"I was less stressed in Afghanistan"

"I was less stressed in Afghanistan"

I wonder if this is why I get along with nurse practicioners better, less weeding out of human beings with feelings. I don't connect with the STEM thinkers where life is a math project though I think my problems with the latest doctor go beyond that. You ever get the feeling they want to weed out all the independent thinkers, and people who have empathy in our medical schools? Medicine is supposed to have some art to it, not just numbers so what are we losing from this kind of system?

An Interview with a Friend About Life, Fat, and Supersized People.

INTERVIEW WITH PAM

Pam was a friend of mine now deceased. I miss her very much. She did endure a lot of what I have and at one point was near 700lbs as well. She knew what it was to face severe weight issues into her 60s. She was a very funny, kind and loving woman. We shared many struggles and she was a life line to me for very years. It was a blessing to know her.  I remembered I was interviewing her in future hope of writing about weight, which I obviously did on this blog. :) I still own the tape and transcript typed out back then, and decided I'd share it here. At the time she gave me permission to use this for any writing. I am happy to share her words here. The conversation brings back fond memories for me not for what we went through but that that we were there to support one another. Of course since 2004, some of my views have changed which is the year this interview was done.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: How old are you?

PAM: How old, or how moldy?

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: [laughing] No, how old?

PAM: Old enough to know better, but too young to resist.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP [laughs]: That’s funny. What’s the highest weight you’ve ever been?

PAM: Boy, this is a personal interview – is this gonna be on “20/20”?


FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: No.

PAM: My highest weight was 600-plus in 1980, but they weren’t sure…one doctor said, as far as an actual weight, closer to 700 [pounds], and congestive heart failure, and they’d mainline Lacix – which drew a lot of water off of me in one week’s period of time.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: OK – yeah, you said you got lots of water taken off of you.

PAM: Uh-huh. I didn’t know I had congeestive heart failure. I was 33, at that time.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: OK. OK. And what’s the lowest weight you’ve ever been?

PAM: You mean, birth weight, or adult weight?

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP:  I was two pounds in the womb! I was born weighing 200 pounds [laughs] – that’s what I’d tell people!

PAM: As an adult – I think when I was 19, 18 ½, I was going to a doctor that was giving everybody all these – you know, it was like a diet clinic, and I got down to 123 pounds.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Wow, you’ve been smaller than I ever have…

PAM: Very, very…I was skinny, but I got pregnant, and I gained 60 pounds with the pregnancy…that was with my son, and, after that, I just kept going up. I was at Weight Watchers, and Overeaters Anonymous, to try to – you know, stay around 250 [pounds], because I was selling ads, and you have to make a fairly decent appearance, plus, you’re on the go all the time.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Yeah, that makes sense…what have been some of the challenges to you, in terms of being overweight?

PAM: Well, employment, housing – now, because I’m in a wheelchair. I don’t have to be in it all the time, but – getting older, disabilities are harder to deal with, as you age.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: That’s true.

PAM: That’s a big challenge, aging; I’m facing that now – I’ve outlived a lot of people that are in a similar situation, that I knew. I’ve watched people just dwindle down, you know, under a system that’s not too kind. There’s not a lot of help for women in my age group, in the 50s – you know, if you’re disabled, if you don’t have a spouse with a good job, or a family that can help…and a lot of people don’t…or they have ‘em, but they’re not willing to get involved…so that can be quite a challenge to be in this age group, before retirement age.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Kind of like, you fall through the cracks, right?

PAM: Right, and fall through the cracks of what’s happening now…I just read an article about a county out here in rural [state] – the waiting list for people that are of retirement age, that are on Social Security, and not because of disability, but need services because they’re aging…they have medical needs…the waiting lists are getting longer and longer, because of the aging population. So, by the time I get into the next age group, if I live that long, I’ll be just one of those people on the waiting list [laughs] – so, I don’t know what it [the solution] is.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Let me ask this question – what would you say are the special challenges of the supersized, the 200- to 300-pound person? {I consider supersized to be 350lbs and above today}

PAM: That’s supersized?

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Yeah, the supersized, the people who are on the upper end of the scale, like me?

PAM: You mean, 200 to 300 pounds?

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Yeah, people who aren’t 200 to 300 [pounds]?

PAM: People that have lived at 600, 700, 800 pounds? I don’t weigh that now, but that could happen again in five minutes – you know, once you’ve been that big, you could go back there, because of medical conditions, food-related things, whatever…I’m not real clear on that question. Do that one more time.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: OK. What would you say are the special challenges that the supersized fat people have to deal with…

PAM: That the moderately overweight don’t have to deal with?

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Yeah, that the moderately overweight don’t have to deal with. PAM: Well, I mean, like we’ve talked about – personal things, personal hygiene. It’s amazingly hard for moderate overweight people to realize that people, once they get up over 400, 500, 600 pounds, that there are landlords – if they see the person, they’re gonna assume that they’re not gonna pay their rent, that they probably don’t keep their apartments clean, because they’re too big to run a vacuum, or whatever…

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: That’s true; they won’t rent to you. {I was refused an apartment once due to weight}

PAM: There’s rental discrimination…there’s people that are supersized, and they keep their apartments immaculate. You know, I’m not supersized – well, I’m borderline supersized – I consider anybody over 200 pounds to be supersized. But, super-super-sized people…it was a struggle to do some of the things thin people take for granted, when they clean, or bathe, or have a bowel movement. You know, we talked about the toilet paper sponges, for the reach, and the bidets, for the overweight – even umbrellas. An umbrella for an average person won’t keep a supersized person dry.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP [laughs]: Yeah, you’re right, I was thinking about that – you’re right, it won’t.

PAM: Yeah, when it rains, and you use a regular umbrella, all it does is bring the rain down on your shoulders, and it drips down on your body.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: That’s true. That’s actually something that frustrated me. I didn’t know anybody else that noticed that.

