Injury and Healing

One month ago today, my beloved Babs fell and broke her arm. The injury was serious enough to require three hours of surgery to pin back together one bone, and replace the end of another. Her arm was opened from an inch above the elbow to four or five inches down the forearm. After four days in the hospital, she came home.

Then the real ordeal began. In a follow-up doctor visit, the wound was found to be infected, an infection which eventually turned out to be a resistant strain of staph. Another surgery, re-opening the wound to clean it, another four days in the hospital.

The fall that started all this was only a few feet, following a trip over either her foot or mine as we walked together on a smooth, carpeted surface. The cost is staggering, and the second round of bills haven’t even come yet.

People who say health care reform is unnecessary need not chime in here.

Fat Ideology

Speaking as nearly a life-long fat person, I have noticed some contradictions in attitudes towards fat in this country. On the one hand, physiology and medical research have shown that obesity is bad for anybody, young, old, male, female.

On the other hand, fat as a component of personal attractiveness ignites bitter debate between women and men. Women constantly deride skinny women as dangerous role models for young girls and women, leading in some cases to eating disorders that degrade healthy habits and even threaten the lives of those who obsessively seek extremely thin bodies. I constantly read attacks by women on the advertising and entertainment industries for glamourizing very thin women.