Fat People Deserve Love Too!!

I was FURIOUS!  I work in an operating room.  We see patients from every walk of life...tall patients, short patients, big patients, small ones.  We see all kinds of piercings and tattoos, some offensive and some that just make you wonder what the patient was thinking.  At the heart though, we see people on the most vulnerable days of their lives.  They are in pain, afraid, anxious, and looking to us to care for them as if they were our own, and they have every right to their expectations. 

I was working yesterday when the nurses wheeled in an obese patient.  While she was obese, she was by far NOT the largest patient that any of us have ever seen, far from it actually.  Yes, sometimes caring for an obese patient can present challenges that aren't present when caring for thinner people as equipment is often built for certain weight limits and we sometimes have to do the best we can with what we have to work with.  That was a part of our challenge yesterday, but what infuriated me were all of the comments that flew so loosely about the room about our patient's weight.  She was anesthetized and therefore unable to hear what was going on, and unfortunately, these healthcare workers thought that her inability to hear them gave them license to say whatever they wanted.

"I bet she has a small husband doesn't she?  He's probably one of those guys that obsesses over the calendars with the pictures of extremely fat women posing in lingerie on them like you see at Spencer's!"

"What good can back surgery possibly do someone like this?  Does she really think that her pain is gonna stop when she's THIS big?? The only thing that's going to help her is a DIET!!"

I wanted to scream "STOP!!" from the top of my lungs.  Unfortunately, my acting out of my passion over things like this have never fared well with my employer so I contained myself, but I did make sure to mention to people that, "Hey, you know no matter what her size, this lady is a human being!" and the fact that she's nowhere near as big as people were making her out to be, not that it even matters.

As I stewed over the situation during the day, I realized that I had an increased sensitivity on behalf of our patient not only because of my obesity, but because of knowing that I'm having surgery soon so there's help available for me.  Things will be changing for me soon.  The opportunity for weight loss surgery is there for many people, but may not be a viable option for everyone possibly because of insurance or other reasons.

I've been working in this field for several years now and I've heard comments made about our patients' weights before, both large and small, many times.  I know, in fact, that there have been times when I've made comments myself.  I'm ashamed to even admit that.  Most often though, when I've heard the comments made about our patients, I think to myself, my God, these people that I'm working with must think that I'm the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man or something!!

I admit that there have been times when I've looked at people and thought to myself, "God, I never want to be THAT big", or watched some of those documentaries on television of the "Half Ton Mom, Dad, or Teen" and thought to myself, surely they could have done SOMETHING before allowing themselves to get to be that size.  I've seen the people on tv with the horrible cases of lymphedema and bed sores and listened to one patient say that she doesn't smell and marvel that she can still do things that other people couldn't do because she could touch her toes while she permanently lay in bed.

I've made judgements against those people, and in truth, yes, there must have been something that they could have done before allowing themselves to get to the sizes that they are/were and even more importantly, the people that enabled their addictions needed as much help as the people themselves.  But, the fact of the matter is that these individuals ARE human beings.  They deserve to be loved and respected like anyone else.  Me making judgements against them is like an alcoholic one-upping themself over a crack addict.  They're both addicts!  The only difference is the drug of choice or method of consumption.

I don't want to be 1,000 lbs., so I am taking steps to get control over my life now, but there is nothing about the level of severity of my obesity that makes me better than anyone else.