next call was to the family doctor. I’ve got an appointment for next week – Wednesday, October 17th. I will take him copies of all the paperwork I’ve gotten so far (diet documentation paperwork and psych eval) and some samples of support letters and what needs to be written for the medical clearance. I want to make it as simple as possible for him to get the paperwork complete quickly. So next week will have some big things happening too. Keep your fingers crossed that all goes smoothly over the next few weeks. More later … Pam