PAM: There’s all kinds of different things…thank God that people challenged it, and there’s more big people now – there’s money to be made off of us, so the fashion industry opened up, but it still has a long way to go -- there’s things that I need, that I can’t from Roman’s, and Lane Bryant’s. They don’t seem to carry pantyhose, and brassieres, and girdles that’ll fit real big women -- or women, even my size, with the loose skin. I still need a gigantic girdle, if it’s gonna be on me, and support me, but you can’t buy them.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I know, they just don’t have them – I had to give up wearing bras long ago. Do you think discrimination against overweight people is getting worse?

PAM: I think, because there’s so many overweight kids and adults – you would think it would be getting better, but I think it’s an unpopular group to be associated with. People, even if they are heavy, or supersized – they may find friends in that weight range, they can relate – but I think the discrimination is still there. You know, if we walked in on an interview, and had degrees, and a thin woman that had the experience, and [only] some degrees, based on appearance, they’d pick the thin one. I mean, it’s been proven.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Yeah, they have done studies on that – they have done studies on that, and they’ve definitely have always picked the thin one.

PAM: Well, they did a study, too, with little children – five-year-olds – and they used dolls. One doll was disfigured facially, like a burn patient; the other one was without limbs. I forget the others. You know, there’s different disabilities that can come upon a human being…and then one was just huge, just a big fat doll baby. Of all these disfigured dolls, even though the obese wasn’t burned, or limbless – the one that none of ‘em wanted to be was the obese doll.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Oh, wow…

PAM: They would rather be without arms and legs, facially disfigured, whatever, than to be obese.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Hm – that’s probably because of some of the messages they hear about how bad fat people are, over and over…

PAM: Oh, sure. And then, all this stuff about the restaurants downsizing food portions – I don’t see any of that stuff happening. I don’t know what the answer is.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Actually, it’s not happening – did you know Hardee’s actually released a 1,400-calorie burger?

PAM: Oh, mercy!

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: That’s pretty bad, isn’t it?

PAM: Especially when they’re hyping all this, “Oh, we’re gonna try to help,” you know, especially with the next generation – which I do see some improvement. But there again, there’s gonna have to be more support groups – and God forbid, maybe even the only way that people would ever cut back, if all this stuff is gonna continue to be available, and so many people are insulin resistant from eating this way for so many generations – that it might take, whether it’d be a famine or something, for a couple generations to get back to where they’d have to plant, and harvest. Like the Bible says: “You work by the sweat of your brow.” I mean, people don’t have to do anything!

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I know, that’s kind of why we’re all getting messed up…’cause, then, you burned it all off.

PAM: Everybody’s at the TV, or computer…yeah, you see some people jogging, and walking, but – you know, once you get to a certain point – whether it’s just the natural aging process, or you’re obese along with it…I mean, you’re limited how much of that you can do safely.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I actually have the belief that if you don’t exercise enough as a kid, and your life’s sedentary, you never can get to the good part. Does that make sense?

PAM: Yeah. Well, and I think, too, some people are heavy because of illness, even, from birth on – they don’t ever feel well enough to exercise. And there’s the other side, too – the other side of the coin with people – where getting that habit ingrained in your mind [is difficult]. Once you feel better, I think if you can keep with it, maybe get some support, get involved in a sport, or something – if that’s even possible – it’s just not even possible for a segment of this society. They’re not mobile enough to do it. But there’s decent exercises – there’s depression in there, too, people are battling that. A lot of times, obese people are isolated, alone in apartments, where even the most optimistic person – over the long haul, day in and day out – would be wore down.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Well, here’s the thing, too – I almost think, when there were more people around, they were a more closer-knit society. That actually gives you a chance for more movement. Does that make sense? ‘Cause you’re moving around…

PAM: Before the automobile? You know, I mean, it’s not been that long ago, maybe there weren’t even bicycles…I don’t know what the history is on bikes, or things with wheels, but you know – basically speaking, it was the only wealthy that had things like this. Your feet got you there, and maybe somebody might have an old wheel, but I don’t think they really rode ‘em – they used ‘em for farming, or transporting goods.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I think they walked.

PAM: They walked! And women lived and died within a mile of their house – I’ve read that over and over. People were born in a village, and if they maybe went to town once a year, there’d be a homecoming, or something – that was as far as most women went. A lot of ‘em didn’t know how to read, a lot of people didn’t know how to read. Maybe the priest, or the pastor, or a lawyer in town would do all the documents – poor people, especially, just the average man on the street was not that educated.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: That’s true. You’re right. OK, let me ask you a new question…there’s some good stuff. Let me – I was gonna ask you about size acceptance. What do you think of the size acceptance movement?

PAM: Over the last 30 or 40 years, whenever it started – I think it’s probably getting close to 40 now, but…

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Wait a minute, just a second, whoops…my microphone fell off, just a minute.

[FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEPstops to get another piece of tape to hold her microphone in place.] [break and off subject conversation]

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I always wonder, though, if both of us worked – all these errands, and crap, and cooking, and stuff –

PAM: Well, what happens if people don’t work on their marriage, and take time for themselves? That’s what it becomes.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I know – I don’t know how these people have any time.

PAM: They don’t.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP [laughs]:’Cause, I’ll tell you what, Pam – during the day, paying the bills, making the food, making sure there’s groceries, laundry, all the medical stuff, that takes up enough time, where I’m like: “What if I had a job? We’d never see each other.”

PAM: Yeah, you know, you have to be real mobile to do that, and some people do get way behind. Their kids suffer. A lot of women that are out there working are not making any money, if they’re paying babysitters…

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I know – I actually think they should be allowed at home. You know what I've said about the two for one deal the corporations got, when one income used to support a family.

PAM: There are ways to have what you need, and still stay home, and be a mom to your kids – and it’s too much, ‘cause it’s the woman that ends up paying ‘em [babysitters, daycare, etc.].

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I know. I think feminism screwed us [laughs], I do!

PAM: OK – you take a situation, if a woman can handle all that – of course, if you wanna get yourself into that, a person should be allowed. I don’t think there should be any restrictions set on it. But I just think a lot of women didn’t realize what they were getting into, and once they got into it…

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: They can’t get out.

PAM: Yeah, it’s like an addiction – it can be more fun to go to work, than taking care of two- and three-year-olds – preschoolers, you know? It’s hard work. [(337 feet): Discussion turns to difference between modern life, and level of activity in older, agrarian-based society.]

