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I can't even imagine being a doctor these days. Seeing obese people all day - who the majority of their health problems are a direct result of their over eating and lack of exercise. Why should a doctor want to help someone who obviously doesn't want to help themselves?
This isn't about a healthy 200 lb person who has no trouble standing around, this is about a sick person who needs to be moved by doctors or nurses because they can't move themselves (I think).
Funny how you never hear veterinarians or their assistants complaining when they have to lift a 200+ pound dog, or a 16 hands high, 1,000 pound horse. It is part of their job, if they do not like it then they should seek another profession.
Didn't read all the posts but ... some hospitals won't take patients over certain weights for certain machines, like MRI's, hospital operating beds (rooms). It's getting to the point where those that are overweight are in deeper trouble then if doctors would help them loose weight or help them with their problems. I'm overweight but not obese and I know that I hate the way I feel and am loosing weight but some medications don't help thus it's a catch 22 for some. I'm not saying this is the case with all overweight people but something should be done to help them and doctors to cope! I feel for both sides.
Good riddance. A doctor with such an attitude likely would not be able to adequately treat overweight and obese patients.
I am a "morbidly obese" female who just spent a week outdoor rock climbing for a young adult cancer retreat, with time off of the rock involving fairly difficult rock scrambles and hiking.
I'd love one of the doctors who misdiagnosed me for 4 or 5 years, pumping me up with steroids to mask the symptoms that my cancer was throwing out as I got progressively sicker and more fatigued, to tell me that they won't see me because I'm too heavy (not that I see those doctors anyway). I worked full time through 6 months of chemo and had to crawl up my 3rd floor walkup stairs on my hands and knees most days. When I ended chemo, I was 60 pounds heavier and could only lift 10 pounds. My oncologist considered this NORMAL considering that I was working 40 hours a week (when he told me to work no more than 20 - unfortunately I did not that have that financial option) and was in the car 14 hours a week commuting versus my previous walking several miles a day on public transportation. I'd get home, maybe choke down some pasta or something equally easy to eat/cook, and then sleep for 12 hours. I couldn't even take out the trash because it was far too heavy to lift. Recovery has involved even more steroids for my lung damage - and the steroids cause me to gain weight as the lung damage has made it significantly more difficult to be active. It has taken me 9 months just to get the breath strength to play my clarinet again.
Please. Fat people being accepted? Why do people "moo" at me out their car windows when I go for a walk or try to jog? Why did people shout fat-shaming insults at me when I parked in a handicapped parking spot in the middle of chemo? You should see the looks people give me when I go rock climbing. I'm well within the weight requirements for the harnesses, carabiners, belay devices, etc - but despite doing something athletic, I get a whole lot of judgment when people have no idea what I have been through just to be alive, no matter what my weight. Doctors saw me as "fat" and ignored serious symptoms, resulting in a Stage IV cancer diagnosis when I had complained of symptoms since I was 18. Imagine that every 3 or 4 months for 4 years, you had to take a round of steroids to combat various rashes and skin ailments. Now imagine that every time you took these steroids, you'd gain 15-20 pounds in a month. I was often able to lose most of it, but between class and school for 60 hours a week and mounting fatigue from the tumors growing in my body, that didn't always happen
Meanwhile, my blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, etc are excellent. I just had cancer. I know my story is not necessarily the norm for obese people, but my treatment has been. When I was 21 years old, pushing 200 pounds, and presented to the doctor with severe back pain, I should not have just been told that it was my weight and brushed off when I had many other symptoms directing my diagnosis to Hodgkin's lymphoma. I even asked if it could be Hodgkin's because Google listed every one of my symptoms. In fact, the reason I was getting increasingly severe back pain had nothing to do with my weight at all - it was because I had tumors down my spine. But my doctor saw "fat" and did not pry any further.
