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I-am-Britta In reply to Rainbow-Productions [2012-04-21 15:05:45 +0000 UTC]

Hon, I'm 5'10", blonde with blue-green eyes, size 6 jeans, medium-sized shirts, and I weigh 135 lbs. If you honestly think I have poor self-esteem, you've got a whole 'nother thing coming. The purpose of this stamp is to point out the difference between fat rolls and curves, which is exactly what I've done, so take your emotional butthurt elsewhere.

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Rainbow-Productions In reply to I-am-Britta [2012-04-22 18:58:25 +0000 UTC]

Not you helpoing your own self esteem, bigger people say what they do because usually, they're trying to help their own self esteem. I don't understand what this is against fat people lately.
And I am in no way fat, so this isn't a direct offense to me. I'm against all hate, be it racism or otherwise.
Why would you comment on someone's fat anyway? Shouldn't happen, it shouldn't need to come to making excuses.

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I-am-Britta In reply to Rainbow-Productions [2012-04-22 20:57:08 +0000 UTC]

It's a CLARIFICATION OF TERMS

You don't understand what all this is against fat people? Well I don't understand what it is against Christians, but that doesn't mean I go around acting like an obnoxious white knight, crying offense and leaving a trail of butt-hurt everywhere I go.

I'm not making excuses for what I've said. I said what I said because I wanted to express myself, and I don't give two hoots what you think about it. I've simply explained the nature of the stamp, but if you're getting all worked up over a series of pixels to the point that it's causing you to bitch at me and not allow yourself to listen to my clarification, then clearly you need to go do something productive.

Things happen every day that people don't agree with or like. Welcome to the real world.

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Rainbow-Productions In reply to I-am-Britta [2012-04-22 21:08:59 +0000 UTC]

Firstly, if you didn't 'give two hoots' about what I'd said, then you wouldn't have replied at all.
Secondly, you were expressing yourself and your opinion. I was doing the same. I'm not in any wrong here, and yes, I disagree. You shouldn't have posted it if you didn't want people to express themselves BACK.
It is you, friend, that cannot handle someone's opinion differing from your own. I said what I had to say, and I'm not replying again.

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I-am-Britta In reply to Rainbow-Productions [2012-05-05 18:41:45 +0000 UTC]

Whether or not you reply is irrelevant, because it doesn't make this any less public.

Firstly, if you didn't 'give two hoots' about what I'd said, then you wouldn't have replied at all.

In case you forgot, here's your first message to me: "You're a prick o_o Seriously. Yes, there's a difference, but people say tings like that to help their own self-esteem. If you have a problem with fat people, go fuck yourself." What the hell?!

Here's your second one, complete with poor grammar and atrocious spelling: "Not you helpoing your own self esteem, bigger people say what they do because usually, they're trying to help their own self esteem. I don't understand what this is against fat people lately. And I am in no way fat, so this isn't a direct offense to me. I'm against all hate, be it racism or otherwise. Why would you comment on someone's fat anyway? Shouldn't happen, it shouldn't need to come to making excuses."

The majority of what you said to me consists of petty name-calling, telling me to go fuck myself if I have a problem, and basically bitching about how the fat people are so oppressed and picked on. I replied to you not because I care about whatever idiotic opinion you might have expressed, but because you provoked me. I said I didn't give two hoots about your borderline-nonexistent opinion regarding my stamp, that is true, but I do care about 1) being called names and 2) being told to go fuck myself for essentially holding a differing viewpoint. As a professional writer, you exude something of an older vibe, meaning that because you're already a professional, you must be older. It's high time you grew up and acted like the professional you claim to be.

Secondly, you were expressing yourself and your opinion. I was doing the same. I'm not in any wrong here, and yes, I disagree. You shouldn't have posted it if you didn't want people to express themselves BACK.