PAM: Today, if you use a towel, then it goes in the laundry, instead of hanging it up, and using it for a week – because it was clean when you use it. Unless it’s like a hand towel…

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I know – I do too much laundry, ‘cause I always have to wear different clothes – I smell really easily, so I can’t even repeat a wearing of anything.

PAM: They say it’s the foods we eat, and if you take medicine, and have illness, you’ll have a body odor difference, sometimes.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Actually, I believe PCOS makes you stink, especially if it’s uncontrolled. It makes you smell lot. It really does.

PAM: Huh! I don’t perspire, or anything – sometimes, because you’re round yourself… [Of subject conversation PAM says. “Some of these people are so competitive, even if it’s to advance the cause…”

PAM is more enthusiastic about nominating MICHAEL MOORE: “He’s a tub! He’s one of our brothers in fat. I tell you what – that man could help us.” PAM and FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP then briefly talk about merits/demerits of weight loss surgery, before going back to list of interviewees.] PAM [after suggesting Ricki Lake, who’s gotten heavy again:] There are people, believe it or not – I know a couple of ‘em – they’ve finally got a handle on it, finally got some kind of exercise in their life…


FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I think if people have an eating disorder, and just eat too much, and they don’t have the metabolic issues – if they get treatment and are able to quit eating too much, and they exercise, they can get at least some of the weight off. But if it's metabolic it's far far harder.

PAM: Yeah, I think so, but if there’s a lot of medical history – and also, if you get to a certain point where you lose mobility, it’s hard to ever get it back, or keep it.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I know. Look at me, with all the breathing problems, and stuff – how am I gonna go burn it all off?

PAM: Yeah, if you don’t move around – I mean, can you imagine how many calories you burn, just walking to get out of your apartment?

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: Probably a lot.

PAM: Yeah, you do. My doctor told me, just to be alive – when you’re over a certain amount of weight, the tremendous amount of calories [needed] just to keep this machinery going – the breathing, the digesting of the food, all of it, any movement at all…like, say, when a thin person gets up off of a chair, it’s nothing.

FIVEHUNDREDPOUNDPEEP: I know – I do move around a lot for someone [my size]. I’ve been told that by people at offices. I’m kind of a fidgety person – like, even now, I got my leg hanging over the end of the bed, going back and forth.

PAM: Yeah, well, you probably have a lot of energy trapped inside of you, you know, where…

Dr. OZ presents the Obesity Hegelian Dialectic!

LOL, I know that title would get a little attention.



I wish I could have been there...

[no, wait a minute, no I don't]

But remember these are the TWO SIDES I speak of where the truth falls through the middle...

the "in denial, I love to be fat" crowd, vs, the let the doctor bash us, foist health destroying weight loss surgery or more diets that fail garbage on the other end.

And nothing really changes, and no real help, and no real truth.

Fat Doctor Makes Fun of Fat Patients

"Penn doctor endures fallout over fat jokes"

I am glad this guy got confronted and he backed down. It is time people say "This ends now!" He never would dare make fun of any other medical problem. Even with the apology, I never would take him for a doctor. Who wants someone who looks down on you? Sadly these humor articles by doctors trashing the fat are nothing new. I wrote about another article I saw.....

I loved this quote:

"The last place an obese person should feel scared to go is a doctor's office, yet that's one of the top places where obesity bias is prevalent," said James Zervios, communications director for Obesity Action Coalition, the Florida-based advocacy group that marshaled protest last week after learning of Kelly's column.

Physician David L. Katz, a nutrition expert who founded Turn the Tide Foundation in 2007 to fight the obesity epidemic, has taken his colleagues to task for blaming weight struggles on the strugglers.

"Have you noticed that two-thirds of American adults and a rapidly rising proportion of the global population are overweight or obese?" Katz wrote in a recent Huffington Post column. "Has it not occurred to you that something larger than the will power or motivation of an individual might be in play?"

I believe doctor hatred of fat people is a risk to us. I am facing some issues lately where a doctor is not listening, and it's a specialist, who even ignored my parathyroid issues. He is the only specialist of his type in town, so now I may be forced to figure out a way to travel an hour, to see another doctor. He is good in treating one illness but ignores everything else. This is the guy that constantly berates me to get weight loss surgery. I really think some of these doctors do not see fat people as human. Some are not that smart in my opinion because they keep stupidly blaming the fat people which really is what accounts for the horrible failure in treating obesity.

I am actually getting scared for my wellbeing, thinking I may be now facing something really bad, that is not being dealt with [it involves intermittant severe abdominal pain, digestive issues and now kidney stones], because they just want to push me off as another supposedly overeating fat woman. I thought about doing a blog post on this, but will just mention it here, because it's scary and I do not know what is wrong. It could be nothing but then it could be something. It is sad when you have to read the Merck manual to figure out what is wrong with you while doctors sit around and drool. I have found my own doctor anxiety getting pretty high lately. I did get transfered to a new general doctor but do not know him yet to know how that will pan out. I am hoping he is smart and not prejudiced, and that he will be one of the good ones. I really need a good one right now.

Trust me even if you have already been diagnosed with endocrine issues, many of them do not want to listen to you. They act like auto mechanics, this one because my diabetic A1c score got back down to 6.7 has ignored other serious medical complaints. They knock you down to the lowest common denominator. I have to make phone calls today looking for a new specialist. My own father died being undiagnosed by them. Watching the guy from Philadelphia yuck it up is offensive beyond belief to me. I am at the point, I will have to order all my medical records and try to put the puzzle pieces together MYSELF, AGAIN.

Sometimes I ask myself: What is wrong with these people? Maybe medical school means money now and not intelligence for many of them. [Sorry to the few good doctors I have seen in this life time, but I am tired of the stupid ones]

See too "Fat Hating Doctor"

Update on The Fat Hating Doctor

The Fat Hating Doctor
I got my old doctor [well nurse practitioner] back. I just told them what happened, didn't have to make too much fuss. I was pleased to get her back. She has helped me to reclaim better health. I am trying to be more active and doing more then I was able. Oh I was relieved!

