I was chatting with my friend, Shannon this morning at our first weekly get together to weigh in and do a little study by Joyce Meyers. I have been struggling with my program and since I do not have a formal support group to attend, Shannon has become my support group. Thank heavens for her. Since she has also had bariatric surgery, she knows how hard it is to be on the program and has an understanding of what I go through.
As we were chatting, we started talking about different doctors that we have had through the years and how they have treated us because of our obesity. Can I just say, it hasn't always been pretty. I have had doctors that were basically not willing to touch me. It's kind of like if they did they might also become obese.
I had one specific doctor and I can't even remember her name, that is probably a good thing, who just treated me badly all because I was fat. I had gone in for my yearly pap smear and she just was not nice about the whole thing. She asked me if everything else was okay and I told her that my knee was bothering me a little. Her reply was "If you would just lose some weight, that would help." She never examined my knee.
About 2 weeks after that, I was getting in the shower and twisted my knee and ended up spraining it. The doc in the ER was very nice and said that he felt I should see an orthopedic. The pracitce that I was going to at the time had to refer you to a specialist. When I went to see my doctor for a recheck, I told her what the ER doc said. She told me that she would not refer me. She said I just needed to lose weight. I asked her what was I suppose to do in the mean time with my knee. Her reply was "Go buy an ace bandage if you can find one big enough." I was so upset. I had never been treated this badly by a doctor before. I never went back.
My point in all this is, that even though I am obese, I am a person and I deserve to be treated by the medical profession with dignity and respect. If you aren't, don't go back. You are worth so much more than that. If you are looking for a bariatric doctor. Be picky. Find someone who will be respectful and want to know about the whole you and not just get you on the operating table to make a buck.
I was blessed when God found Dr. Dirk Rodriguez for me.( www.drdirkweightloss.com) He never ever looked at me like I was a horrible person because of my obesity. He treated me with respect and dignity. He protected me, complimented me, joked with me, but the biggest and most important thing that he did, was that he cared about the whole me and he helped me to become healthier so I could live my life and not watch it pass me by. For that, I will always be grateful.
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