To think I still deserve medical attention despite being overweight

[Frequency]

Every time I have a medical issue and seek help for it I get told to lose weight, which is fair enough, I understand that, but that is all the support I get.

For example, I went to the GP recently about crippling pain in my left knee. I can't walk far, I can't sleep, and it often escalates into shooting pains up and down my leg or stabbing pains in the side of my knee which make it really hard to concentrate on anything but the pain.

I was prescribed 3 months of Orlistat. Nothing for the pain in my knee, just three months of weight loss drugs and told to come back after I had lost 5% of my body weight to discuss my knee.

I've been on it for a week now. I still cannot walk or sleep and last night another condition I have had previously flared up which I think is related to the Orlistat/weight loss/diet.

It's something I have had previously, only ever when trying to lose weight. It's like a really sharp, unbearable pain across the top of my stomach. The pain is so bad it causes vomiting and shortness of breath. I would honestly rather spend the rest of my life in labour than to experience that pain again and now it's back. I've only had it once up to now but I know the pattern, it will become more and more frequent until I'm having daily attacks that last hours. If I seek help during an attack, then I know a Dr will take one look at my weight, tell me it is because of all the fatty food I eat, and send me away in tears to buy myself some Gaviscon and lose weight.

It never happens when I eat fatty food it happens when I try to lose weight but they never believe me.

So now I am stuck, I can either be fat and never walk without pain again or I can continue losing weight and have hours of childbirth-like pain every day.

AIBU to think it shouldn't be like this?

I had an ulcer many years ago, I was told to never take NSAIDs eg ibuprofen again. I did once in a moment of real need, wish I hadn’t, it just caused pain, so I think you should lay off that stuff and stick to paracetamol/co-codamol, although the latter can cause appalling constipation. Look up ulcer friendly diets (no sweetcorn/acidic fruit/booze/tomato/oil) and get some omeprazole. Your diet is likely exacerbating stomach issues, as are the pain meds you’re taking.

^ This with bells on.

Sounds like you've got gastritis and gallstones, the two often go hand in hand. The doctor should offer you an ultrasound and PPIs, I'm obese and that's what I was given.

I'm on Mounjaro now, it's a total game changer. When I would diet on my own I would be starving, shaking and sick with hunger, craving any and all food desperately and in a shocking mood, before eventually giving in and having a huge binge after a few weeks. One jab of Mounjaro and a few hours later my appetite was gone, sticking to 1400 calories or less a day is a breeze. It's expensive but what price your health.

Your knee pain is due to carrying too much weight. Your stomach pain is likely reflux. You’ve drawn a nexus between dieting = stomach pain but sometimes reflux happens when we don’t eat and sometimes eating can calm it. I feel like I have the worst reflux on an empty stomach.

Your weight issues may be masking your other issues but it’s possible your weight is causing your other issues and your doctor is not going to order expensive tests when you can’t be bothered limiting your food intake.

I get it. I’ve had an eating disorder and became very skinny. How I was treated as a skinny person was vastly different than when I was festively plump.

You need to sort your weight out before any specialist will bother looking at your knee. The same with your stomach - lose weight and you will be treated differently.

To be honest, veg could be just as bad, particularly green or leafy veg (broccoli, cabbage, asparagus etc) along with oranges, sharp apples and strawberries. I landed in a&E after eating an avocado! I ended up on a diet of white rice, plain chicken on a saucer sized plate 6 times a day and rich tea biscuits.

A food diary helped me to track the worst culprits (anything spicy or garlicky and pizza)

I’m still in healthy BMI range but right at the top. I was ill and ate too much as miserable and also stuck in bed for almost 2 months, I put on almost 10lbs. My bad back is so much worse and that is just from that bit of extra weight.

More than 100 types - osteoarthritis, rheumatoid and psoriatic are the most common, but gout, fibromyalgia and ankylosing spondylitis fall under arthritis too.

I get completely what you're saying. I've finally got an appointment for a physio to have a look at my knee after first raising it with the surgery 8 months back. I'm told it's a one off appointment so they better make me pretty happy!!

It is such a roundabout - overweight so knees hurt, knees hurt so walking and other exercise is difficult/impossible so impossible to lose weight.

Don't believe any of the BS that might be ladled out (here or by a Dr) that all you have to do is try harder, eat less and everything will be hunkydory.

Hope you find your solution sooner rather than later.

I don't understand why if you are 'dieting' on the foods you say you are eating, why do you need to take drugs? If you are not eating ultra-processed foods and are being sensible with the amount of food you eat, a balanced diet, why the drug? That is the orlistat?

If the knee pain came on very quickly and is super painful then I would get yourself to a sports physio as it might be muscular. I had the same thing with my hips and the physio just got me moving again and some exercises to do. Docs are hopeless with that stuff whether you are fat or thin. With the gut thing try changing your diet more slowly. Your gut bacteria can’t cope with sudden switches

I get stomach cramps from iceberg lettuce. Salad leaves and little gem lettuce don't cause any problems.

