ATTENTION K-MART SHOPPERS

guess who??? LOL UPDATE: Well, I don't know if this will turn around and bite me in the butt or not, but I did it anyways...I went ahead and went through my EAP at work (thanks for the tip Anne, they said 5 bucks co pay woohoo) and scheduled my psych eval. Perhaps some of you are thinking, "so, what's the big deal about that?" well.... I had called Dr. Dyers several weeks ago, asking them if I should go ahead and schedule appointments with the shrink, or nutritionist, and they said no....well....I'm tired of the waiting game, and so I'm scheduled for next week. We'll see... I have an appt to see my sleep study Dr tomorrow, and get his opinion on my sleep study results. I still have to go back to Centennial for another night on the CPAP machine,,,everyday is forward progress, but my legs are tired from hoop jumping... I NEED YOUR HELP: My son has recently been stationed in Korea. He is homesick and lonely, and I'm getting together a care package. He is a brilliant young man (got distinguished honor grad, top of his class at AIT, and a straight A student all through school) and he LOVES brain teasers, good jokes etc...If any of you know of a brain teaser (please include the answer!), or a good joke (off color is OK) could you please email me at [email protected] ? My plan is to make him a booklet with interesting stuff to include in his package. This is a very expensive endeavor (shipping costs alone are a KILLER) especially since this will be the first of many, so if any of you know of cost saving ideas, either on packaging, or whatever PLEASE feel free to let me know about them.... you guys are great...Carol

Carol, If you intend to use Centennial, I would strongly caution checking with them before you proceed with the psychological evaluation. They work exclusively with the Evelyn Frye Center (as it is not really a psychological but more of a psychologcal surgical assessment) and I am pretty sure that even if you go through this, you'll end up doing it all again and insurance will not pay for it. The workup that the Frye Center focuses on (esepcially the interview) is about if you understand the risks of surgery, understand the lifestyle change commitment and if you have support mechanisms in place as well as addressing how you might follow doctor instructions and whatnot. If the doctor's office indicated not to begin these appointments, my thought is that they do not want you to incur the out of pocket expense until you are approved by your insurance as it's around $250. I can understand your frustration but I would suggest following the process as once approved, things will move swiftly, or at least they did for me. It took me at least 3-4 weeks for approval and all of my pre-operative stuff was done within two weeks after my doctor visit and my surgery was scheduled about 30 days from that visit. Also, they maintain 2 nutritional staff to assist you with understanding the stages of the diet needed pre and post surgery and that is often done the day of your consultation with the doctor so there is very specialized information that they will convey that you will not get from another source. I am not trying to negate any information that someone has told you and not saying that "you should do it this way", I am just relaying my understanding of the process at the Center of the Treatment of Obesity and what I went through. Different areas and different doctors do much different things. Just wanted to express my opinion here as I didn't want to see you have to go through a psych battery and then go through another one. No matter what I wish ya the best of luck in process, surgery and recovery!

Hey Carol---Tell you son that we thank him for the job he is doing! Where would we be today if not for the men and women of our armed services? We should all say a prayer of thanks for them! As for the care packages---I work for a company in Huntsville, AL that has undertaken the task of adopting a group of troops and sending care packages to them on a monthly basis. The employees of our office, which is about 250, collect items throughout the month to send and then the company pays the shipping cost. I know that our company has incurred large expenses in doing this, but it is worth it to us and our management to be able to help support the war with this small effort. The items we send on a regular basis are baby wipes, instant hand sanitizer in the small bottles, snacks ---nothing chocolate, small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, small bars of soap (Local hotels donate these items by the cases for us to send), chewing gum, hard candies, and one of the hottest items has been the individual "tubes" of Crystal light. The soldiers can empty that directly into a canteen of water out in the field and have something a little more flavorful than jus****er. We have also sent a large number of the blank journals that you can buy for the soldiers to write their own accounts of the war and their life in Iraq. With each shipment we try to send books, magazines, crossword puzzle books, some decks of cards, and we will add a "theme" to each shipment--for example in March, it was St. Patricks day and in April--we collected hundreds of beanie babies to send to the troops to distribute to the Iraqi children when they come in contact with them. I think you have the idea of what we do---and it is all so worth the efforts when we get letters back from the troops thanking us and telling us of the joy on a childs face when they were given a small toy that hold and keep. You may check with your employer and see if they would be willing to undertake such a project. It requires commitment and dedication on the part of everyone involved to make this an ongoing success, but it is so worth the efforts to know that maybe we have made someone's day a little nicer with our efforts. Also---please make sure that anything you send is sealed in individual zip lock bags. This is important incase an item gets broken or damaged in shipping, the rest of the items remain protected. Good Luck and God Bless.

Carol, William is right, that every doctor is different. I think you should call them and ask if it's ok for you to see an EAP psychologist. They might surprise you. My surgeon here in Memphis gave me a list to choose from but when I told her I could get it with a small copay through EAP...she said fine as long as he followed her guidelines. He had them in front of him the whole time I was there and one thing that she didn't require was the big test. The only thing she required was the interview. My surgeon has her own nutritionist/dietician and you have to go through 4 classes which are one per week for one month. You have to take a test and from what the doctor said if you can't answer the questions correctly or if you don't have a good concept of what the surgery entails she will refuse to do your surgery. She also has her own support group which meets every second Wednesday of the month. We also have to see the dietician at two weeks post-op, 4 weeks post-op and every month after that for one year. Just do what your surgeon wants so that you don't get in a funk with them about their personal procedure. I hope that it all works out for you and that you can use your EAP....it would save you lots of money/ Tell your son that we are proud of him and what he's doing and what it stands for. My husband is really good at collecting jokes and what not and I'll ask him to compile some for me and I'll forward them to you. He is quite witty and believe me some will be off color....LOL. Hope all has a great day and best of luck to those waiting on approval for surgery. Anne.......4 more days to be a loser!!!!

Hi Carol it's Barb again. Thankyou for raising such a wonderful young man. I can only imagine the heart of a mother whose son is in our Armed Forces. Let him know how proud we are of him for what he is doing in Korea. My daughters bf is in FORT KNOX at this time & his brother just came home from Iraq. Their mom has both of her boys in the US Army. I'll email you some of my jokes, I save just about everyone I get. I'll look em over and try to send them tomorrow. Barb 7/28/04 lap/RNY