chapter 4

Janet's GP was concerned enough about her to refer her on to a series of specialists.
He referred her to a physiotherapist as he thought that exersise and massage might help. Janet attended once. Janet had liked the idea of having massage to make her better, but the physio told her straight. The only thing he could find wrong with her was her weight and lack of exersise overall. Even her usual standing and sitting posture was lazy.
Janet did not like that! What did he know about her life! How dare he accuse her of being lazy! She had no intention of doing any exersise let alone the extra exersise that he instructed her to do! She'd made the effort to walk from the car park to the clinic hadn't she? She did not go back.
Her GP referred her to a dietician because she claimed to be eating all the right things and she did not understand why she was putting on weight at all. It did not take long for the professional to deduce why. Janet had no idea about what was healthy and what was unhealthy. She had no idea about portion control.
She went out of her way to help Janet, to teach her the right way of eating. She created menu plans for her, suggested Janet kept a food diary.
Janet did not bother with the food diary. It interfered with her gaming schedule. Anyway, she only ate what was brought to her. What she omitted to say, she was the one who instructed her husband to bring her the food in the first place.
As soon as the dietician started to get too nosy, Janet stopped going to see her... then ate the opposite of what she recommended and increased the volume.
Her GP referred her to the mental health service to help her with her growing long list of psychological problems. Janet did not mind these. All of her psychological issues were made up, with the help of the internet. She went to her appointments, told them what she thought they wanted to hear and then left. It was easy.
Physically it was not so easy. Walking from the car park to reception left her winded and breathless. She sat down in the waiting area sweating heavily.
By her next appointment, she arrived in her new wheelchair, bought off the Internet. Alan was the one who was hot, sweaty and breathless through pushing her!
After several more appointments, the wheelchair was replaced by a motorised scooter.

At home the only exersise Janet got these days was going from a lying to a sitting position in bed, rolling over in bed, standing up from the bed and transferring to her wheelchair, then from her wheelchair to her stair lift. At the bottom of the stair lift she had to stand up again to get onto her scooter and then stand to go from scooter to the sofa.
Alan, as her carer helped her get washed in the shower. He dried her, he dressed her, he undressed her.
She was quite capable of doing everything for herself. The only reason she could not reach her feet was not because it hurt her back but because her big belly got in the way.
She complained she could not stand for longer than a couple of minutes. It was too painful for her. This was the only truthful statement she'd made about her health in years, but it was because the muscles she used to stand and walk were losing their tone. Even the simplest of exercises needed good muscle tone to be able to be completed efficiently. Unfortunately, the only muscles Janet used on a regular basis were her jaw muscles. Not a week went by without another complaint to the council about some minor problem. She went through a whole series of home helps as she complained about their poor cleaning standards. Yet she was too lazy to lift a finger to do any cleaning herself.
If it wasn't for Alan, dishes would not even be left in the sink. She would leave them wherever she discarded them. If no one picked them up, there would be piles of them everywhere. If no one tidied up for her, she would be surrounded by rubbish from discarded sweet wrappers, takeaway cartons crisp packets and other food debris.
Her jaw got plenty of exersise in chewing too. She'd now done away with any pretence. Anyone visiting her house for longer than half an hour would understand that Janet was a serious glutton. She had no shame.
She was fat because she ate too much and exercised too little. It was as simple as that. If anyone said anything to her, she would be furious and have them thrown out of the house. There was more to it than that! She was an expert in excuses. She could explain at length how her hormones had played a role. She had a slow metabolism. She had cravings for sweet food at her time of the month. Her thyroxine levels were out of balance, but she could not remember whether she produced too much or too little. In actual fact, her metabolism was so slow because she did nothing. Her thyroxine and other hormones were within normal limits.
She claimed to be an emotional eater. She said she ate more when she was upset or anxious or in pain and she was in pain most of the time. She didn't. She simply ate too much every day, no matter what. She was in pain much more than she used to be, but that was because her muscles were wasting away. It was because she was getting to fat that her sheer weight was pulling her body out of alignment.

There was nothing wrong with the muscles in her thumbs. She played her games for hours every day. She often stayed up until the early hours gaming. She often only put down her controller to eat.
Lack of sleep because of her frequent gaming could make her late for appointments, or it would make her crotchety when she got there.