And one I meant to put into it, but as I said, I’m having cognitive problems. And now I think about it, it’s a separate point.

I went to the doctor with my back pain a long time ago — about three years, if I remember right — and was told it was simply my weight that was the problem. The doctor in question performed only the most cursory examination, and didn’t refer me to a specialist. I believed her that my weight might be causing the problem — it seemed reasonable, because I am very fat, and that weight would be carried by my back muscles. So I didn’t bring it up with my normal GP — I decided it was just something I was going to have to live with.

BUT:

Thirty percent of people with psoriasis get psoriatic arthritis, with it usually coming on between the ages of thirty and fifty-five (I was about thirty-four at the time).
Even if she didn’t read my medical notes, this was before I’d started on the successful treatment I’m using for the psoriasis, and so my entire torso was covered in red, scaly, sores. Even the cursory examination she gave me couldn’t have missed them.
The back pain I was experiencing, in that precise location, is one of the classic early symptoms of psoriatic arthritis.

Had that doctor seen me as a patient to be treated, rather than as a case of obesity — had she spent even a few seconds thinking about the obvious — I would have received treatment for the psoriatic arthritis three years ago. I wouldn’t have three years of accumulated joint damage, and I wouldn’t have had all the other awful symptoms.

And this is normal. This is what happens to fat people. And then we’re told that fat people have worse health outcomes than the rest of you. Gosh, I wonder why?