Also onions, I can only tolerate a small amount and they have to be cooked, never raw.

You do deserve medical care just as much as anyone else. However, being overweight does cause a lot of health problems, such as bad knees. You are being given medical care to resolve this with the weight loss support.
In terms of the stomach pain, are you eating something different when dieting? Increase in brown bread, certain fruits etc. Could be a food intolerance. Could also be hunger pains as you are used to a higher amount of food. This will eventually resolve itself if you carry on with a reduced diet.

If you run out of time to prepare a healthy set of meals for work regularly the easiest thing to do is make too much dinner and have it for lunch then next day, and make your breakfast the night before too. Skyr is high protein and fat free so add that to some fruit and nuts in a pot and grab it out the fridge with a box of left overs and healthy snacks, no need to worry about it in the morning then.

I’ve not read the full post but suggest you read the patients leaflet and see if there are any foods that need avoiding when on that treatment. One of DH says don’t eat oranges, and one of mine says no grapefruit.

hope you feel better soon 💐

I think it's because I have history of not being sensible, especially when calorie counting. I don't suppose she meant for me to go back to existing on tuna salad, fruit, yoghurt, and little else, but as I said these are my safe foods.

I am trying to (and managing in a way) to expand my list of safe foods and using the Orlistat as a tool to do that. I know I don't need to calorie count or restrict food groups the way I used to because if I go to far the Orlistat will help. I very much doubt that is what the GP wanted me to do with it.

I did tell her that dieting doesn't work for me because I take it too far and end up ill. I never explicitly mentioned my anorexic teen years but I was honest about my current situation with eating which is cycles of extreme binging followed by cycles of extreme restriction. Clearly, my binge cycles last longer than my restriction ones, mostly because I end up making myself ill, one way or another or my body gets so hungry it forces me to eat via extreme cravings and hunger pains to the point where I literally can't think or do anything other than fantasize about food.

I did think I was doing better on Orlistat but if I'm honest with myself the idea of having to give up tuna salad and omelets is a bit scary because I can't think of anything "safe" to replace them with. I haven't started restricting the amount of salad or fruit I can eat yet and I don't want (except for the pain thing) so that's a step forward, at least.

Have you thought of making healthy versions of your safe junkier foods?

Your GP is wrong. I am fat. If I have an injury I get physio. And the issue gets better. You should have been offered physio.

So I understand the doctor not wanting to treat the knee until your weight is lower but it will be a hell of a lot easier to loose weight if you are more mobile etc.

It's similar to trying to sort out a cough if you still smoke or fixing a tyre on average overloaded car.

All this with critically underfunded surgeries doesn't help. Still just because you are it does not make you less worthy than any other person of happiness but may make you less of a priority for certain health care in the system, rightly or wrongly. You are a worthy valued person though and this needs to be felt internally and will help you mentally with the journey of weightloss

However, you are trying, have you tried eating your non illness triggering foods but just less of them, get them to fit into your macros

Weigh daily and drink enough

The ibuprofen will make you feel ill on an empty stomach, so try to line it etc.

Try swimming to help to move but this journey is not going to be easy or pain free but it is achievable, break it down into little wins and try to enjoy the journey

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-nuggets

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/ultimate-makeover-sausage-rolls

YANBU but MN is notoriously fatphobic and still think it's a case of purely calories in vs calories out, which is reductionist, and if it were true, we would all be slim. But the fatphibic here wont understand what I mean by that, or think Im talking nonsense!

Ypu could go tk the dr with a sore thumbnail and somehow they will fob you off with 'lose weight and it will all go away!'

That sounds sensible. Or cut out likely prospects fully for a week or so.

Yes exactly.

I am overweight and my GP ignores everything I go to her about and says to lose weight. I am 5 ft 4 and size 14. I was exhausted and asleep most nights by 6 pm.... 'lose weight'. I have crippling pain in my hips ... 'lose weight'. Finally i went to a private GP and had blood tests and it turns out that I have pernicious anaemia which is an autoimmune disease and rheumatoid arthritis which is another autoimmune disease.

Mind you, my regular GP is also the one who told me I was putting on weight and when I said that yes, but this was because i had finally dealt with my decades of bulimia she just looked at me and suggested I go to weightwatchers before it 'got out of hand'. So frankly I consider the issue is her fatphobia and she is unable to look at me as a whole person with genuine medical issues. I think some GPs are just too quick to try and get you out their door and don't really want to investigate further tbh. At least that is my experience.

I have a friend who lost a lot of weight quickly on a very low fat diet and developed problems with her gallbladder. She had to have her gallbladder removed as an emergency. She was told it was because of the drastic change in her diet. Please do go back to the doctors, you need to get it checked.

No we would t all be slim. The people who eat more calories than they burn would still be overweight

The symptoms you describe are typical of biliary colic related to gallstones. If you can afford it pay for a private ultrasound scan (£150ish) and then present it to the GPS for referral to the surgeons. Good luck.