The Fat Hating Doctor

The other day, I get a call from my house call doctors, and they tell me I'm getting a new doctor, they removed the nurse practitioner I had for a year or more, and got along with well and assign me to this guy. Sigh...!

He arrives at the door, slight in build, probably around 4 inches shorter then me, one of those types of bodies that have never seen an ounce of fat. Lithe, one of those droid types that fill too many coffee shops. Not an independent thought in his head. I say hello, and walk out to open the door.

I get the feeling the guy does not like me, just on sight. What is scary is I know from the other doctors and professionals in the house call services, that there are other fat people and many of them are totally bed bound or wheelchair bound, some even far heavier then me up to even 300 more lbs. If this guy seems annoyed with me and is literally repulsed, how is he going to be with THEM?

He comes in and asks all the questions, basic check up stuff. I say I need a A1c {slipped up and said A1g or something like that but I'm tired} they are ok with that.....

The visit goes on...

He berates me over how much thyroid medicine I am on: "You really are on .475 micro-milligrams of Synthroid, my God!" Like it's my fault and there are people out there ready to mac on synthroid, and grind it up and snort it or something.

He tells me when I told him I was successful in reducing by quite a bit a pretty severe bowel problem by removing all MSG from the diet, [no more puking and digestive pain three times a week] and mention rice a roni as a sample food such as I could not eat [ie can eat normal rice but not processed], says, "What are you doing eating rice a roni, "You're diabetic, starches are bad for diabetics!". That is a lie and half. During my attempts to be gluten free, I had some time where starch was almost totally gone and that month sugars went sky high. But don't expect the brainwashed "geniuses" to listen.

Aggravated that there seems no sign, he ever read my chart, I told him about having PCOS. "PCOS is caused by being fat", he sneers. I retort, "I had brown spots [Ancathosis Nigrosis] by the time I was 12, the periods went poof by 19 even before I was fat. They have proven there is genetic components to PCOS, my grandmother had all the signs". He ignores me.

I tell him about my pseudo-Cushings diagnosis. He is so badly educated he has never heard of pseudo-Cushings. I realize I know more then this guy. He says "I never heard of Pseudo-Cushings". I said it means they never found the tumor source for the cortisol but I've been found to have high cortisol in my body. These tests were done when I was off the constant steroids they are pumping into me for asthma. "Why did they tell you all these things, that is silliness" insinuating I am just a fat butt that deserves everything I get." He mutters more shaking his head.

Remember I have lost weight, over the last year. Keep that in mind. The last doctor said I had massively improved as far as stamina etc. . And I get Mr. Wonder Boy of Fat Hatred at my door. He berates me for eating three meals a day. "That's too much." I guess he wants to be as skinny as a 14 year old the rest of his life and is projecting on to me. They tell diabetics to eat even more small meals a day.

He tells me to start taking magnesium, OK fine with that, the last labs were low. He then said "Did you ever have to take iron?", I said "No, I was told I was anemic a few times, but it was mild". He berates me for that, sneering "You were never anemic". Hey buddy!, you asked not me!

OK then the real fun gets started. They attempt to take my blood for the lab tests. The new nurse fails to draw blood so he jumps in. They keep going for the big veins, I said three times, "Take it out of my hand, that is where it works!". Some previous more competent types have succeeded elsewhere, but that is my advice for those who have problems. He is flipping my wrist over in an awkward position and twisting my arm, and then getting mad even at the smallest movement. They try three times. I repeat, "DO THE HAND!". NO ONE has ever failed to draw blood from me before, and I've had it done hundreds of times. I keep thinking, OK, I am one of their most mobile fat patients using their services mostly because my breathing is compromised in hot and cold weather, he has fatter patients to go to or very elderly people who will have more delicate and vulnerable veins, how is that going to work out for THEM?

He refused me thrush medicine, I wanted a refill, of course I was just some crazy woman to him, rather then being believed when I said I need a few more days of it. the thrush is coming back. I guess my only hope, is going to get some yogurt, swishing it around in there and spitting it out, because I am allergic to all dairy for full digestion. Oh I was blamed for the thrush too. I'm on Advair , its listed as a side affect, yes I rinse, but then who believes the patient anymore? Guess when they told me Flovent doesn't cause weight gain, I should have believed them then too.

We got into about emergency antibiotics regarding my cellulitis. I said I need at least to either to have them prescribed immediately, or have an emergency script. When the infections hit, if I take an antibiotic, I can clear the infection up at home in some days, if I do not get antibiotics, I will be in the ER waiting, and that 7 hours can mean a 2 week hospital stay and IV antibiotics instead of cutting things off at the front end. Ive had only one infection this year, and was able to reduce their number--used to be 6-7 times a year but still...... He told me "you can't diagnose your own leg". I said "I've had this problem for 15 years!" He responded, "It could be just a rash", talking to me like I am retarded. He even manages to insult me for having better health, "You stopped having so many leg infections because you lost weight and your diabetes is more under control". Actually my diabetes has always been maintained--I was on Metformin even during pre-diabetes for a year and half, and I had lower sugars some of those years." but hey do not let truth get in the way of a stereotype". Odd that he is abusing me so much, even as I am being a "good" fat person who has lost some weight.

Just the fact I was not listened to was horrified. The guy muttered about my attitude and then I saw him write a few notes about me, I am sure they were bad ones, with a flourished signature underlining his narcissism. The weird jokes about being a "Superman" helping disabled people kind of gave me that hint, at the start of the session.

I called them about three hours later, had to wait to calm down, and said "DO NOT send that doctor back!" The office manager, gave me some quibbles about the "schedule" but says she will call back Monday, I am sure I will be made out to be the problem. If you have any useful advice about how to complain "officially" about a doctor who hates fat people, I am welcome to it.

I almost died years ago because of people like this. Arrogant, uneducated--probably only getting through medical school because of Daddy's money, refusing to listen. I realized this guy would be a danger to me no help at all. God help the other fat housebound people and yeah I will tell them that on Monday!

Watch Out For Fat Hating Doctors!

I have had good doctors over some of my last years, including one good doctor from Ghana who saved my life, , but along the way, I had the doctors who almost cost me my life. One thing I've noticed is the voicelessness I can still contend with, when trying to tell doctors, my body does not work like the norm. Thankfully I do have a nurse practitioner/doctor now who admit that I have severe metabolic and other problems and help me with open eyes but to get to better doctors took me a very long time and I still have to be careful.

