Obesity and misdiagnoses, or worse, complete dismissal and condescension have been on the forefront of the news lately due to an obituary calling our medical professionals for only seeing weight and missing a Cancer diagnosis.
While obesity is in itself a health risk, it is not the only cause of each and every symptom a person will experience.
Blaming only the weight every time and refusing to investigate further - even when the patient is trying to make the necessary lifestyle changes - can evidently be fatally dangerous.
Sometimes, an apparent risk to health is the only thing that people see.
If you are experiencing some breathing difficulty and throat irritation, and they find out the patient smokes, that is where the blame goes. Smoking would be blamed because it is the most obvious factor, but that doesn't mean it is the correct one.
It can be valuable to remember that patients tend to understand their own bodies and sensations pretty well. If a pain or symptom is completely different from what they usually experience, and it persists after trying to make changes, it would be useful to investigate elsewhere. Often the simplest tests will show something odd.
And I never agree with full condescension.
Sure there are hypochondriacs and WebMD-obsessed patients who believe they know exactly what they have and believe they know more than physicians, so it can get really difficult weeding out the truly dangerous concerns vs the frantic and irrational concerns, but if a patient keeps insisting that the symptoms are worsening, it might be worth a simple blood test. Maybe.
I know there have been a few times where I KNEW something was wrong.
But, with all of the illness I already have, the new symptoms were blamed on the diagnosed illnesses. It would take several insistent appointments and ER visits to convince them to investigate.... and each time there WAS something wrong. Ovarian cysts, one needing removal, cracked ribs, a severe kidney infection that was blamed on my Crohn's or a b.s. diagnosis of 'floating rib syndrome', and then of course the worst two:
1. Spending 8 months trying to convince my doctors something was wrong with my hips; my joints.
2. Spending over a year trying to convince my former family doctor to test my thyroid. I was very seriously and very dangerously wasting away. I HAVE a thyroid disease, but one doctor refused to check my thyroid levels, and another doctor TOLD me he did when he really didn't. He told me that he tested it and results came back normal. So I spent a year with other doctors trying to figure out the problem, but when they would ask me if my family doctor checked my thyroid, I would say "yeah, he said it was normal". So then they would not check.
It wasn't normal. My levels were double what they should be. He never did check.
Sorry - tangent there.
Sometimes the most obvious reason for symptoms isn't actually the correct reason for symptoms.
Be it obesity, a pre-existing condition, cigarettes, alcohol, drug addiction, diet, or a patient who cries wolf on a regular basis.
I am not suggesting to humour every patient with every frantic concern, I am suggesting improved listening and empathizing with how scared a patient may seem.
In a world where we don't want to waste resources, where patients try and diagnose with Google before seeing a doctor, and where many people are questioning the entire medical system, we all need to try and have better communication with each other so that these tragedies can be prevented.