She's A Brick House
It's difficult to tear my eyes away from all the completely thrilling (to me)political coverage to talk about weight again. Is there any way I can talk about the election? Did we get any awesome overweight people into Congress that I can write about? Is that a stretch? Oh, okay then.
In that case, did you see House? From the Television Without Pity recaplet by Sara M:
"A man weighing over six hundred pounds comes to PPTH in a coma. Fatty-hater Chase doesn't see the point in treating the guy, but Everybody-lover Cameron comes to his defense and insists on getting him an MRI even though he exceeds the weight limit... Chase says they should just a wait-and-see approach with George because he wants all fat people to die... George goes blind and refuses to let them test him for any obesity-related conditions, insisting that his condition isn't related to the fact that he weighs six hundred pounds, and in the end, he's right: he actually has terminal lung cancer. "
I'm not sure what this had to say about overweight people, but I figured I'd throw it out there for your thoughts, in case you'd seen the episode. Or we can talk about Rumsfeld resigning!
In that case, did you see House? From the Television Without Pity recaplet by Sara M:
"A man weighing over six hundred pounds comes to PPTH in a coma. Fatty-hater Chase doesn't see the point in treating the guy, but Everybody-lover Cameron comes to his defense and insists on getting him an MRI even though he exceeds the weight limit... Chase says they should just a wait-and-see approach with George because he wants all fat people to die... George goes blind and refuses to let them test him for any obesity-related conditions, insisting that his condition isn't related to the fact that he weighs six hundred pounds, and in the end, he's right: he actually has terminal lung cancer. "
I'm not sure what this had to say about overweight people, but I figured I'd throw it out there for your thoughts, in case you'd seen the episode. Or we can talk about Rumsfeld resigning!
posted by mo pie at 1:38 PM
11 Comments:
I haven't seen the episode, but on the positive side it's nice that it turned out his illness wasn't fat-related. One of the big reasons fat people avoid seeing the doctor is because they're afraid any symptoms will simply be blamed on their fatness and they'll be told to just lose weight.
I am very excited about the Rumsfeld news.
Tangentially related to this post--I was at a dinner, also attended by a thoracic surgeon, who I didn't know very well. He told a story about a 300+ lb man, who was being moved on or off the table while under anesthesia. The patient started to roll, and the staff "instinctively" and for purposes of "self preservation" stepped back. He fell to the floor and suffered a broken rib.
Most of the people thought it was hilarious, which was probably due to the fact that the surgeon was playing it for laughs.
I was like--dude broke a rib. That must have hurt when he woke up. The doctor got very serious and "do no harm" all the sudden.
I am still glad I called him on it. It just illustrates that some medical professionals are less sympathetic to the overweight.
Jelly, that's freaking disgraceful for a doctor, and I hope karma bites all those people in the ass. I would have stepped in and stopped that man rolling by myself - as a female half his weight - if I had to. It's not that difficult; I've worked out with guys that size when I weighed less than I do now. All it takes is the willingness not to let something like that happen to a patient.
God, I HATE doctors, and most of the rest of the medical profession as well.
And I hope karma bites the sheep who thought it was funny, too.
I spent most of yesterday trying not to chortle with glee. How much do you figure Rumsfeld weighs? I'd called that some healthy weight loss.
I wonder if there are any good studies underway or even statistics collected on the numbers of non-weight related illnesses that go undiagnosed in people of size due to their reluctance to go to the doctor for regular preventitive medical screenings? Those would be some interesting stats. Though, I suspect in the end, "they" would blame the person of size for not making the appointments, rather than the medical community for the tendancy to be dismissve of, and down right insulting to, heavy people.
Personally, I've walked out of one, and nearly left another physical with new PCP's because the first things out of their mouths when they walked in the exam room, before they knew *anything* else about me, was to tell me that I needed to lose weight. Actually, Doc #1's exact words were "You're really fat!" And yet, she was the one who acted all insulted when I left...
Jelly - That story is awful. You are my hero for calling him on it! How does that even begin to be funny to someone?
Story is AWE.FUL.
A few months ago, I had my first physical in years -- I was PETRIFIED, I hate doctors, but I screwed up all of my courage, and after weight watchering my way down from 250 to my present 188 lbs, I was actually kidna excited to talk about weight loss with my new doc.
She actually suggested that i have weight loss surgery.
I left the office in tears.
