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Mum, morbidly obese and getting illnesses associated with it. Can I do anything to help?

2 replies

PeteSwotatoes · 24/12/2016 22:48

My mum has been morbidly obese since I was very young. She's now in her mid 50s, has had a hip replaced (at a special hospital as she was high-risk). She also has osteoarthritis in her other hip, shoulders and knees.

She credits this to having "one leg shorter than the other" (no idea where that idea came from) and "carrying you around when you were a baby".

She only went to the doctors about her hip because I told her I was seriously worried, as she cried when trying to walk up the stairs.

Now she has also had a cough for months, I suspect acid reflux/GERD, but she just says "I know my body!" and says it's OK as long as she doesn''t move/exercise/exert herself.

But now she is so immobile she's gaining even more weight, and it seems every few months she has arthritis in another joint.

Am I just going to have to watch her deteriorate? I am really worried. But I know how judgemental I'd seem if I raised the weight. She has tried dieting for years but could never quite figure it out and has some odd ideas, like eats biscuits designed for toddlers as she perceives them to be healthy.

OP posts:
reallyanotherone · 24/12/2016 22:52

Persistant cough always needs investigating.

She needs a gp. Likely a chest x-ray. Would she agree to a home visit?

How old is she? Near where age concern might help?

Would scaring her into a gp visit work? Persistant cough = lung cancer?

PeteSwotatoes · 24/12/2016 22:55

She's had the bloody cough for months, but if I bring it up she says "it's much better today" - a total lie as I've heard her spluttering all day! She goes red in the face sometimes and she's asthmatic.

Dad had pneumonia last month and I suggested that her asthma put her at risk if she got the same bacteria that he was infected with (not sure if this is accurate?! I think so).

Also she never uses her inhalers, doesn't use anti-inflammatories for her hip, is totally medication resistant.

I have hassled her into going next week but I bet she ducks out.

She's only mid 50s so not home visit level territory. With all her illnesses she sounds ancient. It is so depressing. Dad is so (comparatively) fit and healthy.

OP posts:
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