Question for fellow overweight sisters

Did any of you ever feel like your doctor was hesitant to perform your surgery because you were overweight? I am about 50 lbs overweight, but I have no health issues other than my 10 cm ovarian cyst and the fibroids in my uterus.

At my doctor's appointment on Friday, I found out that the cyst on my ovary was not resolving itself and that in order to remove it, they would have to perform a laparotomy. My doctor said that since I also had the fibroids, that it might be wise to have a hysterectomy. I agreed with her and told her that I was completely ready to start feeling better, and that since I worked at a school, having the procedure done in the summer would be ideal timing for me.

She must have thought that I was going to run screaming and decide not to have the procedure because as soon as I agreed with her, she started telling me not to rush into making any decisions simply because the timing at work was right, and kept looking at my stomach and asking me how my health was otherwise. Um, hello, she has been my doctor for years and had all sorts of blood work done on me to rule out ovarian cancer, and she knows that I do not have high blood pressure, diabetes or anything else that would put me at high risk for being put under.

Prior to this she mentioned that she would be performing the same surgery on a younger girl this week, but she quickly added that she was slender and her cyst was larger than mine by 2 cm.

I left the visit feeling horrible. Did anyone else experience something similar with their doctor?

MJ, fluffy hystersister, reporting for duty...

I have had a few docs over the years mention my weight, but hardly ever in a really negative way. I'm pretty healthy (normal bp, normal cholesterol, not diabetic) and so they don't really have much to say.

I was over 100 pounds overweight when I had my surgery. They did mention some things to me about my size: a) I might wake up in the ICU if I showed signs of sleep apnea or had difficulty coming out of the anesthesia (didn't happen), b) 60% chance of developing a wound-healing problem because there's more tissue to deal with when a patient is obese (didn't happen), c) Might have more problems getting around after surgery (didn't notice any real difference). They also did a panniculectomy on me to remove some excess fat and skin on my abdomen to facilitate healing.

Remember, surgery is done on overweight people every day. Gastric bypass surgery, while not without risk, is routinely done on people MUCH heavier than either you or me.

If you are in generally good health, your weight really shouldn't put you at any more risk than any other factor. If your doctor flat-out refuses to operate because of your weight without giving you a true reason why surgery would be so risky, I would look for another doctor.

However, I think it might be a good plan to get a second opinion. If your fibroids aren't causing you any particular symptoms, why remove them?

I'm 235 on a 5'6" frame, with very slender bones. I've high blood pressure, high blood sugars, and abysmal cholesterol. Regardless, my surgeon was tentatively okay with going ahead with surgery, warning me that I was at high risk for infection-based complications. The A-man took one look at my chart and nixed the idea of an earlier surgery date (for 4 brief hours I was scheduled for June 29 due to a cancellation), and I have to have a special 'talk' with him monday morning. Today I talk to my endocrinologist's nurse practitioner about switching away from the clinical trials I've been participating in and getting onto 'real meds' so my sugars can be lowered to less risky levels over the next month. (I'll also be asking for more aggressive treatment of the blood pressure and cholesterol).

So, yeah. If you're otherwise healthy, don't take guff from your doctor -- unless there are reasons like an HMO/doctor availability/etc, a willingness to doctor-shop can be quite freeing. Be calm and assertive and don't take 'no' as an answer if this is what you really want. Be sure to do your research, though -- and this site has enough info to keep you reading for a month solid! (My doctor and his fellow liked that I was well informed and 'bright', one of the factors tilting the scales in my favor). If you can speak knowledgably of the risks and what you want, that goes a long way to reassure medicos.

I'm a large sized woman with asthma and an allergy to all things with glue or sticky stuff in them and when I saw the doctor he listed all the things that could go wrong then just said that I would need to be on the High dependency unit after the op for two days mainly because of the breathing problem I have. Also I couldn't have any of the normal tapes, dressings or bandages. The anesthesia they were all so worried about was no problem at all for me I just went to sleep (after telling the wonderful guy knocking me out that I'd changed my mind and wasn't having the operation) and woke up four hours later. I had very little pain after the op, no problems peeing or pooping, and although I was in hospital for a week I was the only one
on the gynea ward that could walk around without pain. The main thing is that because of the size of the scar (22 inches) it took ages to heal up and it did get an infection in it. (Antibiotics and silver wound dressings took care of that) I think you should decide if the pro's outweigh the con's - for me it was the best present I ever gave myself. When I saw the surgeon at the eight week check up he said that I had healed up remarkably well , and that I looked fantastic!
I think you need to get every posible outcome of having an anesthetic explained to you so that you understand exactly what can happen- my doctor arrangedfor me to have an appointment with an anestheologist(?) a week before and again to see the guy doing the operation the day before, so I knew what was happening, and I trusted the hospital staff. I hope this helps.
Catopurling.

well, everyone else treats big women differnently why not the doctor I mean you dont expect the doctor to be different do you? I do I have been a bid women for seveal years, I took a fall at work, landed at hospital chiped bone above my left eye, fractured my r wrist and damaged my left knee, I eas sent to a osteo doctor for my leg he said sorry its your weight loose the weight and you will feel better, lets see my leg/knee did not hurt till I hurt it the night I fell, he said no way it had to hurt, I was crused and ticked, found another doctor had a torn muscle in my knee.. I was lucky with the gyn I Found she is great she says whe I am ready I will loose the weight and to stop beating my self up about it and did my surgery with no problem. she is wounderful. I hope you find a doctor that is not a jerk and can get over the fact that you are a little beefy and just make you fell better. best of luck

The only thing my doctor asked me to do was try to lose some weight before the surgery. He wanted my belly to be as flat as possible. I've been battling my weight since birth, and I didn't lose more than 2 pounds before. My dr. was fine and didn't say another word. Further he used a Montgomery Belt proceedure on me during the surgery. Basically it was a way to keep my belly pulled back during the surgery, so that others in the operating room didn't have to hold it. The only "side effect" for me was bruising on my belly. Bruising is the least of my worries at this point. Best of luck to you!