Hi Rachale, I'm sorry you are being treated disrespectfully by your doctor.
You need to find someone who you can communicate with, who respects you and that you can respect.
Sometimes it's not the message the doctor is giving that is at issue but the way they say it.
You said that you have peripheral vascular disease which limits your mobility. I too have mobility issues and because I'm not as active any more, I have piled on the pounds. I don't think I overeat (well, not much). I just used to keep my weight under control by being active. Now that I'm sedentary I should eat less but I can't because I don't have the willpower, I have very little to keep me occupied and I can't see where I can cut down without compromising my nutrition.
I was referred to a bariatric surgeon for consideration of gastric sleeve surgery but he refused to operate because I wasn't obese enough. I told him I was willing to eat more, gain weight and come back
. but he said he liked his patients to survive surgery and the odds were against me. He said it would make him look bad if I didn't survive
.
If its any consolation, oncologists/haematologists don't like their patients losing weight. Losing weight is not a good sign in their specialty. Also, recent studies have shown that people with a high BMI appear to have a longer survival with cancer, heart failure and kidney failure than those with normal or low BMI.
I've been skinny, normal and overweight and I can attest that their is definite discrimination and profiling of overweight people and worst of all, that discrimination is accepted as normal behaviour by a lot of people.
I too, have a rare illness and quite often feel very alone. Sometimes I have questions that just can't be answered but there is always support on this forum.
Best of luck to you.
Regards
Chirley