What is this, some kind of scare tactic? What are you, twelve? All of a sudden, I'm being told to basically keep things to myself, yet you obviously don't follow your own philosophy. And you're damn right you're in the wrong, because what you initially said to me was totally uncalled for.

It is you, friend, that cannot handle someone's opinion differing from your own. I said what I had to say, and I'm not replying again.

If it is truly me that cannot handle someone's differing opinion, why am I the one being told to go fuck myself for holding a differing opinion? Are you really that stupid? I don't necessarily like being confronted with a different opinion, sure, but I can handle them quite well. However, there isn't a single opinion in either of the messages you sent aside from some wishy-washy BS about how I shouldn't comment on people's fat, or "making excuses" for the clarification of terms I obviously provided. Nice try though.

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ShariCampbell In reply to Nate-Denial [2011-10-22 23:49:19 +0000 UTC]

Wow, I've seen your comments on multiple stamps about this... You're quite a disgusting person, aren't you? So filled with hate. Makes me sad.

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Ocatipuss In reply to ShariCampbell [2012-01-11 02:39:46 +0000 UTC]

Shari..you are right....

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I-am-Britta In reply to GlassDaemon [2011-04-18 03:21:58 +0000 UTC]

That's the problem. It's excess fat, which is a bad thing because it's detrimental to one's health, but no, we can't accept that because it hurts our feelings. We don't want to call a spade a spade and be faced with any negativity, so what do we do? We call it curves because that sounds better and we do nothing to treat the issue. It's yet another way to sugar-coat something that's bad for you.

Why are "rights" even playing into this? Why do people automatically think everything is a freaking right? No one has a "right" to a term or a "right" to use some and not others. If everyone would get off the rights high horse and quit thinking they're entitled to everything, maybe they'd actually lose some weight. Besides, why should anyone have the right to essentially lie about their body composition? That's deception, and people who do that are really only deceiving themselves. It's not sensual, it's not healthy, and it's certainly not nice. Fat isn't nice to our cardiovascular system (among a myriad of other things), so why should we be nice to it? Saturated fat tears people apart from the inside out, clogging blood vessels and making the heart work even harder than it already does.

And if by "curve" you mean "convex curve," then yes, you're right. It's a big convex curve protruding from one's body. And stretch marks don't make it better; all that means is that your skin ruptured and expanded to compensate for all the fat. Stretch marks result from the skin expanding too quickly for the cells to replicate in order to compensate for it and therefore rupturing. They're basically scars, and they can be prevented by a regular application of topical Vitamin E. But why spend God-knows-how-many dollars on that stuff so you can support being fat, when you can simply control yourself and not get fat in the first place? Because we don't want to control or discipline ourselves because as luck would have it, it takes effort and it's -dare I say it- inconvenient. Staying in shape is really inconvenient when you stop and think about it, but if you're not willing to be inconvenienced so that your health and quality of life can improve, then I really have no sympathy.

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Muse-Dog In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-23 21:57:06 +0000 UTC]

^This

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GlassDaemon In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-18 20:22:32 +0000 UTC]

Hmm... you make this difficult. I don't really understand why you went off the wall fruity with the whole "rights" comment, it was just a way to phrase it. I can use the term whether you like the term or not, or if you think it applies to me or not, is it a right? Actually yes it is since there isn't a law that says I can't. Shoot I could call myself skinny if I wanted, but that's my right if I think my size is skinny. Just like it's your right to say fat rolls are not curves. So, you come off your high horse first and then I'll come off mine.

The stretch marks was more a question as to why you suggest that a fat roll isn't smooth, since the only time I've seen fat that wasn't smooth was covered in stretch marks. (Pregnant women and boobs get stretch marks too, just so ya know it's not just a fat person problem)

You see the big problem I see with your argument is that you use health... As if you care. Lol! Be realistic you don't give a damn if a fat person can't breath or they're killing themselves because of it. Hell, neither do I, just like I don't care that my manager smokes and is thus killing herself. Or that my Uncle is an alcoholic and totally screwing up his system. There's a lot of things that aren't good for you but people don't go apeshit about them. So what's the big deal if a fatty wants to call their rolls curves?

