James Corden rocks in countering that Bill Maher’s “fat shaming” rant is bullying, September 18, 2019 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #1262)

 

James Corden rocks in countering that Bill Maher’s “fat shaming” rant is bullying:

Drop everything you're doing and watch this. @JKCorden, I didn't think it was possible to be more proud of you, but you just did it. pic.twitter.com/29em2rYi3C

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 14, 2019

 

Thanks to KatieC for retweeting this video link!

As I have mentioned in previous blog posts of mine, I have health issues related to being overweight and my metabolism.  It is only in the last six or seven years that through medication and treatments, that my doctors were able to help me start to get my weight under control.

I have always eaten nutritiously–no portion control problem for me.  And with my arthritis, strenuous exercise isn’t possible–not even the low impact lap swimming that I loved, because the chlorine damages my eyes.  So my pulmonologist’s treatment plan of putting me on a CPAP breathing machine over night was a revelation to me.

I always say that I slept off the first 60 pounds, because after a sleep study, the pulmonologist found that I had SOSA (severe obstructive sleep apna), and I was waking up several times an hour choking because my airway collapsed–126 times per hour. to be exact.  So he put me on a CPAP breathing machine at night and my life changed immeasurably for the better–being able to sleep through the night, being much more well rested, and not waking up choking.

By now, I have lost over 118 pounds–with about 50 pounds more to go for my goal weight–notice, I don’t say my “ideal” weight.  And a new medication that I started taking a few months ago has also helped me decrease my A1C by 1.8 pts!  The A1C blood test is the diabetes severity indicator.  And I have also lost 10 pounds more in the last few months.  My weightloss has been steady and gradual over the years, with only a few plateau bumps along the way, before I started losing weight again.  So overall, I am wearing three sizes smaller in clothing than I did several years ago. Ta dah!

Yet on the outside to someone who hasn’t known me a long time or at all, I still just look like a fat person–with all their attendant preconceived notions and prejudices about my being fat.  This means that situations arise such as the blood lab work receptionist who ignored my doctor’s order for a pregnancy test for me on Monday before I have an MRI with contrast isotopes on Wednesday/today for an unrelated vision/depth-perception issue.

The lab work receptionist lied to me and said that the doctor hadn’t ordered it, and if he did, that the MRI lab (in another facility) would give me that test when I arrived, if they thought that I needed the pre-MRI test.

I checked with the MRI testing facility and they do not do any lab tests there.  So I screencapped my medical portal test orders listing from my doctor  and I showed it to the blood lab work receptionist today and I challenged her false and downright unhealthy (for me) actions and behaviors.  What if I had been pregnant and they did the MRI with contrast isotopes injected into me without knowing that I was pregnant, and the baby was harmed?  That would have been a monumental and preventable tragedy.

My educated guess is that in the receptionist’s mind, a fat person wouldn’t have even a possibility of becoming pregnant.  Why?  Because she probably thought that I wasn’t having sex with my husband.  Well wake up, world!  We are a very happily married and loving couple.  Though infertility was a side issue to my metabolism problems–and my husband also had fertility issues that went unaddressed for a long time–my becoming pregnant is a possibility, if not a probability.

So for obvious health safety reasons, doctors test and other medical orders need to be strictly followed by non medical staff handling the clerical end of medical procedures and tests–and not thwarted by their prejudice, which could possibly endanger lives in the process.

Okay, I’m off my soap box now.  But as James Corden shared himself, every day as a person who is chubby/fat/obese the world can be a cruel and biased place.  And that is compounded when the public and health care staff also buy into bullying/fat shaming–thereby compromising our health further until a truly knowledgeable and insightful doctor or two comes along.  And as my story illustrates, one has to be one’s own best health care advocate–whatever your health issue.

I have been most fortunate in receiving love and encouragement from my wonderful husband, some other family, friends, work, and community service colleagues who treat me as a person, not as someone with the obesity disease.

So whenever I could over the years, I would and do put myself out there publicly for conference presentations, programs, award ceremony announcing, event MCing, etc.  So that if one young, middle school, or high school aged kid sees me and my professional success and my confidence, that they can visualize professional success and confidence for themselves.

And over the years, I have developed my own unique way of describing my self as a person of size, and in comparison to others, in a positive way:  My little great niece is a rosebud, her mother my niece is a bouquet of flowers, and I am a garden of flowers.  And who doesn’t like flowers?

Hugs & Love!  Grati  ;->