You're Fat and You Hurt My Back

November 11, 2008

Okay, I know that fat people have all the rights of skinny and regular and stout people.  That being said, I am a nurse, in critical care.  I have to assess you, roll you, clean you, lift you.  I have to care for you when you can not do so for yourself.  I nurture you at your most vulnerable.  But you hurt me, and you hurt my colleagues when we try to help you.  I have a sister, an nurse, who is disabled as a result of caring for a fat patient.  I have a niece, a nurse, who had a cervical vertebra fractured by a fat patient.  My mother, a certified nursing assistant, had a foot broken by lifting a fat person.  I go home some nights with tears in my eyes from back pain.

I know you have rights, but so do health care workers.  Most hospitals and care facilities do not provide lift teams and mechanical lifts to schlep your mega-bodies about.  We healthcare workers try to make do, asking for help.  But, usually, our neighbor nurses are as busy as we are in notoriously short staffed facilities.  

We are protective of you, our patient.  We want you to be clean, safe, and well perfused.  We need to move you often to keep you healthy.  But it hurts.

And it hurts your family, the ones who deal with you at home, every day.  They push a heavily weighted wheelchair, balance you as you transfer, help you get up, and try to help you when you fall down, as you often do.  Your weight hurts them as directly as it hurts you.  The difference is, you have a choice.

You can consult an endocrinologist, a bariatric specialist, a physical therapist.  You can call Jennie Craig.  You can 'just say no'.  Help the ones who are helping you.  Love them?  Give them a break.  Respect health care workers?  Lighten up.  We all care for you.  Please care for us....