Its no big secret that I have been and continue to battle weight issues. I also have a work injury. I have hurt my back and there seems to be no end to the pain.
I have had several different types of treatment. I have had chiro, physio, some sort of other specialist not chiro but someone else tried to manipulate my back, I have had x-ray, MRI, Bone scan.
I have seen specialist after specialist. Although the consensus is the weight has not caused the problem but it is hindering the recooperation. I have had a few doctors treat me with respect but most of the doctors dont understand and are completely insensitive. Like if it was so easy to just drop the weight dont you think I would have done that already?
My family doctor although she is nice on the surface she has this ability to make you feel insecure, humiliated, and disgusting about yourself. She is a perfect petite blonde who says you need to lose some weight but she says it so condescendingly that you want to throw up. So back in April we decided I would do Gastric bypass, again she put it down and was like you really need to do it on your own. Well I am 28 and I have been doing it on my own since I was 6 and it hasnt worked yet. So she put the referal in. Well that referal sat on the surgeons desk from April till August when I finally asked what was going on. My doctor phoned and found out he is not taking any more referals. Isnt that something she should have known? It feels as though my problems and issues are on the back burner and isnt very important. So now we have wasted 5 months on waiting for something that wasnt going to happen. My doctor said she would look into another surgeon. Well August to October and I saw her 4 times in that time period and she still didnt find anything. I did my own research and finally found a weight specialist here in Ottawa and got my questions answered.
The answers were....THere are no gastric bypass surgeons in Ontario taking anymore patients. Isnt that something my doctor should have been aware of. I can get OHIP to cover my surgery and I can be sent to NY.....again isnt that something my doctor should have told me?
Not only have I dealt with my personal doctor but I have seen back specialists there are about 4 of them that I have seen that were completely ignorant and insensitive to the subject. Treated me as if I wasnt even human...all because of my size. Both myself and my mom left one of my appointments where my mother was appauled at how I was treated and what was said. I told her that is how they all have been. She was surprised and disgusted.
Now onto my physio therapists. During physio I was approached by both the physio therepist and the occupational therapist....The Occupational therapist actually said "I dont knwo if your aware but you are a little over weight. YOu dont have the stamina to do the exercises thats why your tired." Totally negated that I have an injury and thats why I dont have the stamina. He also approached as if I didnt know I was fat. Of course I know im fat like does he think I live in m y own little bubble. SO in short I was treated and judged based on size. I was talked down to, some of these things were said with other patients in the room. For the record I proved him wrong by peddling 3x as far and as fast. He also went on a walk with me where I out walked him. I died the next day from pain in my back but not because of lack of stamina cause i was to fat. It was made very clear to me on several occasions that if only I would lose weight my back would get better. As if I wasnt trying.
Now today inorder for me to get OHIP to cover my surgery I need notes from various professionals stating that it is in my best interest to have the surgery. ONe of the arguments is that if I lost the weight my back would heal. SO I asked if physio would write me a note. I am willing to pay for it however their answer to me is NO. for legal reason they are not writting me a note. Personally I feel betrayed. They are supposed to help me get better. Help me get what is in the best interest for me to get whatever therapy I need to be healthy. If a professional feels it is suitable to say something to a patient then they should be willing to back up what they say on paper.
I feel like every thing said to me was done out of haste and was done without thinking how it would make me feel. I have spent the past hours crying because im so pissed off and dont knwo how to express it any other way.
I think all medical professionals should be forced to take interpersonal communication to learn how to effectively dommunicate with patients without causing any emotional distress.
Yesterday ||Tomorrow