I'm not asking for sympathy, just wondering; why all the hate?

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I-am-Britta In reply to GlassDaemon [2011-04-19 04:00:18 +0000 UTC]

Here's a different example. Advertisement companies are constantly producing billboards, photos, and other such things to promote products that the general public will hopefully buy. How do they achieve that? They use models that have been airbrushed, photoshopped, and otherwise altered to portray the so-called "ideal" of beauty. Larger people are edited and are magically thin, thin people are edited and made thinner, and blemishes are removed effortlessly. Necks are elongated, eyes widened, lips enlarged, breasts enhanced, etc. Nowhere in advertisement do you see larger women, older women, or heck, real women! They're all edited to look that way. As a result, we have tweens going on diets and developing eating disorders, we have unnecessary discrimination against older or larger individuals, and we have a population of women who have distorted body images and no concept of what real beauty even looks like.

Now, there's no law against lying and deceiving others. Advertisers can produce whatever ads they want as long as they're appealing and as long as they bring attention to their items. So since there's no law against that, according to your logic, they therefore have the right to say whatever they want or portray humans however they want. They have the right to distort people and define beauty as narrow-minded and even impossible to attain. They have the right to say that beauty is anorexic and blonde, and that anything else isn't beautiful. Right? Wrong. They aren't entitled to that just because there isn't a law against it. That's where ethics come in. Just because they can advertise that way doesn't mean it's 1) true, and more importantly, 2) ethical. But will it ever change? No. Our world runs on money, and as long as people keep buying their products, they won't be forced out of business and the ads will keep coming. So they can say whatever they want, but it isn't ethical to do so. Just because someone uses a term doesn't mean it's correct or ethical. It's no more or less healthy to embrace excess body fat than it is to have none at all. I understand the anti-anorexia thing (I'm against anorexia just as much as I'm against obesity) but we have two extremes and neither are good.

As for stretch marks, since they are ruptures of the skin layers, they certainly don't have a smooth appearance. Much of what you can see in the way of "globular" appearances can come from those. But I've helped treat a number of overweight/obese patients and I've seen quite a bit of it that wasn't smooth and there wasn't a single stretch mark in sight. If you're seeing smooth skin with a large amount of fat under it, with no stretch marks, that's indicative of a slower weight gain and/or more elastic skin. That will haunt the person if they ever decide to shed those pounds, because that's the kind of skin that results in what I call "hangy skin." It won't shrink back down with the person and if they want it gone, they'd have to get it surgically removed.

You LOL about me using health for my argument, but I LOL about you knowing nothing about my future career and that you're basically talking out of your ass. I'm studying to be a physical therapist and I've dealt with a wide variety of different patients, including obese patients. Do I care that they can't breathe? Yes I do actually. Do I care that they're killing themselves because of it? Absolutely. Why else would I even bother discussing this kind of thing with people? If I didn't care about it, I'd just not respond to anything anyone says. Heck, I wouldn't even be studying it! Physical activity for the purposes of rehabilitation and improvement of the quality of life is my passion and I'm making a career out of it.

The core problem is that people don't care about themselves enough to maintain a healthy weight and body composition. I will say that one of the biggest problems in our country, regardless of the subject at hand, is total apathy. I'd like to see more people going apeshit about stuff because it shows they care. So I encourage you to go apeshit about your manager smoking and about your uncle drinking. I care about rehabilitating people so that they can get back to their lives. I care about improving their quality of life and their overall health. That means exercising the elderly, moving the surgery patients, and helping obese people lose weight. But if you're going to take on something like that, you can't afford to be a wuss. Physical therapists are a strange mixture of nice and hard-ass! I care about my health and I do what I have to so I can be healthy, and because it's so important, I try to instill that in others. If people had any kind of education about their bodies and what all is going on inside of them, they may care more about stuff.

