Hernia and Medical Fatphobia

[diffrentcolours]

I've had an umbilical hernia (a hole in the muscle wall around the belly button) for a while. I first noticed my belly button being an "outie" which I could push back in, about 18 months ago. I suspect it's caused by IBS, as I spend more time straining my abdominal wall than most. Anyway, I finally got round to seeing my GP about it earlier this year, and he referred me for an ultrasound which confirmed that it's a big one and needs urgent treatment. Due to my hernia I've not been doing as much exercise as I'd like - while swimming and cycling are OK for me, a lot of core muscle work is advised against in case it makes the hernia worse. So this has gone onto my list of excuses for not exercising along with, y'know, the ongoing global pandemic.

Not long after my GP appointment, I got a referral to a private hospital which does NHS consults. Apparently hernia surgery (sewing a mesh into the muscle wall; done under anaesthetic with no overnight stay) is a quick way to get a big impact on surgery backlog statistics so they're processing them quickly. Wednesday 11th October was my pre-surgery consultation.

It was a very brief visit. The surgeon took one look at me, briefly prodded my belly button, and dragged me to a side room to have my height and weight measured. He told me that my BMI was exactly 40, and that "no surgeon" would perform a hernia mesh on anyone with a BMI over 30. He asked me if I had any other medical complaints, and I mentioned anxiety, depression and IBS. I was about to explain my theory that my hernia was caused by the latter, when he cut me off and told me that "losing weight" would also cure all other problems. I was rapidly dismissed and told to come back when my BMI was 30.

I didn't pay attention to my weight reading, but given my BMI and my height measurement, I could reverse engineer it. I'm being asked to lose 25% of my body mass in order to receive this surgery. I'm fat, but there's no way I can lose that much without starving myself into muscle atrophy. Doing more exercise would be welcome but there's still a bunch of stuff that I can't do until the hernia is fixed! So I'm basically stuck at this point, and there was no attempt to find a solution or compromise or even any suggestion of what I do other than "lose weight", as if it's both easy and unharmful to do so.

I need to contact my GP again since the referral he gave me has turned out to be useless, but I'm worried there's nothing the NHS will do for me and I'll have to go private. I know that there are private surgeons who'll operate on people with higher BMI and other complicating factors. But this is a simple surgery and opens up a lot more exercise possibilities for me, so it's frustrating there isn't an easy solution. Except waiting for the hernia to strangulate and ending up at A&E, I guess.

Comments

[otter]

The referral your GP gave you was worse than useless, it was harmful. I hate doctors who believe/say things like that.

[cosmolinguist]

Oh here's something else I'm happy to help you deal with the next steps on, probably best sooner rather than later.

[apiphile]

There was the guy Shira saw, granted, but I recall he was extremely expensive. I'm really sorry this has happened to you, and that surgeon? Presumes himself to be an expert in mental health now? Fuck right off.

[nou]

Ugh this is so rubbish. I had a similar thing when trying to get my asthma/anaemia diagnosed and treated — had to keep going back until I got someone who took it seriously. I hope you can find a way forward.