"Still heavy after all these years, Oh, still heavy after all these years" With my apologies to Paul Simon, these are my thoughts and feelings as I return from my doctor's appointment this afternoon. I have a wonderful doctor and she has been a Godsend since she contacted me about an irregular CTscan that I had 2 years ago.
But as a morbidly obese man of 50 years it is refreshing to have a doctor who doesn't feel compelled to remind me that I need to lose weight.
For example, "Doctor, I have really been having these shooting pains in my knees these past couple of weeks" "Well Mr. Speaker, you know if you could just lose a couple of pounds......" Ever get that? Me too. Not now. This Doctor is cool.
I am getting tests done for my ears, xrays for my knees and medicine for my kidney stone. And you know what? I feel like losing weight. I am motivated to do this because I need to. I feel good about myself and nobody had to tell me otherwise. Good doctors don't always need to state the obvious and I think that doctors too much have fallen back on the crutches that make their jobs easier. Lose weight, stop smoking, exercise more and eat right. If that was all there was to being a doctor, I would make a damn good one. Because I have heard all of those all of my life. I have a tape going on over and over in my head.
Does anyone want a copy? I didn't think so. So I think I'll just keep going to this doctor and she will ask me how I am doing and listen to me.
Funny, a couple of times I told her that she wasn't my Psychologist and that she doesn't have to listen to me, but damn it.
Doctors do need to listen. And doctors need to care. About us. We need them. Maybe if we knew they were listening more we would actually complain less and just talk. Then doctors could really help us. To live.
Alan, "Bud" Speaker is a freelance writer and essayist who enjoys poking fun at himself and life in general. Because lets face it, if you can't laugh then nobody will tell you jokes anymore. | |