I don't hate fat people, I have a passion for helping them get healthy. I do, however, hate the whining and the entitlement mentalities that so many of them have. I hate the unwillingness and lack of desire to improve their health. I hate that society is portraying them as evil and disgusting, but at the same time is promoting obesity thru fast food joints and other stuff like that. I also hate that society is telling them it's okay to be 750 pounds and that it's okay to call fat something it's not. Sadly, they don't always share my passion for health. I hate that they're fat more than they do! But if you're going to get people to care, you have to tell them the truth because it makes them uncomfortable enough to change what they're doing, even if you look like a hater.

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GlassDaemon In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-19 19:39:58 +0000 UTC]

I can appreciate this post even if I don't like to be told I'm talking out of my ass, I find that rude and uncalled for. I think my evaluation is quite valid considering the small amount that is portrayed through the actual art and artists note. Most people DON'T care and just use it to make themselves sound a little more valid in their disliking to fat people.

But I still have one more problem about you saying people aren't entitled to calling their fat rolls curves - people who like it. I'm sure you've seen the gainers before, the individuals who INTENTIONALLY eat in excess as an attempt to gain weight. I don't mean a couple pounds but the ones that are already huge and still eating in mass. Sure they know they're fat, but I return to my first post that fat has a negative connotation to it, if people didn't think of it that way they'd probably just say fat. I don't really want to say names but like the Gaining.... diety and the plump.... *cough* royalty.

And you keep talking about the stretch marks, that was just a point to say that's the only way fat isn't smooth. I still wanna know why you say fat isn't smooth without making a reference to stretch marks.

And here's one, if you care so much, why are you so mean about it? You think fat people seriously don't know they're fat? Trust me, I've known since I was about 7 that I was larger than the other kids and they never let me forget it. You make it really hard to believe you care with such a nasty approach to it. Like we don't hear enough that we're lazy pigs. I know my diet isn't ideal, but I'm not lazy, I go to the gym three and four times a week(And I'm still an XL I think I'd be a 3XL in UK sizes). Nor do I stuff my face, make strange sounds when I eat or smell funny. >.> We don't need hatred, cause what you're going to get with hate is an angry fatty. If your anger and calling us fat didn't work the first hundred times, it's still not going to work. You're not encouraging, you're just making us dislike you.

You can tell the truth without being a hater. I do it everyday and somehow I still have friends....

However, I will end this with an apology for making rude assumptions, with the second assumption that you're not talking out of your ass and you really do care. I am sorry and I hope you consider my words from a curious point and not just another obnoxious fatty.

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I-am-Britta In reply to GlassDaemon [2011-04-20 17:06:00 +0000 UTC]

That's not why I made this to begin with. As someone who has studied obesity and the problems that come from it, it really bugs me that people are trying to water it down and make it acceptable. Sure, we need fat (it's one of the 3 macronutrients), but the excess is what's bad. I don't dislike fat people, I promise you. I dislike general laziness and unwillingness to take care of one's self. Put a lazy skinny person in front of me and I'll react the same way as I would to a lazy fat person. And really, the big reason I made this was in response to that retarded show "How Do I Look?" That hostess gal calls fat curves, probably to be politically correct, even tho the person she's making over is clearly fat and not curvy. I probably should've mentioned that in my artist's comments; it would avoid a lot of confusion and assumptions. I'd like you to read the following as it comes from someone in the health care field, not someone who's thin: it frustrates me that people call fat curves because at the root of that is lying and deception. It also shows that instead of seeing excess fat as a bad thing, they're accepting it and they don't give a crap about their health. For most, it's a way to just give up and not try. As a general statement, the I-don't-care-about-my-health thing is definitely the low point of physical rehab. You're working with a client who doesn't give a flying crap about themselves, and I can't begin to tell you how draining and depressing it is. If they cared to some extent, they wouldn't even be in physical rehab to begin with. We see all kinds of secondary problems that come from obesity, most of which come from type 2 diabetes. I can't tell you how many obese people we've hauled out of bed at the hospital to re-teach them how to walk after they've had 3 or 4 toes removed. Their bones break, they get gangrene, and on top of it all, they don't care.

