By HamSandwich12 - 08/05/2013 14:17 - United States - Cleveland

Today, I was leaving my doctor's appointment when a nurse stopped me. She exclaimed, "Wow you are so skinny! What's your secret?" My secret? Having an autoimmune disease. FML
I agree, your life sucks 54 807
You deserved it 3 377

HamSandwich12 tells us more.

I think I need to gain about 5 more pounds to look "healthy". I'm not even 100 pounds. It's impossible for me to gain weight with this disease!

Top comments

twilightriforce 10

Well at least she was throwing you a compliment. Her Not knowing your situation is unfortunate but don't let it get you down. Live life to its fullest OP. :)

I'm sorry OP, that must've hurt to be reminded of it even though the woman meant well. I know how it is to be told that you're too skinny, it's just as damaging as being called fat. You must look pretty good to be called out for it though! :)

Comments

Kinda lucky, I have Lupus but I'm not skinny at all, instead I'm balloning up and look gross.

Take the compliment ! She wants to look like you

I know exactly how you feel. I have an autoimmune disease, too, and it sucks, but at least she was being nice.

My secret? Don't tell anyone, but it's diabetic ketoacidosis.

I'm a type 1 diabetic and last year I went into diabetic ketoacidosis and I somehow actually gained weight.

I kinda know how you feel. No-one knows what's wrong with me and they're still trying to diagnose me (hospital again next week, yay for being a Guinea pig!) and the weight keeps dropping. I've lost like 14lbs and it's the only good thing to come from being sick.

Were your thyroid levels checked? I found out I have Graves' disease from a blood test (TSH and Free T4).

Yep know the feeling. The endoscopy nurse said the same thing to me at my last apt. I have an endoscopy every 3yrs for my autoimmune liver disease!

Oh, how awful. Best of luck to you!! Stay strong!

Yep know how that feels. The endoscopy nurse said the same to me st my last apt. I have the endoscopy for my autoimmue liver disease.

For all the nurse knew, it COULD have been because of an eating disorder. "Compliments" like that could be very, very damaging if given to the wrong person. I agree that it was unprofessional for the nurse to ask that in a clinical setting, especially as she should have some awareness that a low body weight can be indicative of ill health of some kind.