I'm going to a new doctor, after my last one told me that 'some people are just fat' and couldn't come up with any helpful ideas to help me keep losing weight. Which is an issue, okay? I feel like that is not the appropriate answer to someone who needs to lose weight and is looking for ways to supplement diet and exercise.
Anyway. There's always the first little interview, with the nurse, where they ask about family background, etc. and while I can give the information for my mother's side I have no information on my father's side of the family.
Which, while certainly not ideal, is hardly an unusual circumstance, though you would have thought so given how many times the nurse had to repeat 'unknown' to me.
Nurse: 'Father?'
Me: 'Unknown.'
Nurse: *puzzled look*
Me: 'As in, I do not know anything about him. Un. Known.'
Is that really such an unusual state of affairs, do you think?
The other thing that amused me was the doctors disbelief when I told her that I don't drink. She's put me on a medication that will make you sick if you drink alcohol while you're on it. She kept repeating that I couldn't drink *at all* while on this and I kept telling her it wasn't a problem, since I don't drink. At. All.
I know that people my age are expected to be...alcoholically active, lets call it. But there are plenty of people who don't drink for one reason or another.
Anyway, I left the appointment happy with the doctor but feeling like I might be a little weird. Which is okay since I suspected as much already.
And it all sort of reminded me of the interview that I had when I was converting to Catholicism. The deacon asked me why I was interested in Catholicism and I had an answer about how I was looking for the "original" version of Christianity and Catholicism seemed best.
He asked me if I was looking for the oldest, why not convert to Judaism.
I had a flippant response about how I didn't want to give up bacon. Because Bacon.
Years later and I wonder about the obsession with bacon and generally pork related foods in the South and maybe elsewhere? I don't know how prevalent Pork is King is elsewhere in the country. I mean pork is delicious, sure, but it's not all that good for you actually and why are we so obsessed with getting to eat pork?
Cute post. I guess a lot of people know at least something about their fathers, but I agree that there are a good number who don't. Maybe your doctor/nurse just hadn't had that experience too much in their circles. *shrug* To be honest, I thought you did know a little about him though I'm not sure WHY I thought that.
ReplyDeleteI like your response to the Catholic guy about bacon. Ha! I wonder if pork was/is easy to produce - somewhat cheap since pigs can eat about anything so it really took off in the South because this region was poorer? Now you are going to have to research this. I remember when we were in Syria, and over lunch one afternoon, Samer's twin asked us what foods we ate in North Carolina. I kind of winced when Andrew honestly and without much thought mentioned BBQ (aka pulled pork) was popular here. I know really that Samer's family has no issue with Christians eating pork, but for some reason I didn't want that shared at the time. Maybe I felt a bit vulnerable amongst strangers in a place where I was totally foreign for the first time in my life.
I don't drink alcohol either. I remember when my Syrian friend Louai found out this several years ago, he put a Facebook status about being proud of his evangelical friend. It was such a novel thing for a Christian to not drink alcohol that he wanted to post about his pride in me! Haha!
In Belgium a couple of years ago, we were talking to a young lady there, and she kind of looked at us strangely when we said we didn't drink alcohol. She said something like "that isn't done here" meaning, I guess, that IT'S NOT NORMAL TO ABSTAIN!
Boy, this was a long comment. Good luck finding a doctor who is helpful in your desire to lose more weight.