There are people who like being fat, and truthfully, I find that really confusing and bizarre. Royalty has almost always been large, because they're so wealthy and assuming the medieval royalty, they just sat around in the castle all day and didn't exercise. In some cultures (Africa for example), fat is beautiful and before a woman gets married, they put her in a hut and feed her for like... 2 weeks beforehand so she gets fat. Sumo wrestlers do the same thing, but you know how their legs are always taped? It's so they don't break anything under that weight. People who intentionally eat here in the States are almost always addicted to food, or they have some kind of disorder. There's one in particular that causes a ravenous appetite that never goes away, in addition to varying degrees of learning disabilities, but I forgot the name. I have a tremendous amount of sympathy for people like that, because they truly can't help it. That's why I'm minoring in Psychology, so if I have a patient like that one day, I'll be able to help the mental aspect of it. Binge-eating is listed in the DSM as one of the eating disorders. If we can treat the disorder, we can help them gain more control, and tht's what I'd like to see happen.

So here's my non-stretch-mark-related reason as to why fat isn't smooth! I wasn't sure if you were asking if stretch marks caused fat to look more or less globular, and I apologize for not asking what you meant. Fat is a collection of cells all lumped together in a semi-random fashion. As you eat, whatever you don't store in your liver and muscles as glycogen is converted to and stored as fat. As the cells expand, you see the skin starting to stretch. Here's why it's not smooth: individual cells are all are holding a different amount of fat. Each cell, regardless of the type, is surrounded by a cellular membrane that 1) keeps the cell's contents in and 2) keeps everything else out. So the result is a disproportioned, globular mass, even in thin people. I'm 135 pounds and I have cellulite... and honey, there's nothing smooth about it! I saw it in the mirror and I was like "OMG!" It's not a huge continuous mass that runs together as one big unit; it's made up of the contents of each individual cell. If you think of a 3D model of fat (one of my professors has one so I've noticed the pattern), the cells that are more towards the center are surrounded in all directions by other cells. As such, they can't hold as much as the ones on the outer sides. And since they're all squished together, some will be able to hold more than others. We have organs, bones, skin, and other things that determine where the fat stores can expand, and in which direction. The bigger the person gets, the more smooth they look, not because of curves, but because once the fat cells grow outward away from the skeleton and muscles, they're uninhibited and can grow in whatever direction they want.

Honestly tho, if being truthful and straight-forward is mean, then I can't help you there. In the PT world, it doesn't seem to matter whether you're nice or not. Either way you do it, from what I've seen in the profession, the person starts crying and acting like a big baby. And really, what can you do? Coddle them and say it's okay to be obese when you both know that's not true? I don't make fun of people for being fat, regardless of why they're fat. I never have. It's not nice for one, and it's not conducive (spelling?) to motivating someone to improve their health. But man, when they start that drama crap, a lot of people are going to jump right on it. Even in the professional field, it's hard not to say something derrogatory when someone's whining and crying their way thru their regimen. They're there, presumably, because they want to improve their health, but they act like little kids and bring all this attenion to themselves. I don't like whiners, regardless of size. Most of the whiners in the PT world, tho, happen to be obese. That's where we see the bulk of the health problems and they're the crux of our patient population.

I honestly have no clue how to go about trying to tell a fat person that they need to lose weight. I spend all this time and money studying it and try to relay my information to someone else who needs help in that area, and all they do is pout and say that's all they ever hear. I understand they're sensitive from the uncalled-for harassment, but when you can't even say, as a professional, "I'd like to help you lose some weight," you can't expect much in the way of positive reactions. Fat people hate being told they're fat, but thin people, specifically healthcare professionals, hate the crap that gets thrown in their face for everything they say that in any way alludes to the person's weight. That's a big reason thin people hate fat people; all they seem to do is whine and cry when someone recommends they lose weight. And believe me when I say they don't react any better when a professional tells them to lose weight.

