Too bad Katie Bee was never treated by Drew's folks. I bet it would have been win all around.

Dad was a pathologist so was very often the bearer of very bad news. He probably would have been hated too.

It used to take a certain quality of person to go into a medical specialty that laymen consider, well, icky. Pathology, oncology, proctology.

A neighbor was an orthopedic resident, and in fact treated StY for a slight clubfoot in his first year. He mentioned that he would have loved to be a pediatrician, but it was two more years of school, and his folks had subsidized his education long enough, he had a family and it was time to get to work. I mused that it must be very hard to be a pediatrician, because it must hurt terribly when there was nothing you could do. He nodded. "But compared to the difference you can make in the vast majority of lives--it's an amazing profession to practice."

I think the surge in litigation, the incorporation of medical care and the regimentation and rules that surround the practice of medicine today remove the practicioner--particularly the MD--from meaningful contact with hir patients, and diminish the realization that these are people, with full lives and people who love and depend on them.

And I think rather than going into a profession to be of service, a lot of students go into medicine for the status, and the income. The nature of the profession--or rather, the nature of the corporately managed profession--has changed, to the point that "service" is often an unfamiliar idea.

Or so it seems to me.

Drew, I'm sorry you feel your family are being attacked and maligned. And I'm sorry that so many of us fat people feel like we are under attack when dealing with medical professionals.

More Ryan photos! They start here, with a 1st birthday party: [link]

Picnic baby: [link]

Chilling at my brother Keiran's: [link]

Invasion of the rellies! [link]

In today's instalment of 'Wake Up With Fry and Laurie', Hugh has a bandaged head.

delurks

So, despite my falling-off-the-internet-ish-ness, I have not been eaten by monsters. Just busy, and distracted, and avoidant, and things. But I'm trying hard to get on top of stuff (by my standards of Get On Top Of Stuff, which are much less stringent than most people's, I suspect).

Work is good. I've signed on for a 5th year in Bangkok. I can haz Seekrit Santa present (thank you Sail!) and I have finally posted my Santee's present (putting the slack into slacker - sorry! But it's en route now!).

I confess, I only went back a couple of hundred posts (and Beep Me - and, Jessica, I'm so very sorry), so I know I've missed huge amounts of stuff. But I just want to say: I fucking LOVE you guys. And I have no idea how I managed to stay away so long.

::hugs everyone::

P.S. - Smonster - yay for the new boy! Who sounds fab!

P.P.S - Omnis, some day your non-lesbian Geekgirl will come! For you are cute and funny and made of win.

P.P.P.S: conversation in my class the other week:

Kid (politely, having just knocked on the door & walked into my lesson): "Miss Fay, do you have a sore ass?"

Me: .....???!!!???

Kid:......

Me:.....???....er...oh! Do you mean a thesaurus?

Kid: Yes?

Me: Bwahahahahahaha! Ahem. They're over there. Bwahahahahahaah!

Kid: ????

Other kids: ....why are you laughing, Miss Fay?

Ray: (small person of Chinese/German extraction, whom some of you may recall from 3 years ago, when I taught him previously, as being The Cutest Kid In The World - he's grown up a lot, but does still look extraordinarily like a Manga character, with the enormous eyes and wee pointy features) : ....did he say dinosaur? Did he say do you have a dinosaur?

Me:....Yes. Something like that. Heh. Heheheheh.

Fay, you and Ray could take your act on the road.

bt, looking at photos of Ryan bring much happiness. Also, his one year old cousin is so cute in her party dress and matching sun hat! Together they fight crime! their cuteness factor is almost blinding.

Drew, I'm sorry you feel your family are being attacked and maligned. And I'm sorry that so many of us fat people feel like we are under attack when dealing with medical professionals.

Indeed. While of course Drew's parents and Lisa's friends and others are real people that are being defended, and I'm sure they are wonderful people and consummate professionals, the reality is that fat people, by and large, get subpar treatment at the doctors, are shamed and bullied, and tend to not seek medical treatment because of that.

I'm deeply sorry that the tarring with the same brush is hurtful to others on the board, but I think it is also a legitimate complaint that should be safe to vent about here. Maybe if we were more specific about our painful stories, and not generalize to every medical professional? And those who have people they love in the field, maybe an understanding that the venting is coming from a place that is very real and raw and personal, and not really targeted to the entire medical profession (although it may sound like it is.)

I'm deeply sorry that the tarring with the same brush is hurtful to others on the board, but I think it is also a legitimate complaint that should be safe to vent about here. Maybe if we were more specific about our painful stories, and not generalize to every medical professional? And those who have people they love in the field, maybe an understanding that the venting is coming from a place that is very real and raw and personal, and not really targeted to the entire medical profession (although it may sound like it is.)

I agree totally with Nora. I took Katie Bee's comment to mean that, because she had the unfortunate but very common experience of every doctor that SHE SAW being a shithead, she was reluctant to see a doctor again. I didn't assume that she meant that every doctor on the planet, past, present, or future, was a shithead.

And when Drew mentioned his father being a pathologist and therefore hated by his patients - well, I'm sure that Drew's father did his duty to his patients in a professional and compassionate way. Certainly it IS unjust that a doctor be hated for merely being the bearer of bad, but true, news. However, we fatties are not hating doctors for professionally and compassionately doing their duty by us. We fear (and yes, even hate) the ones who are shitty to us and neglect our medical needs simply because either all they see is our fat or because they feel the need to punish us for committing the moral failure of being fat.