Sometimes I'm really amazed at the incompetence of the medical profession. On Monday my wife was diagnosed with Lipedema (not to be confused with the more widely know and diagnosed Lymphedema). Lipedema affects between 6 and 12 million Americans (almost all are women) making it much more common than such high profile diseases as AIDS and breast cancer. The disease has also been known to medical science for over 70 years.
From Wikipedia: Lipedema is a disorder of adipose tissue distinguished by five characteristics: 1) it can be inherited; 2) it occurs almost exclusively in women; 3) it can occur in women of all sizes, from the seriously underweight to the morbidly obese; 4) it involves the excess deposit and expansion of fat cells in an unusual and particular pattern bilateral, symmetrical and usually from the waist to a distinct line just above the ankles; and 5) unlike the normal fat of obesity, lipedemic fat cannot be lost through diet and exercise. Surgery is highly controversial, and in many cases, can make the condition worse.
Lipedema usually is triggered at puberty, but can trigger or worsen during or after pregnancy, at peri-menopause, and following gynecological surgery. If lipedema is diagnosed early, which currently is very rare, it is possible to prevent a significant expansion of lipedemic fat cells, and to alert patients to their heightened risk for obesity so they can take appropriate action.
Estimates of the incidence of lipedema vary widely, and range as high as 11% of the post-puberty female population. Even if the number were only 5%, that would mean more than 6 million women in the United States alone.
My wife has a textbook case: she was a normal size preteen; she started to gain weight in the characteristic pattern after puberty; she has the characteristic cankles but thin feet; WLS almost killed her but didn't decrease the size of the lower half of her body. Despite exhibiting such textbook symptoms no doctor (until Monday) diagnosed her -- not even the bariatric hotshots at UCLA.
Because of the medical professions failure to make what in retrospect was an incredibly easy diagnosis my wife was subjected to years of abuse by both family and medical practitioners:
-- Since the lower body fat of Lipodema is not the result of over eating her mother had no reason to tell her to "stop crying its your own fault no one asked you to the prom."
-- Likewise the torture of three months in an inpatient locked down eating disorder clinic was all for not.
-- Her WLS surgery was not only botched but it was guaranteed to fail even it the surgeon had been competent.
SO RIGHT NOW I"M TOTALLY PISSED AT THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT FOR SUBJECTING THE PERSON I LOVE THE MOST TO DECADES OF SUFFERING.
http://www.bigfatlegs.com/
http://www.bigfatlegs.com/Facts-N-Symptoms.php
http://fatdisorders.org/what-are-fat-disorders/lipedema/
From Wikipedia: Lipedema is a disorder of adipose tissue distinguished by five characteristics: 1) it can be inherited; 2) it occurs almost exclusively in women; 3) it can occur in women of all sizes, from the seriously underweight to the morbidly obese; 4) it involves the excess deposit and expansion of fat cells in an unusual and particular pattern bilateral, symmetrical and usually from the waist to a distinct line just above the ankles; and 5) unlike the normal fat of obesity, lipedemic fat cannot be lost through diet and exercise. Surgery is highly controversial, and in many cases, can make the condition worse.
Lipedema usually is triggered at puberty, but can trigger or worsen during or after pregnancy, at peri-menopause, and following gynecological surgery. If lipedema is diagnosed early, which currently is very rare, it is possible to prevent a significant expansion of lipedemic fat cells, and to alert patients to their heightened risk for obesity so they can take appropriate action.
Estimates of the incidence of lipedema vary widely, and range as high as 11% of the post-puberty female population. Even if the number were only 5%, that would mean more than 6 million women in the United States alone.
My wife has a textbook case: she was a normal size preteen; she started to gain weight in the characteristic pattern after puberty; she has the characteristic cankles but thin feet; WLS almost killed her but didn't decrease the size of the lower half of her body. Despite exhibiting such textbook symptoms no doctor (until Monday) diagnosed her -- not even the bariatric hotshots at UCLA.
Because of the medical professions failure to make what in retrospect was an incredibly easy diagnosis my wife was subjected to years of abuse by both family and medical practitioners:
-- Since the lower body fat of Lipodema is not the result of over eating her mother had no reason to tell her to "stop crying its your own fault no one asked you to the prom."
-- Likewise the torture of three months in an inpatient locked down eating disorder clinic was all for not.
-- Her WLS surgery was not only botched but it was guaranteed to fail even it the surgeon had been competent.
SO RIGHT NOW I"M TOTALLY PISSED AT THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT FOR SUBJECTING THE PERSON I LOVE THE MOST TO DECADES OF SUFFERING.
http://www.bigfatlegs.com/
http://www.bigfatlegs.com/Facts-N-Symptoms.php
http://fatdisorders.org/what-are-fat-disorders/lipedema/