I apologize as well for seeming rude and mean; that's not my intention at all. I'm glad you're curious tho, because a lot of people aren't.

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GlassDaemon In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-20 19:58:11 +0000 UTC]

Ahh, well you never mentioned cellulite, I have that on my thighs, not on my stomach though, but its hard to find people without cellulite so I dunno how I feel about you using that to argue, but it's a moot point by now. With this conversation/argument/discussion I can respect your view on fat rolls and curves.

However, I'll still be telling people I'm curvy just cause I'll never be one of those people that need physical therapy. I've had personal experience with someone who had diabetes. She was thin as a rail her entire life though, she ate like crap but never gained weight: my grandmother. She past away about five years ago as a result of her condition, indirectly I suppose. She was amputated at the knee on one leg and the big toe on the other, she couldn't walk, she tried with a prosthetic leg but her body was just too weak. She eventually gave up, she tried to commit suicide a number of times. By the time she died I hated her, she'd given up and I was disgusted with having to literally pick her up to take her to the bathroom or even get her into bed.

This doesn't really relate but I think it's an interesting detail you may find... curious. Last year I broke a bone in my foot, the fifth metatarsal. I spent about 5 months in recovery from it, the first two months in a cast with no visible healing. I couldn't even rest the foot on the ground because of how fragile the spot was that it had broken in. I had to crawl up and down the stairs to get to my bed (because I'm stubborn and refused to sleep on the couch downstairs)I sat on a bucket to take showers(cause no way in hell would I allow someone to help me bathe). I couldn't use crutches because my upper body was just too weak, even short distances to the bathroom was difficult and draining. I ended up using my grandmother's wheel chair (Oh how the irony is SCREAMING!).

Having tasted what it's like to be so helpless, to have visualized it and watch it kill a loved one, you'd think I'd finally have the motivation to change my lifestyle. I did not.

This may sound strange, but I didn't obtain the motivation until I accepted myself. I had to be willing to lose weight for my HEALTH, not for appearances, not because I wanted to have a flat belly or to be pretty. I spent nights thinking about what my mother would do if I died or became incapable, could I put her through what she went through with her own mother, now with her daughter? My mother went to such lengths to change her life style, why hadn't I? My brothers... my older brother would be lost, I see him killing himself if I died (we're very close to say the least). My friends? Poor Hope is so sensitive it would break her down. But the real thing that was the dividing line that made me say "enough is enough." Is the thought of who I want to be when I'm 50, my grandmother was only 67 when she died. In the end it has to be for themselves. Now I find myself pushing up the resistance, pushing a little faster, lifting a little more, because I want to, and now, I enjoy it, I look forward to my days at the gym even if the scale still weighs in at the same thing it did three months ago. I enjoy the energy, the lack of stress, the jelly feeling I get after my shower at the gym.

I believe it's a psychological thing that keeps fat people from trying to lose weight, not a physical one. No body WANTS to be unhealthy but people don't realize quite what it's like to be so helpless, or they've had people wait on them hand and foot so it never matter, or they've just dealt with it for so long they don't even realize it anymore. You have to find the key, the weak spot to make them want to do it. Some people it might be as simple as having a companion, half the reason I love the gym is my best friend is always there with me, we are each others constant.

I'm not saying it's a happy thing to express to someone they need to lose weight but there's a difference from "You're fat, lose weight, you're disgusting" (okay so maybe not the disgusting part but to be honest when I hear fat I instantly associate that with disgusting) versus explaining to them what WILL happen to them if things don't change, personal experience helps a lot if you know anyone. In other words, I guess avoiding the word fat, because it's so negative people get offended very easily with it. It's hard to think someone calling you fat could possibly care because the last hundred certainly didn't.

