I went to the doctor this morning. I walked down the hallway towards the exam room (aka second waiting room) (where you usually have to wait another 45 minutes for the doctor), with an assistant who takes notes, the patient's blood pressure, oxygen and pulse.
I don't know the assistant's background, what kind of training she's had. She could be me, only much thinner and younger, not as pretty and certainly not as great a personality as I have. We can't have everything.
As we walk toward the scale, she says to me, "Do you want to check your weight?" I said, casually, "Not particularly." (She was giving me the option so I chose not to.) So she turns to me and says in a loud, demanding voice "Well, WHAT DO YOU DO? DO YOU CHECK IT AT HOME!?" as if I'm some mental deficient and don't realize that I am pleasingly plump already? I mean, duh.
I guess she thinks I don't own a mirror; that I don't have the slightest clue that I have a big beautiful butt and more than sufficient thighs. Maybe she thinks I've been on a bender for the last 50 years, cramming whipped cream topping, bonbons and bacon fat, all the food I've been stuffing, bringing me to this very moment in time where I don't particularly feel like checking my weight. What can I say? I mean -- other than "no" when offered the option?
I own a scale. Weight Watchers meetings are Sunday mornings. My pants actually fit along with the majority of my clothes. My fat clothes have long since been given away. Imagine that -- clothes that fit? I buy my clothes off the rack in a regular store. But I didn't feel like peeling the label out of my collar for her to validate my claim. I'm smaller, dare I say, tinier today than I was a year ago during chemotherapy even though I longed for positive (negative) results on the much bandied about chemotherapy diet. This morning I just didn't feel like 'checking [my] weight.'
13 comments:
Do what I do in these situations - burst out in tears and then watch her get mad.
(notable - my verification word (to ensure that i am not a clever 'bot') is "bratesti" which about sums it up.
Hey Pod, good for you. I love it when they get a little stunned by the unexpected answer.
You go, girl. Don't feel like checking your weight? Then don't! (You could have asked her if you should check hers, instead.....)
My word verification is helyyeri. Lithuanian for "the hell with it" :)
GOOD FOR YOU!
I loved this post because if you're healthy and you're watching it, why the FRICK does she have to know how you're watching it.
man, Im commentless. you are so FREAKIN HEALTHY.
it feels so trite to say:
I totally agree with this and wish everyone would follow suit.
hmmmm. so Ill just say I CAN NOT WAIT FOR TONIGHT, a glass of wine, my DVRed RH of NYC :)
That was awfully obnoxious of her!
I think you totally have the right attitude about it. Health is way more important than obsessions with scale numbers.
Why ask in the first place? They never ask me. Don't they have to write it in the chart?
I'm so meek in the doctor's office; I would have said "Sure..." in a resigned voice.
Somebody tell me what "RH in NYC" is. ?
And since everybody seems to be doing it, my WV is "entsi." I'm not too impressed with that.
Lisa, Keep lurking - I have tried tears but not any time lately. ;-)
Tom - I am not usually contrary but it was her attitude that made me decide not to weigh. I could tell she was a fat-hater.
BL - hahaha
Melissa -they don't ask you to weigh because you aren't overweight. They only ask people who are pleasantly plump (and pretty!) to weigh so they can secretly snicker and say to themselves, "OMG, does this woman ever stop eating???"
And to everyone else, (you know who you are). Thanks for the comments. I know this is my old baggage, literally and figuratively.
You have a far healthier self-image showing in this post than any technician could grab out from under you.
And you were too darn amusing over in the comments section of Bag Lady's blog for me NOT to come check yours out. Thanks a LOT. Now I have another fine read. :)
I'm sorry people behave like that, POD! Sometimes, like you, I find myself telling people what they deserve to hear. I usually feel bad later :-(
At my mom's funeral last week, a woman who hadn't seen me in a few months asked, when she first saw me, "You look like you've lost weight!" You need to know I am very fit. I felt myself wanting to say, "If your mother just died you might lose some weight also," but I stayed quiet. People can be so stupid!
Now, that's a question to consider, has this person received any communications training? I've never had the office weigh in presented as an option so I definitely would have been caught off guard.
This weigh in seems more like some time honored ritual than any thing else, at least in my experience. My docs have not ever noticed a significant weight loss or gain. Ever.
What a Beotch! When you give someone a choice you have to be happy with the answer you get no matter what it is. If she wanted you to weigh that freakin bad should not have given you the option!!!
Ugh. I like the part of the visit where I sit on the examining table for an hour with no underwear or bra waiting for the doctor to show up.
...And I can't stand when those, whose salaries depend on people like me showing up at their office, try to treat me with their passive-aggressive BS.
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