Medical Things

October 18, 2012

Medical Things

Those following along on twitter know that I went to the Urgent Care near work to deal with a UTI. This, of course, brought up the “Seeing the doctor issues”.

Fortunately the actual appointment went well, with no weight fight.

Then it was off to the pharmacy. The nice part was that the UTI pain relief pills are over the counter now, so I could get them right away and not have to wait for the backed-up pharmacy.

Realizing that I was freaked, but still needed to go, got me thinking. The Urgent Care didn’t give me a bad time for being fat. They had furniture that fit me. There were multiple sizes of blood pressure cuffs in the exam room. There was not only a scale that could weigh me, but again, it was in the exam room, so privacy. It wasn’t a bad experience at all – but it still stressed me out, because it was a medical situation, and my history is that medical situations are where I am judged, rejected, and hated.

And I started thinking about other medical things I’ve been putting off. I have a referral to an allergist. I’ve had it since spring. I’ve been putting off scheduling a physical longer.

Yes, I also have a work schedule that puts a large lake between my work and my doc. I’m finishing my father’s estate. And so on. But I’m wondering, again, just how much that one extra thing tends to result in people not getting standard, basic care.

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Anti-fat bigotry, health, Stress

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Living 400lbs

I blog about what it’s like to be live life at about 400lbs. :)

4 responses to “Medical Things”

Louise Pitt

October 19, 2012 at 12:53 am

Totally agree. I started dressing up for appointments in my best business clothes, hair, make up , shoes etc. Sadly, I get treated better. I still replay the time when I was desperately ill and 48lbs over my “ideal” weight that a doctor at the hospital responded to a question by telling me I had “far bigger problems” in reference to my weight. 13 years later and I still remember how I felt. Words scar.

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jaed

October 20, 2012 at 8:21 pm

I had a brief episode of severe pain a few months ago, and was too afraid to go to a doctor about it. (I got the same pain two months later, far more severe and lasting, and went to the ER. It turned out to be an ovarian cyst that I needed surgery for.)

I wasn’t explicitly fat-shamed at any point during the ER, followup appointments, surgery prep, or surgery, which was good (and confidence-building). On the other hand, once the surgeon learned the numbers on my weight, she consulted with an internist and insisted that I had to take a blood pressure drug or (implied) she wouldn’t do the surgery. (My BP is normal, but I have white-coat hypertension. I’d had one moderately high and one normal office reading at that point.)

And I had an idiosyncratic reaction to the BP drug: my blood pressure spiked to hypertensive-crisis levels after I went on the drug.

So six of one, half-dozen of the other. I am fairly sure that the internist freaked out when seeing my BMI and the one high reading, and decided I was one step away from a heart attack, just like all fat people, and the result was that I came unpleasantly close to permanent damage.

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Sue Newbould

October 22, 2012 at 9:59 am

Louise Pitt is right about dressing up for appointments. I get treated better too. Sometimes I feel that I have to dress at least a little better than everyone else or they’ll only see how fat I am and assume I’m a dumb lazy slob. I do have a fat friendly doctor but some of the others in her office could be more accepting. It’s also annoying that a lot of thin women in the grocery store could get away with just throwing on a T-shirt and sweat pants. It’s a little insulting that I have to dress up to get more respect but it does work.

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Operation de-Dust Mite « Living ~400lbs

November 25, 2012 at 11:23 pm

[…] October I noticed I was having more anxiety about the whole “going to the doctor” thing. I ended up calling the asthma specialist I’d been referred to at least six months […]

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Former software tester, now retired heart patient having fun and working on building endurance and strength. See also About page.

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