3 podcasts thoughts

[dhampyresa]

1. Earlier I was listening to Maintenance Phase's episode "The Body Mass Index" which has, about 1mn35 in, one of the hosts (Michael Hobbes) declaring he refused to be weighed at the doctor's office because "it has nothing to do with health". Which... Look. Ignoring literally everything else, sudden and/or drastic variations in weight on their own are important medical info!
Case in point: about a year ago, I lost 3kg within a month. At no point in this process was I outside the "normal" BMI range and yet that weightloss was still significant! (It turned out to be linked to what landed me in hospital at the end of 2020.)
Am I missing something? Very possible, since I am Le Big Stupid.


2. I've not listened to The Magnus Archives since sometime in March. At first I wasn't in the mood and then I got... intimidated? Or something. And the more time passed, the more daunting the idea of picking it up again became. WTF brain. I like this podcast! I wanna know how it ends! Just let me listen to it щ(ಠ益ಠщ)


3. In The Apocalist Book Club's episode on Tom's A-Cold by John Collier, the author is quoted as saying, later in life:

“I sometimes marvel that a third-rate writer like me has been able to palm himself off as a second-rate writer.”

And that is probably the most inspiring thing I have ever heard. I'll never be good, but I might manage to pass myself off as vaguely decent in art and/or writing.

Comments

[china_shop]

1. Last time I was at the doctor's, I said she could weigh me, but I asked her not to tell me the number. That seemed like a good compromise. :-)

3. That's a great quote!

[dhampyresa]

1. That IS a good compromise! It's not necessary for the patient to know, just the doctor.

3; Ain't it just!

[senmut]

I would argue that significant weight change is something the patient themself can monitor. In America, weight, in general, even when plateau'd and otherwise in a healthy patient, leads to a LOT of bad diagnostics from providers.

[dhampyresa]

I think it depends on how fast the weightloss is. I know someone who lost 9kg in a week while in hospital and that was VERY noticeable to everyone, including him, but in by case the day-by-day changes were too subtle to notice, even though 3kg is a statistically significant portion of my body weight. Kind of a boiling frog thing, I guess.

That makes sense, thank you.

[corvidology]

Certainly not 'Le Big Stupid.' I think a lot of people have started to rail against being told by their doctors that all their health indicators are fantastic... but they should still lose weight.


That's a great quote.

[dhampyresa]

That makes sense. I'd not considered that angle, for various reasons (I have a shit knee and the less weight I put on it the better; while I was a fat kid I've never been a fat adult so any "weightloss must happen" conversations were not had by me). Thank you! I am now a slightly smaller Stupid lol

It is THE BEST QUOTE

[singedsun]

I think there's a big difference between regular weigh-ins at the doctor and significant changes in weight. A patient usually knows if their weight has changed a significant amount and can bring that up with a doctor themselves if it's not something they've done purposefully. It's also a question a doctor can ask without having to weight a patient at the very start of a visit like most doctor's offices do. Just asking if it's okay to be weighed, or if you'd like to be weighed at the start (or during) an appointment can set a different tone than making it a set expectation.