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There’s a disturbing number of doctors out there practicing who are ready and willing to blame people’s health on their weight. They use an outdated tool for determining health – the BMI chart – instead of treating patients as individuals and getting to know their personal lifestyle, diet, and exercise habits, and are quick to shrug and suggest that all health concerns could be fixed or alleviated by simply dropping the “extra” weight.
And in the case of this woman’s experience – told in a now-viral thread – that dismissive and irresponsible attitude came close to costing her her life.
Jen Curran had some troubling issues during her pregnancy, but as we all know, women’s bodies while pregnant aren’t the same as they are at any other time in our lives.
But when one of the problems persisted 6 weeks after she delivered her daughter, Jen’s OB recommended she see a kidney specialist.
Her protein numbers were high, which should have been concerning, but when other tests came back normal, the doctor advised her to lose weight, eat nothing from a box, and come back in 4 months.
After thinking about this, she decided to get a second opinion…
And learned she has bone marrow cancer.
If she had listened to the first doctor, she would have allowed the cancer 4 months (or possibly longer) to grow and spread, and whether or not she’d managed to lose her baby weight wouldn’t have done a thing to stop it.
Bottom line? Listen to your gut, and if a doctor touts weight loss as a be all, end all solution to something that’s concerning you, follow Jen’s lead and get a second opinion.
It’s the least you can do to put your mind at ease.
