People Are Sharing The Most Unhinged Things Their Doctors Have Said To Them
And yes, a lot of them have to do with weight.
Let’s preface this article by saying that doctors, as a group, can be great. They have important knowledge, expertise, and understanding that most of us simply don’t. They play an important role in our lives and in society.
But it’s also true that once you hit a certain age, most people can probably recall a negative, hurtful, or simply bemusing interaction with a medical professional. Maybe it’s because they see the world through a different lens than most of us or maybe it’s because they lose (or never had) good bedside manner.
Recently, TikTok user @erinanddaniel’s husband encountered... not a negative comment per se, but a less than delicate one in his appointment write up.
“Appearance,” he quoted, laughing. “He is obese.”
We know it’s a medical term and everything, but writing it so bluntly is both funny, a little insulting, and so emblematic of many of our worst interactions with our doctors. Commenters were quick to add their own, similar moments and... boy howdy are they a lot...
Some of them were just kind of funny or even cute.
“My ER notes said ‘patient appears to be well fed.’”
Apparently, one commenter pointed out that “well-fed” and “well-nourished” are standardized terms, and many others noted they saw this in their charts as well. Honestly, I find this one a little bit charming.
“They called me STURDY”
Look at it this way: if you were a woman in the 1800s, you’d put this in your Tinder profile to prove you weren’t going to die of consumption any time soon...
“My doctor called me “pleasant and well-appearing.” I wanted to print it and hang it on the fridge like a report card”
I’d embroider it and hang it on a wall, TBH.
“My old doctor sent over records to a nutritionist and under my BMI he wrote ‘cakey treats and pasta.’ Clinical gossip is what this is.”
This one is a bit insulting but honestly it’s also kind of funny so we’ll just chuckle and move on...
“Mine put ‘patient feels more firm than they appear.”’”
... ditto this one.
Others were simply awful
“My doctor said," Do you want to discuss your weight or keep pretending like it’s not a problem?” I’m not about to hurt my feelings more by reading her chart notes”
Ummm... beg your pardon? That’s when you ask them ‘Do you want to discuss why this attitude is why people stop going to the doctor?’ What exactly do they think they’re going to accomplish with this attitude?
“My friend once read her [doctor’s] note and it said ‘appears much older than her actual age.’ Talk about a knife to her self esteem.”
YIKES.
“My doctor asked me if I had any medical conditions. I said nope. She looked at me and said ‘You know… Obesity is a medical condition.’”
Ma’am. You could have just said ‘So your height and weight put you in Obesity category X. I would counsel you to X, Y, Z...” instead of being snarky about it.
“My doctor walked in and said ‘So, what do you think we should do about the weight?’”
Honestly, at that point, start going to another doctor.
“I went to the dermatologist to get a mole on my shoulder looked at and he walked in and goes ‘let me guess you are here to talk about your acne.’”
This feels like the doctor equivalent of when your eyebrow waxer asks “upper lip, too?” Quit trying to upsell via shame!
“I went to the dermatologist to get some tretinoin cream and the doctor said ‘yes you need some, I can see your pores from across the room.’”
Who raised this person?!
And then some comments were just baffling...
“I answered that I drink occasionally (I drink maybe once every 1-2 months) and my notes said ‘Counseled patient on alcoholism.’”
Ah yes. That devastating form of alcoholism where you have a drink at a friend’s birthday dinner...
“My doctor once put ‘cried unexpectedly for no reason’ in my PT notes after telling me that all of my very real symptoms were all in my head.”
They add that a blood test showed him their symptoms were not, in fact, in their head.
“Mine wrote that I was severely depressed. I just asked him for a list of therapists.”
I think this is the same way my mom worries I’m starving when I off-handedly ask when dinner will be ready.
All of it is pretty wild — though the nature of the wildness can certainly vary from amusing to slanderous. Perhaps that’s why one person simply replied to the original video: “Yeah, I don’t read those. It’s really none of my business.”
Honestly? Not a bad philosophy to live by.
