POLL: The Doctors Office Scale

Good question and my answer is yes & no. Until I found a couple of great docs, I did avoid doctors because I was tired of THE LECTURE. No matter what my presenting problem, I got a version of THE LECTURE about THE REAL ISSUE. THE LECTURE never helped me lose one ounce and only made me . . . hungry. Go figure. My current doctor is a gem. He has always treated me like a regular person, not shying away from weight-related issues but not confusing a strep throat with an obesity-related strep throat. Here's a related story that says a lot about attitudes toward weight. A few years ago, well before WLS, a former friend of mine got a bug up her behind about my weight. At social events she'd follow my wife around expressing concern about me, etc.  I hated to see her at parties and such. The last straw came when she nonchantly asked me if I had a good doctor. I said yes and told her about my kind, bright, caring, realistic doctor. What is he doing about your weight? she asked. Nothing, I growled, there's nothing he can do about it. It's my problem. Well, she humphed, he can't be much of a doctor if ignores your weight! It took all I could do--and "that look" from my wife--not to tear into my "friend." And to this day I don't accept the notion that badgering fatties is "understandable" just because folks "mean well" when they give unsolicited advice about weight (if, indeed, they really do mean well). Sorry for blabbing on so long, but this post brought back some of the anxieties associated with being MO and the many slights and jibes (well-intentioned or not) we went and go through. That's why I try really hard not to give unsolicited "helpful" advice to others, especially about food and exercise.

I was embarrased a  little bit but it never kept me from seeing the doctor when needed

Men tend to die young in my family, so I went to see my Doc once a year... religiously. Was it embarrassing stepping on the scale? Hell yes. Did it keep me away. No. Never really even thought about it. DD

     For me it was more than the scale that kept me from going to the doctor’s office First of all I had a hard time even getting in and out of a car to even get there. Then having to walk any distance to get to the office. Now finding a chair in the waiting room I could fit in and being afraid of sitting on one and it busting and my fat ass going on the floor and having 20 people to help me back to my feet and everyone in the waiting room looking and laughing at the poor fat guy. Then getting into the exam room and again having no where to sit or about giving myself a heart attack struggling to climb up on a exam table that was made for the jolly green giant. And of course the scale that even with one scale under each foot wouldn’t come close to getting my weight. So hell yeah I stayed away from doctors offices.

I’m with Doug. -"Obesity-related Strep throat!" It was the freakin’ LECTURE! "Duh! My weight is a Problem? Really? You Think?" But then honestly- Every thing was due to the weight….? Now having lost it, it seems that was truer than I though it was. Still, I could have gone in with a axe sticking in my head And the diagnosis would have been that my head was pushed Out by my obesity to the point that it encountered and engulfed the blade! The scales? Not the issue with me that much. "Ah, I’ll be OK…." Was so much easier than running to the doc And being told the obvious, again, and again, and again,…. Best Wishes- Dx

I'm with Doug & Dx. I didn't care about the scale cuz' it wouldn't weigh me anyway.  I just did not want to hear the same old lecture over and over and over and over............

I had to tell my doctor and nurse to call Cox South and complain that the scale they have only goes up to 250 and a lot of your patients are super obese, so it wasn't a phobia, but  it did rear my control issues up by telling them to do it now!!  Heh heh heh

A doctor's scale only going up to 250????? That is insane! There are plenty of normal weight people that weigh over 250. That doctor must have pissed off, offended, embarassed, etc. a huge number of patients . The best scale I have seen at a doctors office are digital ones where you just hop on a big pad real quick, no waiting and you don't have the awkwardness of tellng the nurse "you better bump that bottom slider up another 50 (or 100)!!!" Did your complaining work, did they get a new scale?...