The First Consultation Appointment

The 23rd of Jan was my first appt with Dr. Pinnar. I got there super early, I met Sue, the RN in charge of seeing the patients. She was awesome. Very personable and informative. I was able to get lots of questions answered about the procedure, before and after. She gave me a list of items I needed to get done and to the office before my next appt which was the pre-operative appt. I needed a psychological evaluation, complete battery of blood tests and letter from my primary doctor clearing me for the operation, and a barium swallow fluoroscopy to check the motility of my esophagus and the condition of my hiatal hernia, which they were gonna fix at the same time!

The Psych eval was not what I expected. It was not just an interview with a psychologist. First of all, the Doctor is in Reston and the procedure will be done at the Reston Hospital Center. That’s about 45 minutes from where I live with no traffic, it’s close to the Dulles Airport. So everything I could get done at the same time was better for me. As soon as I walked out of Dr. Pinnar’s office, I started calling psychologists that were in the area of Reston to beg them to see me that same day. I wanted to save time and gas, and why wait? After a few tries, I found a psych willing to see me that same day! This was definitely a sign that things were working in my favor!

First, there is a specialized standardized test for patients undergoing bariatric operations. I guess someone took the time to study this very particular subset of patients and determine which factors were important for the success of the operation. Anyway, just a lot of questions about feelings, emotions, how I felt about my medical conditions and life in general, very predictable in the way they wanted you to answer. I tried to be truthful. But it’s hard when you know the right answer. That took about an hour, and then the psych met with me personally to gauge my success rate I guess. I barely let him talk! I talked about how excited I was, how I couldn’t wait, how I was pissed at doctors in general for not knowing this procedure would highly benefit me, I talked about eating habits, now and when I was a child. About when I started to gain weight, what I had tried. And that was it! I got it done! I went home feeling productive and that a lot had been accomplished for one day.