Sunday, February 04, 2007

Counting My Blessings

You know that I have strong feelings about how the overweight are treated by many medical personnel. I've had doctors suggest that I wouldn't have gotten that sty if I weighed less. Hell, I had an ENT, who eventually operated on the congenitally malformed turbinates in my sinuses, suggest weight loss surgery (which would have had absolutely no effect on my turbinates or the problems they caused)! And, when I said I wasn't going for a procedure with that high a fatality rate, he told me it was actually twice as high as the horrible numbers I had just quoted.

So, when I read things like this, Just Lose Weight, on Sandy Szwarc's blog, Junkfood Science, I am so grateful for my physician.

Dr. Anne Standerwyck has been taking care of me for years, and she takes excellent care of me. She listens to my concerns, takes the time to make sure she has covered all the bases, gives me thorough care, and never suggests that all of my problems would be over if only I were thin. Our first visit I told her about my experience with trying to become thin and why I had decided that I would rather be this size than keep trying to lose weight and keep getting ever bigger. Dr. Anne, who anyone can tell by looking is a naturally slender young woman and certainly can have no personal experience of the heartbreak of trying, decade after decade, to change your body, only to have it rebound on you so that you finally realize that you would have been better off if you had just left it alone, still seems to have absolutely no bias against fat people. Her office waiting room has chairs with strong arms for those of us who need the help standing, and good chairs without arms, for people who don't fit the chairs with arms. Her staff are always helpful and friendly and, no more than Dr. Anne herself, would they ever treat any patient differently than others.

Bless her.

6 comments:

kenju said...

Until last year, I had never had a doctor suggest that I ought to lose weight. I am only about 15 pounds over what I should be, but my current doc, who weighs about 95 lbs. soaking wet, says I HAVE to lose. I wanted to tell her she HAS to gain.

Maya's Granny said...

Kenju,
Do. Tell her your weight isn't up for discussion and/or find a new doctor. For here to be like that about 15 pounds is not a good sign.

Ginnie said...

When I hear these "Just do...." campaigns it reminds me of Nancy Reagans unsucessful "Just Say NO" project. Any addicted person will tell you that it doesn't work like that! I'm so glad you have a Dr. who allows you to be yourself. The yo-yo effect of dieting is much more damaging to your body than being a bit overweight, and your Dr. is respecting you and allowing you to respect your own decisions.

Mary Lou said...

Oh I HEAR you! My Dr has lately asked me twice to consider WLS. Even though years ago he would have scoffed at it. No one knows more than I do about the horrors of yo yo dieting. I went on the high protein diet 24 years ago and lost 100 lbs. I STARVED to keep it off for 6 years, and then slowly put every bit and more back on.

Now that I can hardly walk a block because of arthritis in my spine, I am at my heaviest and hate it, but the thought of going through what I did before to only gain it back just says uh-uh no way! I am looking for another Dr though, because lately I have gotten the feeling that even though he has been my Dr for 20 years, Every complaint I have he puts off to weight gain. PFFHHHHTTTTT!!!

Joy Des Jardins said...

As I've said before...I couldn't agree with you more J. Thanks for the link to a great post.

KelliAmanda said...

I met with a new internist last week after firing my last two because of their bias against fat people. The woman I saw last week, who was a slender young woman, was thorough and listened to me when I told her why I wasn't interested in doing WW or dieting. She didn't argue, didn't mention my weight (I brought it up first, as I wanted her to hear me), and said she hoped I wouldn't find the same problems with her that I had experienced with previous docs. So far, so good.