Fat Girl Walks Into the Doctor's Office

This right here.

Doctor, I think I have strep throat - well, if you lost some weight, you'd feel better.

Doctor, I've broken my arm - you know, if you lost some weight, this wouldn't have happened (skinny people don't get broken arms??).

Doctor, my knee was torn open from side to side, all the way to the bone and it hurts me now, years later - you know if you lost some weight, your knee wouldn't hurt. (did you HEAR that it was ripped open in a car crash??)

Doctor, my back bothers me off and on after being in a near fatal crash and spraining my neck - well, if you lost some weight, it probably wouldn't hurt anymore. (probably?? So skinny people don't have back problems? They don't get back surgeries daily?)

DOCTORS need to reevaluate their old school teachings. They need to do some REAL studies. How many overweight people die of things because they couldn't bear to go to the doctor and be diagnosed as fat again? How many of the statistics are there because we weren't treated for what we came in for? How many cancers are missed? How many PROPER diagnoses were missed? How many died because the doctor attributed their problems to being fat INSTEAD of treating them like any other patient and actually looking for serious problems. I have even heard my thinner friends and family mention that the doctor told them to lose some weight. What is their weight obsession?? The ideal body weight chart is a hoax. I've seen grown adults get down to their ideal body weight and they look like they are on drugs. Skinny, weak, sad, and usually SICK on top of it all.

I personally don't believe in doctors anymore. Sure, if I have some life threatening thing happen, I'm going to the doctor. But in reality, I no longer trust doctors. Especially Western medicine where they medicate it and forget it (don't even get me started on big pharma). If a doctor, of all people, can't look at me, see a human and treat me as such (not a fat person), how can I trust them to look for the real problem? How can I trust that they will have my best interest at heart? How can I trust that they aren't rolling their eyes in the break room, talking about the fat girl that was in their office complaining of back pain, throat pain, swollen tonsils, etc. and brushing it off as some sort of thing only fat people get. Can they not see with their own eyes that both SKINNY and FAT people get cancer? Can they not see that both SKINNY and FAT people have heart disease? Can they not see that getting bronchitis or a cold or the flu has NOTHING to do with how much you weigh? In fact, age plays a much bigger factor in deaths from the flu - but do they tell a baby to grow up? Suck it up? Do they tell an elderly person they'd better try to get young? It's time that we look at the big picture and know that even the healthiest, fittest, tall, white male falls down from a heart attack at 45. There are other issues here beyond weight and fitness. There are genetics. There are food choices (didn't know a fat person could also eat healthy did you??) There are social choices and choices at work that cause stress. There are environmental factors, socio-economic factors – yes, class/money is a factor in health.

We need a new class of doctors. One that is learning about the WORLD'S medicine, not just the US standard of treatment. Other countries are curing cancer with things that are good for us - not chemo that brings us within an inch of our lives and doctors with crossed fingers hoping we come back from the brink of death. Many other countries have longer life expectancies. Many other countries consider both Eastern and Western medicine as compliments to one another when treating disease. Some countries even try Eastern medicine ideas first before going the harsher, more addictive, more invasive route of Western medicine. When the world comes together to share what they know and learn about medicine, that is when I will trust doctors again.

In the meantime, I'll get that second and third and fourth opinion. I'll read everything there is to read about any condition that comes along and affects my health. I'll determine my own, best course of treatment because sadly, no one else (not even a highly educated, high paid doctor) is going to do it for me.