Chubby and Cute versus Fat and Obese

Assalamualaikum,

I saw a couple holding their 5-month old baby in a ward a few days ago. The baby girl was so cute and chubby. "Comel nyerr!!!" My houseman said while tickling the baby girl. The baby giggled.


But, when it comes to taking blood or inserting a branula, then the problem starts. It will be so difficult to insert take the blood or insert a line if you can't visualize the vein, let alone to palpate it. If the doctors have to poke so many times then the parents will complain. "Shoot...it's not easy to be a houseman, is it?" Luckily, I've passed my Paediatric housemanship training long time ago hehe.


Previously, during my daily round in the Orthopaedic female ward 5D, there was a young, 18-year-old lady (?girl) with a fractured right femur. Her broken bone was fixed with an interlocking nail the day before by 2 of my respected surgeons - Mr. Hazrin and Mr. Fairudz. The story came to me on the night following the surgery. They took nearly 6 hours to fix her. "WoooW!" Usually the procedure will only take 2 hours and maximum 3 hours for complicated cases.


However, in this case, there is an exception. Her magnificent size...


She was an obese young lady. Her arm is as big as a matured man's thigh. Her thigh...god, you just imagine, as big as a baby elephant's leg, I would say. They had so much difficulty even to find the entry point for the nail. After the skin incision, her fat was soooo thick, you can virtually insert your whole hand inside the thigh to reach for the bone....her fat was all over the place, under the skin, under the fascia and in between the muscles...(maybe I exaggerate a bit). Shooohhh! Teribble situation!


It is not my intention to annoy those who are obese. If you're comfortable with your current body habitus, then it's your call and I respect that. Be proud of yourself. I just merely telling you the difficulty that the health professionals are facing in dealing with obese people. And I would like to educate the population in terms of the possible complications as well.

Best nyer...chicken chop!!

Gambar hiasan...perbezaan yang ketara antara 2 sahabat

All of us know that obesity is associated with atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease. I don't think I need to explain regarding the pathophysiology here...


So, please take care of yourself....don't be overweight. Overweight people will tend to get more severe injury to their bone if they're involve in an accident. This is because of higher force transmission during the collision or impact. Furthermore, it will be more challenging to treat you or your relative when you're admitted to hospital especially in orthopaedic discipline...you're more prone to get pressure sore or ulcer, more prone to get breathing complications such as Fat Embolism Syndrome if your bone is fractured and last but not least, more difficult to fix the fractured bone itself.


"Aku nak slim, aku nak kurus" Tapi setiap kali makan macam tak jumpa makanan seminggu. Remember, our Prophet Muhammad PBUH only eats when he is hungry and stops before he is full. Diet is not enough though. You need to burn the calorie. Do physical activities at least 30 minutes a session, 3 to 4 times a week.

Please take care of your health, burn those fat!!!


PS Please, jangan ada yang terasa hati yer kawan2...sekadar berkongsi pengalaman. Take it positively.