When discussing a possible procedure with an outside specialist, and bringing up breathing concerns, I do not want it assumed that my body worked like other people's. When it comes to medical things, I have had to turn some treatments down, pray to God and figure out the best routes. However I am writing this article, knowing that there are many doctors out there that do buy into all the stereotypes and hate fat people. If you have one, run like the wind, because they could cost you, your very life! In fact if you are an overweight person, you better find out if your doctor will listen, if they devalue you due to your weight and more and what they think of you as a human being.

Some years ago I found this article on line. I was able to track down at least a short portion of it here. The doctor in question here, still is practicing medicine according to the link.

I found a story that can dictate the worse examples of hatred that could lead to patient harm. Dr. Martin is a doctor that writes stories about different cases he has in the emergency room. I am not sure if this story is an actual repeating of an event or an anecdote of some sort. Anyway you will see medical fat discrimination rear it's ugly skinny head!

The story is titled "Pickwickian Syndrome" and tells the story of an overweight woman around 280lbs and in her late 50s coming in to be treated for shortness of breathe. The lady is described like she weights 700lbs, it would still be wrong but you will see. "Gloria" is her name. As Dr. Martin checks her in, he asks a fellow staff member, "Can we get her one of those 'Big Boy' beds? The kind we used for that five hundred pounder?" It is interesting to note that he defines people by numbers. Can you imagine him asking, "We need a bed for that 120 pounder..."

His disgust at her personal appearance is not even hidden for the sake of the story but denotes a sick interest: "She looked pachydermish with the endotracheal tube coming out of her right nostril, a giant thick neck and a mountain of flesh south of that. Her legs were huge rounded limbs of tissue. I arranged the sheets to expose her abdominal protuberance." He refuses this poor lady even modesty.

He continues. "We have had heavier patients [one of 550lbs] but Gloria's short stature and Jabba the Hut appearance made her look more grotesque then the others. Clinical knowledge and professionalism aside, large patients bring out the voyeur, so it was on teaching rounds with the interns and residents. Everyone stared at her. Placing my hands on her abdomen...."

One cannot imagine a doctor taking off a sheet to show a cancerous limb or a gangrenous sore for everyone to have a look but for this fat patient this was surely the case. His attitude towards her speaks volumes at 280lbs she is far from the most severely obese, at one point in the story, they move her from gurney to bed, "Heavy" in capital letters he complains.

In one point in the story, an intern points out, rather stupidly, "Maybe she is just too lazy to breathe" but our anti-hero points out that is medically impossible. Gloria is stabilized and goes home and fails to lose weight on another diet program. Her failure is made quite apparent through the doctors comments "she was too lazy to continue coming". Gloria dies at the end of the story. Clearly more destroyed than helped by this doctor.

This is an extreme example of medical smugness and cruelty but I experienced many things along the same line. Being fat in the already cold growing crueler world of the medical establishment today can be a scary enterprise. The doctor from Ghana? He saved my life at 2am, when nurses because of my collapsing veins could not get an IV in for antibiotics, they wanted to quit. He came in, and yelled at them not to after a nurse called him. A couple years ago, I found out I have a heart condition due to the years of my undiagnosed and untreated hypothyroidism, in my memory, I scroll through the constant exhortations to doctors at a variety of clinics, in a huge Midwestern city, telling them, "I knew something was very wrong beyond just being fat".

I believe if I had gotten decent medical care, I would have even avoided disability, and other ill affects, medical, mental and emotional. Thankfully I do get some good care today even if it's after the damage has been done, but I have to even be careful now, there are many fat haters out there, and they will let you know in no uncertain terms, what they think of you.

One thing, don't think big city hospitals and clinics will do you any favors, outside of a kindly Jewish doctor who finally had some mercy, and took me pro-bono, and diagnosed my hypothyroidism, I stayed alive escaping the huge city, and having a small town doctor treat me for almost 10 years. A "center for advanced medicine" even massively failed me, even with an office specializing in one problem [PCOS] they missed right down the hall. With medical treatment I would lose 150lbs, going from death's door to where I have been for far too many years, still too fat, but definitely not in the straits I was during that period.

Years later I would get ahold of the papers from this place and they had the exclamation, "patient has doubled her weight in less then 18 months and showed pictorial proof" and "patient has to be lying about her food intake". Oh that usual canard.

I believe that there has to be people literally dying out there. I almost died. When you are almost 700lbs death awaits. I remember literally fighting, arguing and doing endless searches online, to find the reasons and causes why someone would be so overweight or gain so much in short time. By the end I was screaming at some of these people and no longer cared. I have gotten some answers, I outline on my blog entry "My 350-400 Pound Weight Gain".

Even today I believe the whole story is not in, though I saw different pieces of the puzzle such as the hyperadrenalism and got diagnoses that helped keep me alive. What is sad, is I saw this experience replicated with another relative, who died around 13 years ago, who was told he was dying from congestive heart failure. What was seen at fault? His weight.

He was never super-obese but by regular standards was very overweight or fat, ranging from 250-330 at a shorter height. My father was able to lose weight from time to time, but being unable to exercise due to the heart, weight loss was a frustrating enterprise, later after he died, an autopsy was done, and they found out due to a heart surgery done earlier in life in his 20s for an infected pericardium, that a huge wall of scar tissue and calcium had built up into a huge mass around his heart and around his lungs. For years he had been told he was dying because he was fat, the real cause was the calcium had slowly built up over the years and strangled his heart. Oddly there were times 100lbs in fluid would be removed from his body, but he was told, "you are fat and this is what happens" with the subtext, of "It's all your fault!".

So how often does fat hate, lead to bad science or even bad medical conclusions? I know from many experiences, that the blind eyes, and ineptitude almost led to me losing my life in my late 20s. And today, I know that given the wrong medico, or even more false assumptions, they could easily send me over the precipice.

