Early October Visit to the Shrink

I was able to move my regular appointment with the shrink up about a week to early October. He would do the psychological eval for me per the office gal. We had been working on assertiveness training and his first question to me was how is the assertiveness going? Well, that was my foot in the door and that had been my plan of attack anyway! I said, "That's exactly what I wanted to tell you about." So, first I told him about asking for a pay raise at work--not my forte at all. That was generic enough to tell him to start. Then I said, "And now I am going to practice my assertiveness with you!" He looked a bit startled by that, not knowing what to expect. I had guessed right that the office staff had not told him why I was specifically there--for the psychological evaluation for weight loss surgery. I told him my plans and what I needed. I showed him the format of what he needed to determine and what he needed to write up. He approved and we did it and as my previous post said, Thanksgiving week, Barix Clinic finally had all my paperwork.

I also asked him why the change of heart as he wouldn't approve it previously. He said, "I'm not a scalpel kind of doc. But you understand what you are getting into, you understand what will be expected of you, you have done your research, you have been assertive in going for the initial consult, and you are doing it for the right reasons, #1 to become healthier. You've tried other ways. I think Weight Watchers is the best program but you have tried that more than once and not succeeded and so I think you need to do this." (Note: this is not at all a slam on W/W; I think it is a great program and can work for many; but others have more of a physical/emotional problem with eating that WLS (weight loss surgery) helps with that other programs may not.)