As for the episode of House... it's absolutely, unquivocally WRONG that they were hesitant to treat a man for his size. No question about that. And while I'm glad that they didn't come to the conclusion that he's dying because he's fat, I wonder if it doesn't just feed the fire of obesity CAUSING cancer.
Richard, I saw the episode too, and I agree with you. They showed both the patient being unreasonable and the doctors assuming that his condition MUST be weight-related. The patient had been through umpteen diabetes and other weight-related tests, was obviously disgusted with the health care system -- which makes sense. The doctors were looking at a 600-pound man and making a (fairly reasonable) assumption that his weight was causing the problem , even though they were wrong and it was lung cancer. I thought they showed both sides of the problem.
Chase has shown contempt for obese people in a previous episode (the young girl who'd had a heart attack; her weight turned out to be caused by hormonal problems resulting from a tumor.) So, while his response was obnoxious, it was in character for the show, and does show the problems many of us have encountered with doctors.
I am going to put it out there that I did have an obesity-related cancer--endometrial cancer, which is linked to high levels of estrogen. Obesity does tend to elevate your estrogen level. I am fine now, but this did motivate me to lose weight.
I had always been comfortable with my appearance and was satisfied with my ability to attract members of the opposite sex (that being my inclination), including my husband. I am down from a size 22 to a size 18, but I have a way to go.
I do have a family history of cancer, and not every overweight person is going to get cancer. The relationship between obesity and cancer is not that simple. This is just my personal experience.
One thing I appreciated about the character in that episode of House was that he was well off and a gourmand, not a grossly fat poor man living on junk food. I was fully expecting his character to be the full on "fat-and-stupid" stereotype, and was pleased to see that they made him a well-off guy in a fancy apartment with taste in jazz and things other than food. He was also well educated about his own health, if a little (understandably) stubborn about the whole weight-related illness thing.
Having Chase go all sulky asshole was a good counterpoint to Cameron and House, and he represented the way many doctors seem to feel about overweight patients, so it was realistic to have his response in the mix. The whole thing with the MRI was about logistics of if putting him on the machine would break it, not because they assumed it would 'cause he was a fattie, but because they knew the weight limit of the machine, and knew he was over it by at least 100lb. Simple physics.
Yeah, what they said. Not a bad episode, treated the fat man as well as one could expect from prime time, and Chase's hatred was indeed in character. Despite not being half-bad-looking if you like twelve-year-olds, Chase's character is pretty much a bug.
My one qualm: it's terminal lung cancer. The fat man is presumably going to die, and he has to go BLIND before he dies, so he can't even stay in bed reading everything he's always wanted to while his life wraps up, which would for me somewhat ameliorate the death sentence. And lung cancer isn't always terminal, not by a long shot; the writers had the option that they take with so many of House's patients of diagnosing the disease and starting presumably-successful treatment. So even though the episode says that fat people aren't inherently sloppy and stupid, that doctors are too often anti-fat bigots, and that illness isn't always about weight, it also says a little less directly that fat is so heinous that it must be punished by death...like the old Travis McGee books, if anyone remembers them, in which at least one woman dies per book over twenty-some books. Maybe it's balanced out by last season's episode about the fat girl, who was rewarded by living and becoming thin, but maybe not, too. So far, we have two episodes in which the illness isn't caused by the fat, but we don't have any episode in which the fat person stays fat, is cured, and has the fat be totally irrelevant to anything. Coincidence or trope of dominant culture? You be the judge.
--Cat
I agree whole-heartedly with Cat; it's both disgusting & appalling that the ignorance of the dominant culture/society (which btw we are ALL responsible for) allows for DOCTORS, whom not-so-educated people regard as gods, to treat overweight or obese patients with contempt or at the very least indifference. Apparently being fat is a crime on par with murder, rape and incest & its "perpetrators" deserve to be dismissed, ignored and allowed to die gracelessly for their "crime". For Bethk: I wonder how those doctors would feel if you kept a log of everything they said during your bogus exams and then sent them a letter threatening to sue them for malpractice (which it is). I think they'd be a little more solicitous to the next fat person they examine, don't you?
Sorry for going off-topic -
Kristin, you might want to do some research on fibromyalgia. Fatigue, bone pain, and muscle pain are a host of other symptoms that may (or may not) include depression, TMJ, and irritable bowel syndrome.
Unfortunately, some doctors refuse to acknowledge it, just the way they called called chronic fatigue syndrome "yuppie flu" before they found a diagnostic test for it.
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