Dr. A: I went to go visit her in a suburb of the huge Midwest metro city I then lived in, I was around 360lbs and had gained more then 80lbs in less then 7 months, and starting to get a bit afraid. She looked at my lack of insurance, refused me thyroid tests saying I had to pay 500 dollars up front to afford them. I didn't have it even being desperate and told me "You just need more diet and exercise".

Dr. F: She was a thin Asian woman who never looked like she had an extra pound in her life, who in 1996 when I had then reached the middle of the 400s, told me because of my asthma that Fen Phen would not be a viable option [Thank God! as I later found out] This was the only intelligent thing she did. Her only advice to me was "You need to do exercise even if it hurts and eat only salads". No blood tests were given though I told her I was scared because of how much weight I was gaining. I cried tears rolling down my face as I walked down the 6 hard blocks I had to navigate to get to the bus stop. Not having a car, such walks were a normal part of life, and getting harder to do, and doing nothing to keep the weight from coming. I couldn't afford a car or the health club she recommended either.

Dr. M: I saw him the same year, he was good to get antibiotics for bronchitis, and ran a small city clinic, his scale didn't work, weighing me around 100lbs below what I really was. I was told to just diet and exercise there as well.

Dr. S: was a psychologist, at a huge metro clinic, for the overweight, he told me I was lying, every time I showed him my food journals, and weighed me at 552lbs over and over. I figured out, that his scale didn't go any higher.

Another Dr. M. was an intern I saw at a clinic when I was getting near 600lbs in 1997. I found out my thyroid scores were abnormal on blood tests they had given me elsewhere, but no one had said a thing. He just brushed me off, I then went to the Jewish doctor and asked him to please help me despite no money or insurance and was helped with the early stages of things.

During the early part of this enterprise I had a job as a residential counselor and worked, but the insurance with its copay of 1,000 dollars was a joke, and my budget was so tight, there was nothing left after rent and bus fare.

These were just some of the doctors I saw, as I was in and out of the emergency room for severe asthma attacks and cellulitis.

What is scary is the medical world is getting to be a more draconian, shut down, expensive, failing place. With endless middle men waiting for their hand outs, how many doctors are "practicing" anymore overloaded with medical school debts and malpractice insurance? How many are even thinking outside the box or daring to anymore? I have noticed that the doctors who are creative or think outside of the status quo are growing rarer and rarer? Otherwise why do such insane things happen to me like being told to get weight loss surgery when I already have serious bowel problems? Those are interesting questions. There are some nice doctors out there, but what I experienced scares me to this day. One thing a person must do is be careful make your own medical decisions and what is best for you. I do combine myself some outside treatments, such as using colloidal silver on a recurring skin ulcer, to regular medicine I need to stay alive. I do have the opinion, the more you are left alone, the better you are, and not everyone understands some of my medical decisions but those come from a life time of learning.

Leave the ones who hate you for being fat behind. When I was young, it almost cost me my life. I fear things are only getting worse, as the brainwashed repeat the "diet and exercise line" and it keeps on failing!

Fat Man Dies After Being Stuck in Chair

Obese Man Fused To Recliner for Two Years I saw this article recently, noticing the horror on different websites as they reported about this man that actually got fused to the chair needing to be cut out of it.

"The morbidly obese man died in the hospital after he was cut out of his home as he has been fused to his recliner he sat in for two years Wheeling Hospital in West Virginia confirms the death of 43-year-old Richard Hughes of Bellaire, Ohio. The man’s girlfriend called the paramedics on Sunday after she found him unconscious. The man was wedged in his recliner where his skin was fused into the chair from prolonged sitting."

What is scary is I remember there is another time this happened! One from couple years ago: "800-Pound South Carolina Man Dies After Getting Stuck in Recliner for 8 Months"

"Webb's body was physically stuck to the power recliner and firefighters had to cut him from the chair to take him to the hospital. He died a few hours later, his body covered with sores and a "very bad odor," according to a police report."

The wife in this case claims she tried to get him help at least in the beginning..

"For his first few weeks home, Daniel Webb was open to the idea of seeing someone. Getting to them was the problem. "Everybody kept telling us, if you get here, we'll help you. We didn't have no way of getting him up, and nobody was willing to come help us," Ada Webb said. "He just kind of said, 'it's in God's hands' at that point."

I've almost been stuck in a chair before, there is one chair too low here for me to sit on, I can still get up from but barely. I stopped sitting in it, and plan to get rid of it soon. I have fallen down on the floor before, not for a few years, and once had to be helped up [was able to get up partially on my own] and other time, used the bed alone to haul myself up. I have a online friend who was my weight before, she is now deceased, who was stuck on a floor for two days til someone found her. [she was too weak from other health problems to crawl to the phone] These cases frighten me because I can see a fat person of super size getting stuck and being left somewhere. I trust those around me to help me {I'd be calling paramedics to come help me}, but it is the super fat's person nightmare when it comes to losing mobility, I've done crazy things like walk on a broken foot even, this body has trained me to take pain, but sometimes pain is too high to tolerate. The people around these folks should have gotten some home health aides, paramedics in or something even if they had to scream and rant and rave on the nightly news for someone to do something! However I bet you dollars to donuts they were poor people who feared the medical bills or being left in a nursing home to die alone. Something in these two men also just gave up. The other day, a medical professional told me there are many fat people my size they treat who are totally bed bound. I think it is a blessing I can still walk, I do not take it for granted. But people do not realize the amount of pain I push through to get through a day or how I have to force myself to do so much. As the years pass by, people wear out, and old age itself is hard enough on the thin. I'm housebound from breathing during cold and hot weather, then things get pushed too far, I can only deal with so much at a time. For a person my size, one broken leg, a badly sprained ankle, a weakened condition can mean losing all mobility and that is where the really bad stuff begins. Knowing this impacts many of my medical decisions. The cusp of immobility is close to me. It is horrific that two people suffered this way, no one should have had to die that way. The people around them FAILED them to an incredible degree. Our country is still running at a level where there was help for them even though one could question the degree of access and ruined assets via medical bills. I saw the comments on the boards where the people blamed the men. NO ONE chooses that type of life whether they had medical conditions behind their weight or a food addiction problem. To me there is abuse and neglect in watching someone die that way and live that way. That is unconscionable.