I appreciated and enjoyed out little scrimmage and I will try to keep your words in mind the next time someone tells me to lose weight.

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I-am-Britta In reply to GlassDaemon [2011-04-22 04:32:08 +0000 UTC]

Nah, I wasn't using cellulite to argue, I just remembered I noticed it the other day and was like "HOLY CRAP."

I really appreciated your story; it's very inspirational and although I didn't say this in a previous message, I'm glad to hear that you're exercising and doing what you can to stay in good health. I really respect that and I want to encourage you to keep up the good work!

So since the topic of being larger and needing to lose fat weight is such a pressure point for most people, how would you recommend I go about having such a discussion with my patients in the future?

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GlassDaemon In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-22 16:30:04 +0000 UTC]

That's really hard because there is no solution to everyone, everyone is going to have a different weakness. There's a reason why most commercials for weight loss methods show a fat person getting skinny AND toned, because that's the quirk to most people. Being the epitome of beautiful in today's society. From what you've told me I get the impression you deal with people who are so far gone it's sickening, people who probably heave while just walking or trying to get up. Obviously they've already given up on being skinny-pretty, well likely anyway.

You're in a particularly difficult spot because you're small (comparatively) to them and they don't believe you could ever understand what it's like. I have trouble believing you do, what I have come to believe is that you actually care. Just like I don't know what it's like for my boyfriend to quit smoking, but I pressure him to quit until he gets mad at me anyway because I care(didn't mention him earlier because I actually do care if he smokes lol).

I guess expressing that you do care might be step one, and care for them as an individual. I don't know how the therapy works or how long you see any given patient, but no stranger could ever effect my decision to lose weight. I'm not kidding when I say anger doesn't work, concern, friendliness, compassion will. It's hard to not be a hardass about it because it's so damn frustrating to see someone have let themselves go so far, but they already know they're in a bad position, likely they're disgusted with themselves.

I feel like I'm talking in circles, I want to help you, but I just don't have the answer. It varies to much from person to person. If it was just as simple as "putting the fork down" no one would be fat. Everyone's effected differently by different things. Be patient and caring, but you already have the basis, just don't get angry at them when they whine and complain.

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I-am-Britta In reply to GlassDaemon [2011-04-25 01:49:56 +0000 UTC]

Yeah... the acute inpatient setting isn't the best when it comes to those who want to get better. It's all we could do to get them up out of bed at all. Thankfully, there was no barf involved, but they certainly didn't like us coming in there to get them out of bed.

I've always been thin mainly because I've always been athletic. I was always outside when I was little, running around and riding my bike. Then when I got to 3rd grade, I took up organized sports and played those til the end of high school. I honestly have no idea what it's like to be large, but we've learned how to best exercise obese patients so they don't get hurt while exercising (e.g, pool exercises to take the pressure off their joints). It helps me to be more empathetic, because I can see the pain they're in. That pain drives me to put what I learned to use, by trying to explain to them the dangers of obesity and what they can do to get control of their lives, but then I'm met with resistance. It's always a struggle unfortunately, even in home care. Home care is a little better in that regard, because while it's still inpatient, you're at the patient's house instead of seeing them in the hospital so they're much farther along in the healing process (usually) and are more upbeat and willing to exercise.

The amount of time you spend with a patient depends on what field of therapy you're in. Of the three, acute care is the shortest time spent, since the hospital tries to heal them up and discharge them as quickly as possible. If I remember correctly, we saw the same patient for about 2 weeks, on average. Home care is much better in that regard, because as long as Medicare renews their month-long treatments, you can keep treating them. My aunt and I treated the same patients for a long time; one of them was on for like 7 weeks or so since she was his therapist. That's the other big factor: who gets assigned to you. Outpatient is good for about a month and they're done. So I guess regardless of my field, I can just show compassion and concern; that sounds like a great place to start!

