It's late and I'm not sure this is a rant, but I had a weird experience yesterday.

I went to the doctor at the local clinic and saw a new doc I'd never seen before. He was the friendliest, most easy-going doctor I've ever talked to. Great beside manner, and seemed to be quite knowledgeable. He was also probably 300-350lbs.

I was there because this winter I have the worst eczema mankind has ever seen and it's worse in places where I'm getting loose skin from weight loss. So we had the fat people skin problems discussion. I realized that if a skinny doc was standing there telling me these things while I was standing there in the tiny, paper-thin gown (bonus: I didn't need a plus-sized one this time) I probably would have felt judged, but with him, I didn't.

But of course this is me projecting. Yeah, I'm still fat and have more to lose, but no reasonable doc is going to judge me because I'm having skin issues after losing 100lbs.

But people project their insecurities. That's what humans do.

So then I wondered.... would obese patients feel more comfortable talking to obese doctors, and could they then have a frank discussion about their weight? But it felt like, more likely, it just wouldn't be brought up at all and never addressed in a lot of cases (which would of course be a bad thing).

Also, if I had been there about something more serious that was more weight-related, I think I would have found it hard to take him seriously about any advice I should follow.

Then I felt kinda bad for the doc, because he seemed like a genuinely cool, caring, and knowledgeable doctor and I feel like his weight is going to work against him in regards to both his credibility (a morbidly obese doctor doesn't exactly instill confidence) and his ability to do his job to the best of his ability.

I live in the south and our local hospital and clinics are filled with overweight and obese nurses (male and female) but I've never had a morbidly obese doctor before. Maybe it shouldn't have been, but it was an odd experience.