Medical Furniture Woes

Every fat person has talked about going to the doctor's office, and in a sea of narrow chairs in the waiting room always with arms, realize they either have to remain standing or have to endure the embarrassment of going up to the counter, and asking the office ladies to come up with a spare desk or roller chair.

This happened in two doctor offices I went to for years. Some of the more enlightened ones sprinkle a couch or two in the waiting room to help you out, but too many others, seem to almost adhere to a plot to buy the most narrow chairs with arms possible. While fat people today can find good chairs in restaurants, and other places [the marketplace had to accommodate more Americans as they grew bigger], this has not gotten into many doctor offices. Russell Williams in the size acceptance world would campaign for more access for fat people concentrating on chairs, while I didn't agree with him on many things, I definitely did with that.


But this isn't the only thing Ive noticed about the medical world.


Who but the most spry 12 year old can even CLIMB on top of these things?

Don't forget most people going to the doctor, are the elderly, sick and many overweight people. Even when I weighed in the 200s, I could barely hike myself up onto the typical medical examining table. There was one time, I did so, and put feet on a foot rest getting down and almost tipped the entire thing over. I know most people in their 70s and 80s are not either.

I know they want the doctor to be able to preserve his back, and make things easier for them, but when they keep making furniture most patients find formidable to even get on, then that is a problem.

Then there is your typical hospital bed. They are nightmares for the fat too. In one hospital just sitting on the edge of their hospital bed, I almost flipped the whole thing over. My old small town hospital, used to put me on the "bone bed" the one with the metal rack to hook broken limbs too, because it was the only bed that had the weight to it to remain stable with me in it. I don't think I barely slept, I begged the doctor, let me go home. He relented after 10 days to release me. That is one thing too, in the ER you'll see more of those impossible to get onto examining tables and nightmare beds, so even though you are shivering to death, you are hunched over in the one chair you could find without arms.

Hospital beds are UNCOMFORTABLE. Comfort affects illness and health problems. They are far too narrow--even people of more average size attest to that, and even if they prop you up, more then often you end up sliding into the hole. Don't think that hospitals have a vast array of bariactric beds either, maybe they will special ship one in if you are Walter Hudson but don't count on it. One nursing home bound friend, has relayed to me about how her own bed is a nightmare, and she knows she is not getting needed rest because of it.

I actually have considering writing medical furniture makers, to tell them they need to step it up and think a bit of the patient's comfort and limitations.

Something is being lost in the translation here.

A Revealing Conversation On Size Acceptance and Health

I and a fellow endocrine sufferer, who I appreciate very much, shares her common experiences with hormonal health challenges and size acceptance. We agree on much. [My questions in blue] Read on:

1. Describe your experience with size acceptance, what did you find positive about it, what did you find negative?

I originally joined the size acceptance movement in 1996. After purchasing my first personal computer and joining the citizens of the internet from home, I stumbled across the Dimensions Magazine website that broadcast the statement: Where Big is Beautiful. The print magazine articles were written by men and women who took pride in themselves as a whole person. This was a new discovery for me, having been a fat teenager and dealing with discrimination, bullies, and general bias because of my size.

I spent a few years mostly reading and studying materials from the NAAFA and Dimensions Magazine, and researching the phenomenon that is fat acceptance.

Over time, I began to learn that for me, the journey to "Size Acceptance" is really a journey of "Self Acceptance" rather than coming to terms with being just fat. As a person, I learned from the SA movement that I have a right to enjoy life just as I am. Since that time, I've even been able to help friends of all sizes come to terms with their own bodies. It's been an interesting journey. When I tell women with low self esteem that I love my body and who I am-- they begin to wonder how "I" could love myself, when they see me as socially unacceptable!

Things I learned from SA:
Doctors usually believe you're fat because you're lazy. Little research and questioning is done for fat people. Diet and exercise are the common prescriptions. Many fat people then turn to alternative medicine or "acceptance" of themselves and then fail to get help! Fat and sexuality are not mutually exclusive. Many people can and so see through the fog of the myth that fat people are somehow second-rate.

My opinions matter, no matter how fat I am! The anonymity of the SA movement online has helped many fat people find their confidence and ability to speak in regards to various issues. I think this has helped the most in fat people learning to advocate for themselves. They know they're not alone, and can voice their opinions.

Society still has yet to accept fat people as the norm in America. Theater seats are uncomfortable, airplane seats and being asked to purchase two seats is the norm. Bathroom stalls are too small. Stairs are too steep. Booths at restaurants are made with fixed tables. Hospital gowns for fat patients are hard to find (and you're made to feel like a freak if you ask for a larger gown at times). Chairs at airports and doctor's office have arms that can cause physical harm to a fat person.

There's a bias in America that fat people are nonsexual. That's so far from the truth! We are human beings just like everyone else, and we have carnal desires, wants and needs to be loved, feel affection and physical attraction. The lies that are perpetuated by the media don't help any.

Size Acceptance has its own militant activists just like every other agenda.

I am still a member of the SA movement, but left my formal advocacy agenda in late 2008.


2. How did you come to be diagnosed with Cushings?

When visiting a new doctor one day in 2007, I was bemoaning to my doctor that for years I'd been battling a host of issues that I thought were just normal things for a fat person. After years of being told that I was fat, lazy, an over-eater and I would have to deal with my health issues -- this new doctor started to ask questions. Every answer I gave created a new question. At the end of an hour-long exam, the doctor asked me if I'd heard of Cushing's Disease. I hadn't yet, but then she explained the textbook symptoms.

The trouble from that point was that local doctors aren't trained in what to do with Cushing's patients, and you have to find an Endocrinologist that understands the disease. There are few specialists who truly understand the full body of research in regards to this endocrine disorder. I saw two local Endocrinologists who laughed me out of their offices despite my doctor's referral. Finally, after much research on the internet and talking to my doctor, I found Dr. Ted Friedman in Los Angeles. Dr. Friedman took the time to meet with me, look at my history of pictures from spanning from current days to my childhood, looked at all of my physical signs and symptoms and prescribed a very focused and intricate testing regimen. After only 46 days of tests, MRIs and discussion, it was decided that I had been living with this disease some call the "Ugly disease" since birth.

