Just had a check up this morning. The nurse asked me to weigh in, and I said I don't do that. We then went into the exam room. It was actually good because someone was shadowing her so they got to see how to respond when someone refuses weigh in. She listed patient refused for my weight which is fine. I do have a chronic health condition that I've been working on with medicines and nutrition, but I have not weighed and probably will not weigh again unless absolutely necessary (like anesthesia, fluid retention). All of my other numbers were much improved (blood pressure, etc) from the last visit so I seem to be managing my disease well even without weigh-ins.
At least almost all practices use digital scales now, so we're no longer in the situation where the nurse or assistant had to GUESS your weight and then move the weights on the scale's bar to fine-tune it. I still remember an appointment 30 years ago where the assistant guessed my weight about 30 pounds low, and had to keep moving the little weight up and up -- and then had to move the big one to the next 50-lb increment, all the while shaking her head; and when she finally got a weight for me, she said "Well, you sure don't look THAT big!!!"
In my appointment with my endocrinologist last week, the assistant said very politely, "Are you all right with stepping on the scale to get a weight?" I said "I will tell you what I weighed at home this morning" and she said "Absolutely -- that's fine." Since I have heart failure, water retention is an issue so I understand that my doctors want to track my weight. But it makes sense to use the numbers I get weighing on the same scale at the same time every day, and nude, rather than on a different scale, clothed, at a different time of day. Fortunately, my doctors all agree with that approach.
Just had a check up this morning. The nurse asked me to weigh in, and I said I don't do that. We then went into the exam room. It was actually good because someone was shadowing her so they got to see how to respond when someone refuses weigh in. She listed patient refused for my weight which is fine. I do have a chronic health condition that I've been working on with medicines and nutrition, but I have not weighed and probably will not weigh again unless absolutely necessary (like anesthesia, fluid retention). All of my other numbers were much improved (blood pressure, etc) from the last visit so I seem to be managing my disease well even without weigh-ins.
At least almost all practices use digital scales now, so we're no longer in the situation where the nurse or assistant had to GUESS your weight and then move the weights on the scale's bar to fine-tune it. I still remember an appointment 30 years ago where the assistant guessed my weight about 30 pounds low, and had to keep moving the little weight up and up -- and then had to move the big one to the next 50-lb increment, all the while shaking her head; and when she finally got a weight for me, she said "Well, you sure don't look THAT big!!!"
In my appointment with my endocrinologist last week, the assistant said very politely, "Are you all right with stepping on the scale to get a weight?" I said "I will tell you what I weighed at home this morning" and she said "Absolutely -- that's fine." Since I have heart failure, water retention is an issue so I understand that my doctors want to track my weight. But it makes sense to use the numbers I get weighing on the same scale at the same time every day, and nude, rather than on a different scale, clothed, at a different time of day. Fortunately, my doctors all agree with that approach.