Heavy D

I had a discussion today with one on my nurses about weight. Now, there is nothing wrong with being comfortable in your skin, but when your girth prohibits you from getting all the benefits modern medicine has to offer, you tie the doctors hands in how much we can do to help. I said the magic number was 275 for the average person, especially female. We seem to get a large number of them waddling into the ED complaining of knee and ankle pain, go figure. At that weight, if you lost 100 lbs, you could actually function, but if you are pushing a quarter ton, there is obviously a point of no return.
I only point this out because I had to do a pelvic exam on an extremely obese female today. It reminded me of a patient in residency who weighed 500 lbs. She was pregnant, and doing a pelvic on her required the assistance of 3 people. Later the nurse inquired as to how she got pregnant. Turns out, 2 of her cousins held her thighs back while her husband went to town.
Isn't that a pretty picture.