I once had a doctor who's answer to every problem I had was, "but you know you're 100 lbs overweight." I used to joke that I could go into her office with a bullet hole in my head, gray matter dribbling down my face and she'd say, "but you know you're 100 lbs overweight."
Well, something not quite so dramatic, but similar did happen and I was furious. I didn't expect her to ignore my weight, but in that instance, I'd just been in her office about 3 weeks prior for a check up. I went back because I fell while jogging--tripped in a pothole and slammed my hand on the curb--my injured hand was in the brace the emergency room had put on it.
She asked me why I was there. I showed her my hand. She never even looked at it (BTW, the injury I had eventually took a year to fully heal); never even touched it or me. At her instruction, I followed her into her office where she proceeded to tell me about a new diet she had for diabetes patients' weight loss (I am not and was not diabetic).
I had a fit and told her that it wasn't appropriate for her to bring that up at that time. I'd just been there for an annual; she should have read her own notes in the chart that was in front of her stupid face. I had an accident; it had nothing to do with my weight. She was wrong, wrong, wrong.
I had to beg her for a xray (the emergency room doctors told me to follow up with my own doctor; they thought their xray looked odd). She waffled and I had to ask her what the heck was I supposed to do. She finally ordered an xray and after prompting told me to keep wearing the cast.
Called me about a few days later and said that it was negative; that my hand was not broken. Hung up.
I was so angry I wrote a letter to my HMO reporting her rude and callous treatment. They did follow up, but eventually told me some b-s answer (they fixated on the poor service I got from the office staff; they didn't want to give me an appointment at all). They did say if they enough complaints about her, they'd drop her from their system. I wasn't looking for that; she is actually a good doctor. But every problem a fat person has is not necessarily connected to their weight. She was blind to this.
Obviously, I changed PCPs. My new one immediately referred me to an othropedic surgeon who is a hand specialist. He diagnosed the injury and it was treated.
A few months later I found out I had a thyroid problem that eventually needed surgery. Had Dr. One-Track-Mind still been my PCP, she never would have made the referral that set the chain in motion. I got a severe sinus infection when my office was reopened after the terror attacks of 9/11--it is a few blocks south of the WTC site; I went back in November 2001; was sick by January 2002.
Heck, Dr. O-T-M probably would have told me that I was breathing in all that soot because I was 100 lbs overweight.
Mary