I've now found a PCP who is certainly working with me to lose weight, but does not see that as the be all, end all of health. Every overweight and obese person needs a primary care physician who can give meaningful recommendations about weight loss, in conjunction with a nutritionist, but also is able to see beyond weight to look for underlying conditions.
But don't you think that if instead of relying on a PCP, you had seen a specialist to begin with, they would have realized that your symptoms weren't typical of obesity and caught your cancer earlier? That's what this doctor is saying. She is not a specialist in obesity, and there are specialists nearby who would be better options for obese patients.
I said very early on in this thread that obese people need a nutritionist and trainer. Those who refuse to see them shouldn't be expected to be seen by a PCP. If a person who knew they had cancer refused to be seen by an oncologist, what good is a PCP going to do them?
And I also mentioned that doctors need to be able to have frank conversations about weight with a patient without fear of being "politically incorrect."
Congratulations on beating cancer and good luck in your weight loss.
Trial lawyers have managed to deprecate Good Samaritans just as much they were able to remove diving boards from community pools.
Give me one example of a person acting in a reasonable manner to render emergency assistance where they were successfully sued in a state with a Good Samaritan law.
Funny how you never hear veterinarians or their assistants complaining when they have to lift a 200+ pound dog, or a 16 hands high, 1,000 pound horse. It is part of their job, if they do not like it then they should seek another profession.
What a bunch of whiners.
My vets office has a lift for dogs--they don't see horses. They even have a doggy gurney they can wheel out to a car and slide an ill dog onto so they don't have to lift it.
I don't see this country ever going to 100% socialized medicine. There will always be people who will choose to purchase private health insurance and there will always be doctors who will accept only that.
And the problem in this case is exactly the opposite, the patients are costing the doctors more due to their expensive special requirements--and insurers aren't willing to pay more for the doctors to treat those patients despite the need for specialized equipment. So in effect obese patients are asking doctors to take a loss to treat them.
Quit smoking and lose weight and you won't have to worry about that trip to Mexico.
I'm actually only 120 lbs and don't smoke, that wasn't my point. The point is doctors are now not accepting elderly patients, fat patients, patients who won't get vaccinated, people on medicare, etc, etc.
With this kind of a health care system we will be out of luck in no time. Instead of addressing these people they will leave them behind. It's like medical sprawl. They will leave less desirable patients for quick money patients. Soon you'll only need a two year degree to be a doctor and you will make more money for less work. It's societal rot and backed by prejudice do gooders who think it will never effect them.
The doctors right to make a quick buck often and avoid the people who actually need them the most. Ethics are lost, but, a profit is still made so it will continue. Meanwhile we as a whole will continue to support McDonalds, and Donald Trumps as heros. It's sad.
Give me one example of a person acting in a reasonable manner to render emergency assistance where they were successfully sued in a state with a Good Samaritan law.
Picking someone up from the ground doesn't really apply to that law. While technically being a Good Samaritan, people are way too nervous they'll cause more harm to the fragile bodies of a fattie and be sued as a result. They're not doing CPR after all and picking someone up is not considered an emergency life saving event, and people are wise enough to know that.
I'm actually only 120 lbs and don't smoke, that wasn't my point. The point is doctors are now not accepting elderly patients, fat patients, patients who won't get vaccinated, people on medicare, etc, etc.
With this kind of a health care system we will be out of luck in no time. Instead of addressing these people they will leave them behind. It's like medical sprawl. They will leave less desirable patients for quick money patients. Soon you'll only need a two year degree to be a doctor and you will make more money for less work. It's societal rot and backed by prejudice do gooders who think it will never effect them.
The doctors right to make a quick buck often and avoid the people who actually need them the most. Ethics are lost, but, a profit is still made so it will continue. Meanwhile we as a whole will continue to support McDonalds, and Donald Trumps as heros. It's sad.
It would seem to me that fatties would have no problem picking up doctors who are in need of new patients. Of course, you can't really say that because health care has been so distorted from government regulation and subsidies that the free market doesn't even apply anymore.
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