Since that time, I have had two pituitary surgeries to help establish a period of remission of all of the difficult symptoms. After each surgery I've enjoyed 6 months of improvement.

3. Do you feel support was lacking in the size acceptance community regarding your diagnosis with Cushings?

Once I shared my disorder, the problems it caused for me, and that I was pursuing a cure for my issues, things began to change for me. When I announced I was having pituitary surgery to work towards a cure, I was treated like someone who didn't know what was right for myself. Constantly people were telling me reconsider such a "drastic surgery" that they felt could leave me crippled for life. Despite all my assurances that I looked at every angle, I received countless phone calls, emails and visits from people who insisted I was making a wrong choice. When I needed support the most from my friends, a dichotomy arose -- that of having to deal with friends who felt I was fat for life, and that of trying to cure a deadly disease.


4. Do you agree that in size acceptance there is a lack of truth about obesity being for some people a symptom of a disease process?

Many of my fat friends categorize their fat as a physical trait, and refuse to believe that obesity is a serious medical condition.

While I personally believe a rubenesque woman can be fit and fluffy, there are many fat people who have serious medical conditions that may go undiagnosed because of their attitude towards size acceptance, their fear of the doctors being emotionally cruel to them, and that there aren't any real serious medical diseases for fat people.

In many circles in the SA community, the talk of "dieting" is forbidden. The reason being that fat people need a place of solace from the people telling them that diets will solve all their problems and they refuse to diet. I can see the point in this argument, but the people that can't diet to lose weight have serious medical issues that should be addressed! I'm sure some people who say they diet really don't and they are fooling themselves, but people like me who eat only 1100 calories a day and gain weight have metabolic disorders that need serious help!

Diseases I've seen friends suffer with from obesity related issues:

Lypo/Lymphadema
High Blood Pressure
Heart Attacks
Deep Vein Thrombosis
Diabetes
Osteoarthritis
Osteopenia
PCOS
Cushing's Disease
Hypothyroidism
Growth Hormone Deficiency

The website bigfatfacts states: Weight is not a barometer of wellness. More Americans die every year from weighing too little than from weighing too much. An estimated 25,000 people die from obesity. Moderately overweight people live longer than those at normal weight. (Flegal, et. al.) (See reference notes at bottom of report)

Weight is not a barometer of wellness! So a fat person can have normal blood pressure, activity level, blood sugar, and labwork. But notice here it says moderately overweight people live longer. Most of my friends in size acceptance are overweight into the hundreds of pounds. Dear friends of mine are over 400 pounds, and one is over 500. Somewhere fat does become a barometer for wellness!



5. Where do you think the size acceptance movement is headed today? Do you think it has a future?

Size Acceptance is splintering into various new groups and is no longer a united front. Some advocacy groups want fat to be declared a disability, yet some don't. If it's a disability, then is it not healthy then? Other groups are insisting that super-sized people shouldn't be part of mainstream size acceptance as they are the "freaks" of the movement.

These kinds of separate attitudes don't do any fat person any good, and it's a shame to see that happening. I wish to think that in the future, we'll find a better united front and be able to be inclusive again.

Fat and Freud {Who Matched These Guys?}

For me the most persistent "keep 'em in their place" myths about fat people come from the world of psychology, where mental studies can shade the truth about obesity's physiological attributes, but heap more blame and ill treatment on the fat.

What fat person hasn't face the thin yuppie psychiatrist who peers over their trendy bifocals with an index finger crooked and ready, saying "Really, its your bad behavior or attitude, that you must change to be thin!".

How else will the patient rationalize another failed week of not losing a pound as the weight loss therapist, writes off your food journals as pure fiction? Then there are the ones who give out the myth, that people get fat to "protect themselves" [trust me a suit of armour would be far better then body-padding, that makes running far harder!]

The celery thin woman in this world is morally superior in this world while the fat woman is incapable of real friendships, doomed to float on ice floes of hostility and anger unless they accede to the demands of the thinner and "worthier". Regarding the food journals I had to be lying, by their logic.

While there are those who deal with food addiction, odd how this is much more a moral issue then when it comes to other struggles say with substance abuse. The idea that neuroses drives one to eat, and that perfect mental health will make one forever "thin" seems to be a losing proposition because I haven't seen it work yet. All fat people are lumped into the same box, all angry, all lacking the self control that supposedly all thin people are incredibly blessed with, all inner resentment written off as a refusal to submit to thin rule.

Sigmund Freud spent a good deal of his life floating high on dope, but his assertion of oral fixation against the fat is intact. Anyone deemed to be stuck at the lowest stage of psycho-sexual development {oral}-where the adult supposedly focuses on food like an infant, not sex--is relegated to an absurd level of immaturity. While Freud's theories have been more and more disproved, they live on in the tendency in some to view obese people as "misbehaving" children whose willful rebellion has brought forth their too large bodies.

If that's how the mainstream psychology world sees someone like me, there's no lack of pseudo-scientific wannabees willing to fill whatever gaps may exist between Freud's stages. Their numbers are legion.

One book called Losing Your Pounds of Pain assures us "Every extra pound that you carry on your body equals a pound of pain, you are carrying on your heart. The happy person carries body weight that is proportionate to their height". Still another book The Only Diet There Is takes a rather different tack: negative thoughts lead to overeating. Readers are urged to "uncreate the heavy thoughts that make you heavy", with creative visuals to match: "Love is fluid, moving and light. Hate is heavy, thick and dark." What better way to label fat people as hateful beings on top of everything else!

Self-help books like Fat and Furious boil fat people's physical stature down to attitudes: "if You weren't so emotionally hungry so much of the time, you wouldn't be eating so much. Your weight would be normal."

Who are these author's self-styled apocalyptic horsemen, you ask? Why, "Fear", "Anger", "Tension", and "Shame". Get it? "Our FATS feelings make us fat." Therefore, in 600lb "Estrella's" case is one of misplaced emotions: "She knew better then anyone the rage the fat had suppressed". I'll bet Estrella got more upset at the mud being slung in her direction then the screams of some far-fetched "inner child", such is the double talk and pseudo-scientific NONSENSE that dogs fat people.