So actually, you did help, because I didn't have the faintest clue where to start. Some patients respond better to the hard-ass approach, others need more sympathy and patience. Thanks for your help, tho; I really appreciate it!

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GlassDaemon In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-25 02:06:58 +0000 UTC]

Well, I'm glad I could help. Good luck with your profession and I hope it brings you more joy than heartache with such depressing people.

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I-am-Britta In reply to GlassDaemon [2011-04-25 02:13:20 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! I plan to work at the VA hospital so I'm hoping that will work out

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DoppelgangerFM In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-18 16:04:23 +0000 UTC]

Well said!!

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I-am-Britta In reply to LiteralNovice [2011-04-02 18:46:44 +0000 UTC]

Tubes? Interesting

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I-am-Britta In reply to Aura-chii [2011-04-02 02:01:46 +0000 UTC]

Woo woo! There's definitely a difference, and what I try to promote is to not let the fat impede your curves. In other words, don't let it get out of control and you'll be fine!

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I-am-Britta In reply to Writerman674 [2011-04-01 00:52:07 +0000 UTC]

It seems to be a problem because people fail to see the humor in it.

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Writerman674 In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-01 00:55:51 +0000 UTC]

But you gotta admit it seems dumb, and funny at the same time

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I-am-Britta In reply to Writerman674 [2011-04-01 01:34:05 +0000 UTC]

It IS dumb, and that's why it's awesome!

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Writerman674 In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-01 01:37:00 +0000 UTC]

your right.

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I-am-Britta In reply to HubertCumberdalle [2011-04-01 00:51:31 +0000 UTC]

Go for it haha

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HubertCumberdalle In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-13 02:24:34 +0000 UTC]

Done.

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I-am-Britta In reply to KitXune [2011-03-26 01:31:48 +0000 UTC]

Yeah they do, and it's actually worse to be too thin than too fat, because fat plays a huge role in the composition of myelin sheaths (membrane-type structures that surround the axons of your nerve cells to speed up the electrical conduction) as well as energy storage. There's definitely a happy medium and it's different for everyone. ^^

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I-am-Britta In reply to Cheezzle [2011-03-26 01:32:15 +0000 UTC]

No it's not a big deal; it's supposed to be funny.

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Q-Dip In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-04-01 20:31:13 +0000 UTC]

I don't really think it's funny.
I find it rude. A lot of people are struggling with obesity and your just sort of encouraging them to give up?

I'm underweight for my age, but I don't go around making fun of fat people because there metabolism is different then mine. D;

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I-am-Britta In reply to Q-Dip [2011-04-02 01:59:49 +0000 UTC]

Um, no. I'm saying fat rolls aren't the same thing as curves. If people would quit calling their fat curves and get serious about trimming it down, they wouldn't be obese in the first place.

Seeing as how so many people are obese, I'd say they've already given up. Actually, most of them never started the fight. You don't get fat overnight; it takes years to do that to yourself. But at the same time, it takes months and even years to get yourself in shape, and that's where we see our problems. Is the struggle harder for some than others because of genetic predispositions and lifetime diets? Of course, but regardless, it's possible to put forth the effort, discipline, and self-control necessary to eat a proper diet and to exercise. But what do most people, regardless of size, prefer to do? Sit on their butt and stuff their face. It takes effort to control a diet and it takes effort to consistently exercise, and for that reason, most people don't like it. It's hard, it's tiring, and it makes their bodies hurt.

I don't go around making fun of fat people either, but I don't take people seriously when they rattle off this list of excuses for not taking care of themselves. Saying that one's metabolism is different is no excuse; if anything, it should make the person try harder. And saying that fat rolls are curves and embracing them as "who you are" is certainly no way to get healthy. Fat is good for us to an extent, but the excess is what's bad.

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Cheezzle In reply to I-am-Britta [2011-03-26 01:34:40 +0000 UTC]

Alright, cool then.

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