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Call me skeptical....

Sam50

Well-Known Member
Messages
228
Location
West Sussex
Type of diabetes
Don't have diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Many people battling with diabetes also struggle with their weight which I guess is why the DN likes to record the patient's weight.

When Hubby was diagnosed last June the DN weighed him and suggested a weight loss target. As he decided to follow the LCHF mode of eating he began to lose weight. To date he has lost two stone. Today at his DN appointment he mentioned the weight loss to the nurse.

'oh that's excellent, well done you !.' and asked if he would mind hopping on the scales so she could update his notes. Hubby duly obliged and then laughed as the scales registered exactly what they had done last June. Whilst you might expect a doctor's scales and your own to differ slightly this was obviously wrong.

'No that's clearly wrong, I've had to buy an entire new wardrobe and have lost 4 inches off my waist. You need to re-calibrate those !'

The nurse looked over his shoulder and said 'No I'm sorry you haven't lost an ounce, perhaps your scales at home are wrong ?'

He pointed out that I had also lost 2.5 stone so no, it was the nurses scales that were clearly wrong but it was obvious that she didn't believe him.
So according to his notes, he is still overweight and should be on medication !! Why don't they take body measurements ? A waist measurement would clarify matters.

The same scales used to weigh a person suffering from an eating disorder, the same scales that might worry a mum-to-be ?

Funny how the results are never in the favour of the patient. I think I have some trust issues !
 
It seems the nurse is in denial about her scales as the evidence was right there before her - and your husband explained inches lost and new clothes required, sounds like whatever you told her she wasn't going to listen.
 
This happened to me, too. The scales had not been recalibrated and I was weighed in at exactly (to the gram) the same weight at a five week interval. My scales at home showed weight loss as did my waistline measurement and my bank balance.
 
My height was measured at an asthma review appointment, a few years ago. The nurse said, "Just under 5 feet." I said, "That's strange, I am usually just over 5 feet 2 inches." She said that funnily enough a few other patients had said similar things. It was then she took me to a different room where she measured my real height. I wonder how often GP practices pay out money to have their equipment calibrated.
 

I would say who cares what she thinks anyway? YOU and your husband know how well he has done and he knows he is losing weight, they can write what they want on their little cards but the fact remains the same, YOU and he are doing well. It's like them recording your blood pressure, it's sky high because you're at the clinic but will they listen when you tell them you check it 10 times a day and it's low? No.
 
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I was once weighed at a diabetic clinic and was asked to go back two days later later for further blood tests. According to the scale, on the second occasion I had put on more than seven lbs. When I complained, the nurse said that this problem occurred every time the scale was recalibrated and clearly found it funny.
 
Haha, my DN jumped up her own scales after it said I had gained 12 kilo's and exclaimed the scales must be wrong as she definitely doesn't weigh 85 kilo
 
With that amount of weight lost it should have been visible to the nurse. I appreciate that your husband is one of many people she has seen but as I said the amount of weight your husband has lost shouldn’t have gone un noticed by her. When I went for my first check up following diagnosis my nurse commented on my smaller size as I was walking through the door, as we got to the part where she wanted to discuss diet and weight her comment was, “ i don’t need to weigh you, I can see you’ve lost weight but we will pop you on the scale so we can record it”
I would be tempted to take my own scales with me next time, ask the nurse what her weight is and then ask her to step on both scales, see how willing she is to do that, she might then accept your husbands new lower weight and update her records and apologise to him.
 
I remember taking my son, as a baby, to the clinic and being told that he'd lost a lot of weight, and I told than that I'd been told that he'd gained massive amounts of weight on the three previous occasions and that their scales were now showing his right weight - but no - I got the third degree about his health and food - I went home really upset and put in the weights on a graph in the baby book I had - the weights were exactly on the 90 percentile line except for the three I'd said had to be wrong - so next week I took along the book to show them. They were adamant that their scales could not be wrong.
 
I refuse to step on the Doc's scales now. I weigh myself first thing every morning anyway and take that weight to the Doc's and that is what is recorded. From the time I get up to the time I get to the Doc's office, I can show a difference of 5-7 pounds! When one is working so very hard to lose weight, it can be disheartening to see that kind of a difference! Cheers/L
 
makes you wonder doesn't it ?
 
bet she wouldn't have found it so amusing if it had been her weight being checked !
 
that would be really upsetting especially as it was a child's weight xx
 
eggs11 said:
It seems the nurse is in denial about her scales as the evidence was right there before her - and your husband explained inches lost and new clothes required, sounds like whatever you told her she wasn't going to listen.
Click to expand...
Some people don't.
 
It's all that "hopping" and "jumping" on to the scales that b*gg*rs them up. Now if they just asked people to "step" onto the scales ......
Just out of interest, has anyone here ever, successfully, managed to "hop" onto a doctors couch?
Sally
 
Interesting how everyone seems to believe their own home scales even though they have probably never been calibrated and may not even have any method of calibration.
 
I don't think it's a case of trusting their own scales as to exact weight. It's about trusting the scales re amount of weight lost. I went to Slimming World for 6 months and always weighed myself every morning. I noticed that my scales weighed 3 pounds lighter than the SW ones, so I always add 3 pounds on to my weight at home now. One week however my scales said that I had lost 2 pounds whilst the SW scale said I had put on 2. A lot of other people commented too. A lot had to pay for that week because they hadn't managed to maintain their weight.
 
They must have brought their lets get people paying this week set of scales in that day.
 
I fell off the kitchen counter the other day trying to weigh my self. It wasn't till later I realised that it might have been better to put the scales on the floor.
 
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