Do You Have What It Takes To Succeed?

I wanted to add one more thing. I know that Baptist, Vandy, and Centennial all require psych testing. HOWEVER, I do know that in some cases, they make exceptions. Why? Let's give an example.

My former roommate, Mike, suffered from mitral valve regurgitation and had a heart attack in his mid 30s. The doctors had sent him home to DIE. He has an incredible story, that while in his mid 30's, yes the doctor told the familly to make him as comfortable as possible. His family had a "LAST SUPPER" gathering for him, where they all came in for a "grief" dinner and said their goodbyes. He really is a walking miracle, for sure, but he was on tons of medications that kept him alive. The docs really didn't know how long he had, maybe 3 weeks or 3 months. That was 5 yrs ago.

His cardiologist finally told him that his weight which he struggled so hard to lose and yet gained back, was KILLING him. Without surgery, he would die. With his letter of medical necessity, his insurance still refused to pay one red cent. Due to the seriousness of his health and that he was self pay, the doctor waived his psych eval. Now whether or not he was bug crazy... he HAD to have the medical intervention just to keep him alive. Would you have made the guy take the psych eval and then say "sorry, you didn't pass. You'll just have to die." I don't think they would do this to a heart patient who needed quadruple bypass...

I wanted to raise one other thought that I had. My employer mandated the psychological eval. It was not a 30 minute meeting. I had to take a series of psychological tests, written and orally, go through a long interview process, and as stated before, go through 3 months of mandated support group meetings. I could only miss 1 time out of the 12 week meetings or else I would fail and not be allowed to have surgery.

There were about 11 others in the class with me. One woman had lapband, lost 50 lbs, that was 2 yrs ago. She has now entered counseling because she is not able to control her eating. Several others have lost some weight, but not even halfway toward their goal. One woman I saw had not lost one lb from what I could tell... and had the same surgery about the same time as me. We all had to take the same tests... and there are others who have gone through the program since then who like me, met their goals in short periods of time and are doing wonderfully. Others have not.

Do I have what it takes to succeed? I believe the answer to that is YES. Each of us do. But the question is rather this: Am I WILLING to do what it takes to succeed. It all comes down to my daily choice. Am I going to log my food? Watch my carbs, calories, sugars? Am I trying to cheat the system so that I don't have to give up anything? It's all about sacrifice, what we are willing to give up to see that our goals are met.