the warped mind of a morbidly obese woman...

[Guest guest]

You know, that last post of my about the pain and not taking vioxx

reminded me of a funny predicament I found myself in a few years ago

when I was still very heavy. I had a major arthritis flare up while

we were on vacation, so my husband finally said we needed to cut the

trip short and go home. We live in California and had flown to

Atlanta for a wedding and then drove to Alabama, Louisiana, and

eventually wound up in Florida (headed to Disneyworld & Sea World -

which, to this day I have yet to get to. I think Shamu the baby

whale has grandkids by now <G>). He called the airlines (American)

and they told him they would take care of everything. They greeted

me at the curbside with a wheelchair and were absolutely wonderful.

I was in so much pain, breathing was a lot of work. Every joint in

my body fingers, elbows hips knees, were throbbing with pain. I got

a cold and my monthly started. That trip to this day is referred to

in my family as the " vacation from hell " . When we landed in San

, the airlines informed me that since I would have to go down the

stairs to deplane, they had a way to get me off if I did not think I

could manage the stairs.

All I could think of was that they were going to get a crane or

forklift and haul my big butt off that airplane. I thought, " My God,

this will be on the 6 or 11 o'clock news " " Large woman had to be

hoisted from plane via crane...NEWS AT ELEVEN " . I quietly told the

airlines that I could manage the stairs. They had a guy walk in

front of me and one behind me. Then of course I was fearful that I'd

fall and crush the poor guy and the guy behind me would kill himself

trying to catch me. It was the longest, most painful decent of my

life. Of course I should have let them " get me off the plane " .

Looking back on this, it is sad what we think and allow ourselves to

go through based on our low view of morbid obesity. To this day when

I tell someone about this, they ask, " How were they going to get you

off the plane? " I only laugh because I let my imagination get so far

away from me that I never found out what they actually were going to

do. And I call myself an intelligent woman. )

[Guest guest]

>> All I could think of was that they were going to get a crane or

forklift and haul my big butt off that airplane.

I can SO identify!

Several years ago I worked on the 6th floor of the San Diego Port District.

We had a fire drill, and at the time I was 350+ and had a terrible time

getting down all those stairs. When my department all gathered at the

parking lot, the guy who was in charge of safety for our floor, never a

terribly tactful guy on the best of days, says, loud enough for everyone to

hear " Lyn, you should have told me you were having a hard time -- next time

we'll use the chair lift! " (This is a pulley-operated thing they would use

to get someone handicapped to the bottom in case of fire, but in case of

fire DRILL - no WAY was I going to trust these guys to ease me to the

ground! I was mortified, of course, and our oldest secretary, a good friend

and a woman who spoke her mind, took him aside and read him the riot act for

embarassing me in front of the whole department like that. Bless her heart.

I need to drop her a line.

Thanks for the grin -- reminds me of why I was always afraid to ski when I

lived in Colorado. Can you imagine, I fall at the top of a run, and it would

take a sled dog team to get me down because no one can lift my sorry behind!

~~ Lyn G