Dumb Doctors
I can believe he said that to you. As a nurse who works with
doctors every day I know Not all doctors are tactful and many of them
are just plain dumb when it comes to relating to people. As most of
us know many people are ignorant when it comes to what heavy people go
through and most people know very little about this procedure or why
it is neccessary.
A few weeks ago one of the nursing supervisors at work commented on
how much weight I have lost and I told her that I had lost 33 lbs (at
that time)and that I had to lose 100 lbs because I was planning to
have a gastric bypass. She was very negative about the surgery and
told me I shouldn’t have it. She too recounted a horror story to me
and said Why don’t you just keep doing what you’re doing? I didn’t
even try to explain because I already knew it was useless to try to
educate her.
In fairness to the good docs out there, I have to say that I have had
several doctors suggest that I should investigate having this surgery.
All but one of them was gentle, tactful and truly concerned about my
health. That one was a cardiologist who took over my care when my
wonderful, sweet cardiologist left the practice. After about 2
minutes in the room with me in which he introduced himself and quickly
flipped through my chart he said "I don’t believe that you have a
cardiac problem at all. You are just fat and need to go have your
stomach stapled." He scribbled the name of a general surgeon on a
piece of paper (didn’t even care that the man was not a specialist in
obesity surgery)and told me not to come back they didn’t need to see
me again. He didn’t even write prescriptions for refills of my meds I
had been taking for months he told me my primary doc could handle it.
I am still debating filing a complaint with the medical board about
the way he handled this situation.
Anyway try not to let the opinion of people who don’t know what they
are talking about(even medical people) influence you. Do your own
research so that you know all there is to know. Sure sometimes a
patient has problems during or after surgery and yes sometimes
(in rare circumstances) people die, but remember that is true with all
surgeries not just this one. Maybe we can educate some of those out
there who don’t have a clue.
Hang in there!
Kat