4 ms·
JFYI, please at least mention the stated purpose of the cards before dismissing them. > A tendency to see size over everything else may lead providers to misdi
by rovolo 5y ago
JFYI, please at least mention the stated purpose of the cards before dismissing them.
> A tendency to see size over everything else may lead providers to misdiagnose patients in larger bodies and misattribute symptoms to size instead of the true underlying condition.
Their primary purpose isn't to deal with shame, its to ask doctors to not jump to the conclusion that the problem is the weight. There are examples in a linked article on the site: https://www.self.com/story/weight-stigma-kept-me-out-of-doctors-offices https://www.self.com/story/weight-stigma-kept-me-out-of-doct...
> Later, I found another doctor for an annual checkup. At the appointment, he physically recoiled at the sight of me. He quickly told me I’d need to lose weight before I saw him next, then left the exam room. My body was never touched, never examined. I learned nothing new about my health, and was left only with the searing shame of believing that even a professional couldn’t bear to touch my body.
> At another appointment, a nurse took my blood pressure four times. When I asked her if I was okay, she told me my blood pressure must be wrong. "Obese patients don’t usually have low blood pressure," she said. Even my health was impossible to believe.
- Ancapistani 5y agoI agree the above anecdotes are a problem, but I fail to see how the cards in the article do anything at all to address it.
- kcplate 5y agoAt one point being morbidly obese I get these antidotes. I had one doctor look at me and tell me if I wanted to wager with him that I would die before 45 (I didn’t, so should have taken the bet). I think it was some piss poor attempt at shocking me to action, which it didn’t do. The only thing it did was cause me to no longer go to him. However, poor bedside manner aside…if your obese it is a pretty good bet that it’s going to kill you, and kill you early…which is why docs focus on it.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Their primary purpose isn't to deal with shame, its to ask doctors to not jump to the conclusion that the problem is the weight. That's dumb, because doctors that are weight-fixated (which is a real problem) aren't going to be less weight-fixated with a patient that is visibly defensive around weight. It centers attention on the thing you want least attention on. If you've got a doctor with this problem and it is interfering with your care, you don't need a ”don’t weigh me” card you need a different doctor. (OTOH, I’ve seen the “don’t weigh unless specifically necessary, and don't put the weight in follow-up notes” thing, whether in card or oral-request form, recommended for people with eating disorders where seeing/knowing their current weight can be a trigger, and think it is wholly sensible there.)