Today was not destined to be my favorite day in this journey anyway but given that I have a terrible head cold it just moved another few notches down on the list.
This morning I had to go in for labwork.... 4 pages worth of orders but luckily only 4 tubes of blood!!!...., and upper GI study and psych eval. How much more fun could a girl ask for??
The labs actually went well...one poke, barely felt it, cooperative vein.
Then I trudged off to radiology for the upper GI study. It wasn't the worst experience ever (or the worst experience during this journey I'm afraid) but I could have done without ever having had to swallow barium. BLECH! For those not in the know, an upper GI consists of a bunch of xrays taken before, during and after you first drink some crystals that fill your stomach with air and 'try not to burp'... right! Then you you start swallowing barium which is a thick, chalky liquid... luckily not much flavor but I'm a texture girl and it's a yucky texture. The radiologist has you stand and take several drinks and watches on the screen/takes pictures and then you get to lay down and take pictures. This time you get to roll on the table while they take the pictures... a little to the left, fully on your left... a little on your belly, fully on your belly... and so on. So you haven't eaten/drank anything since midnite and now you have a stomach full of sludge rolling around in there. Not the best feeling.
After that I had to head up to the office for my psych eval. All of the patients in my program have to undergo a pysch eval (and most other programs as well from what I can tell). It's long and boring but for good reason. They want to identify first anyone with a major pysch issue that might make surgery contraindicated (such as suicidal ideations, delusional behaviors, etc...).
In addition they want to see what issues can be identified that have led to the obesity. If there are obvious things that need to be dealt with counseling can be offered before and after surgery. For instance many people are stress eaters. I am one of them. When I take away my coping mechanism of soothing/relaxing with food I will still need a coping mechanism. So.. I need to plan ahead. For me I am already really enjoying my nightly walks by myself (and sometimes with the dog). I recently got a kindle and am back in the full swing of reading so that is another option. When all else fails.. I'm pretty good at napping! :) Of course you can see how this could be a huge problem for someone who smokes or drinks quite a bit or has other unhealthy coping mechanisms as they could transfer trade in their stress eating for more smoking/drinking/etc..
So... necessary testing but I gotta tell ya 567 "true or false" psych questions is mind numbing. Yes, literally 567. "I am happiest when I am alone", "I often hear noises that other people don't hear", "I am sure someone is after me", etc... Ugh! And of course each qustion is asked about 14 different ways so they can make sure to catch "it" if it's there.... "I often think of suicide", "I no longer want to live", "Suicide seems like my only option". So, yeah, mind numbing. Of course I made sure I answered so as to keep the 'voices' and 'THEY' who are after me a secret. Wouldn't want to let them in on that! :P KIDDING!!!
Sounds like you had to take the MMPI, God Bless You! The test also asks the same question multiple times in order to catch the people who are just answering randomly bc it's so long, or people who are trying to "fake" something. Checking to see how consistent you are in your responding. I'm sure they won't discover anything you don't already know about yourself!
ReplyDeleteI'm a stress eater too, tough lot in life!