Fat suit
Episode 2:
Good Morning Doctor
After waiting my turn to be called, and having a non-descript individual run the normal checks while uttering orders in a non-descript voice, “Step on the scale”, “Sit there”, “Roll up your sleeve”, “under the tongue, please”, “oh, your blood pressure looks good”, “pulse is normal”, (scribbling on my chart) I would sit in the little examination room, and write poetry using the texting application on my cell phone, while I waited for the doctor.
Let’s call him Dr. Gold today.
Dr. Gold came into the room after a quick rap of his knuckles on the door.
“Good, morning, and how are you today?” he asked, glancing at me briefly and then referring back to the chart in his hands.
“I am good, thanks. Just here for a check-up basically. I also need a well-women’s exam. It’s been over a year,” I say.
“Any history of diabetes, cancer, or heart disease in the family?” he asked, mostly looking at my chart. I don’t know why he asks me, it’s all there.
“Yes, my mother had breast cancer seven years ago, two lumpectomy’s, she also had thyroid cancer, three years ago, had it removed. My mother is diabetic, type two, and my father’s side has heart disease among the men,” Of course, I have answered these questions before.
“We will have to get a mamagram done. Your blood pressure looks great. Never had any history of high blood pressure?” Why would he ask me this, he just said it looked great.
“Nope,” I respond.
“And are you on any medication for arthritis or inflammation? Like Celebrex or…”
“Nope,” I say, though I know it’s not polite to interrupt. He can see from my chart that I’m not on any, but I suppose some people go to more than one Doctor. I suppose it was a valid question.
Dr. Gold pulls his eyes away from my chart and looks at me. “Aside from the well-woman exam, are there any other concerns you have that you want to discuss today?”
“Well, I have been having some really intense mood swings and PMS. I only mention it because my hormones have usually been pretty level most of my life,”
“Well, I don’t want to alarm you, but you are overweight, and at your size it would be more difficult for your body to regulate your hormones,”
“Right,” I agree and he blinks at me. “The women in my family, My Aunt, Grandmother, Mother, and Sisters all have had some signs of early menopause starting in their thirties, so I thought I should mention it,”
“Well, I think if you lost, say, 50lbs, you may see a change in your hormone levels,” he responds.
“Okay,” I smile. “So women who are of average weight don’t have hormone imbalance issues?” I ask, very curious.
“Well, yes, they can.” He looks at my chart again. “But I think in your case let’s focus on losing some weight first.”
“Okay.” I smile.
“Next time we come in…” (I’m not really sure why he keeps referring to me as “we”) “I would like to see at least a 15 lb weight loss,” he is speaking in a very gentle tone, and leans away from me as if he thinks I might burst into tears. “I have some information here about nutrition that I will send home with you,” he continues, pulling a pamphlet from a plastic holder that is suctioned to the wall. “I understand that it can be really difficult to lose weight, but if you lower your calorie intake and get some regular exercise you should be able to see a loss.”
I wonder why he thinks I should lower my calorie intake when he doesn’t know what my calorie intake is.
“Walking is a good way to start,” he says, “and swimming. That is also a good one for beginners.”
“I swim every day,” I tell him. “And I jog about 3 times a week.” Dr. Gold blinks and I move on. “I was also wondering about another issue that I have been struggling with. I sometimes get a headache after I exercise. Could this be related to my Fibromyalgia?”
“People who are overweight are more susceptible to things like headaches,” he responds.
“Okay, So, people who are not overweight don’t get headaches?” I ask, politely.
“Yes, they can, but I think in your case it probably stems from your weight problem.
“Hmm, okay.” I smile.
“So, I don’t want to treat you for the headache issue until you lose some weight first, kay?” he asked.
“Yep,” I respond.
Dr. Gold writes on his clipboard and hands me two prescription slips and the pamphlet with a brightly colored picture of the standard food pyramid on the cover. “Here is a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, which has to be taken with an over-the-counter acid reducer to prevent ulcers. Then he walks out of the room.
I look at the prescriptions in my hand. One is for the treatment of arthritis pain and one is a narcotic, used to reduce pain, and as a sleep aid, both of which have a side-effect of weight gain. I leave the Doctors appointment and toss the prescriptions in the trash. When it came to the issues I needed to address, they were equivolated to a symptom of my weight with no further investigation. Dr. Gold, like many doctors who look at my chart and see Fibromyalgia and also see my weight, decide that I need those things, that I am not active, and that I overeat.
I have had this very same experience many times. I have been handed prescription pain killers that I didn’t ask for (and didn’t use) 8 times in my adult life, from a doctor. I have been told by doctors that I am overweight, as if I didn’t know already. One time a physician’s assistant held my hand, stroking the back of it, while she gently informed me that all of problems in life would just go away as soon as I got my weight under control. I don’t know what world she was living in. I am waiting for the day when I go to the ER with injuries from a car crash and they tell me that nothing is really wrong, I just need to lose weight.
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