When A Doctor And A Mom Unite

Amongst the several patients I saw at work today there was a young man who had come to get a form completed from the doctor. While we get several different forms for employment purposes this form was something I was seeing for the first time. The employer, in this case an aerospace company, was offering its employees a benefit of 3 hours paid time per week to exercise for their personal fitness goals. A physician was required to sign on this form. 

It made me curious so I asked the patient a few questions about the work he does, his overall lifestyle etc. He was just 23 years old and had a BMI of 37. Weighed over 250 lbs. He had been at this job for three years and said he gained almost a 100 lbs since starting the job due to lack of physical activity. What about diet? What about physical activity when you are not at work?

That opened a can of worms. He had no concept about healthy eating. He did not bother to exercise on weekends or on his days off. Instead, as per his own admission, he liked to spend the day on his phone! 

At that point I just spoke out aloud what was on my mind. You are here to get authorized for paid time from your employer to exercise (when you should rather be working at what you were hired for)! But when you have free time on weekends you use it to be on the phone! You choose not to exercise at all in your free time. Do you see a problem here?

He sat still for a few seconds.

I asked again looking directly into his eyes.  Do you see a problem?

He nodded yes. 

Do you think you are addicted to the phone?

He nodded yes.

We were talking now!

Screen addiction is a real thing like addiction to drugs, I told him. There are professionals who can help you get over this addiction. Would you like help?

He nodded yes. I gave him the number to call. It was a self referral to behavioral health.

You don’t want to be counted amongst the rising number of obese people in the country, I told him. And for that you will need to revamp your lifestyle. You will need to make conscious decisions about what you eat and how much you eat. How much you exercise. How much you weigh. Being obese can have negative effects on your health ten years from now. 

He was nodding in understanding.

I gave him the signed form. And he was gone.

It is becoming common to see a generation that is very aware of freebies and loopholes in every place where they can find an escape from work or earn money without doing anything. Entitlement is name of the game. But while attention is sucked up in that direction, there is a frightening neglect of personal health, growth and maturity. Morality is a non existent priority. 

This young man today probably did not expect he would be seeing a doctor and mom unified under the white coat. Yet that’s exactly what he got. I can only hope that the lecture he got was enough to wake him from his slumber party. 

Saree is a reminder of gratitude patients show their doctors from time to time. Over forty years back one of my mother’s long time patients had gifted her this saree and mom passed it on to me. The patient’s son worked in the Middle East and had brought it during one of his trips back home. These kind of fine chiffons and georgette sarees were popularly sold in the Middle East in those days and manufactured on power looms in Japan and China. The saree looks like new even after all these years! 

The earrings I am wearing have been handmade and gifted to me by a patient last week. She used Swarovski crystal and other beads to craft the earrings.

For those interested in jewelry the necklace I’m wearing is made out of Sleeping Beauty turquoise beads. This brightly colored beautiful blue turquoise is relatively rare and hence prized. It is mined out of a dwindling mine in the state of Arizona in the USA. I had bought the beads from the annual exhibition of Native American Art at the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles over a decade back. I then got it rethreaded in India to insert a few golden beads between the turquoise.