I was in clinic this afternoon, talking to one of my favorite 11 year old patients, and her mom. She's bilingual, and mom's english is way better than my spanish. We have a good time chatting, I like to practice my spanish, and mom likes to practice her english. Her english is better than my spanish. When I told them that I needed to improve my spanish quickly for my trip to Peru, she smiled and said that I'd be fine. (Or, at least that's how I was interpreting it. Which reminds me of a funny story from South Africa, which I don't have time to tell right now)...
Anyway, the whole family (mom/dad/bro/sis) are from Puerto Rico, and have had quite a few struggles, but they are so happy, and nice. My pt (pt=patient), is, quite frankly, obese. Her BMI last time I checked was 40 or so. We were exploring how she could be more active. She takes the bus to school. She can't play outside because they live in an unsafe neighborhood. Mom doesn't even want her walking up to the top of the apartment building for exercise because there are some shady characters in the building... I sat there thinking two thoughts. 1) when we were kids we went everywhere outside, how lucky were we. Remember riding bikes to Chatfield Reservoir? 2) What kind of fucking society are we living in where kids can't get outside to play safely. Poverty. That's a fucking societal disease. Obesity is one of its many byproducts. ARGH!
[Where do the Children Play? => Cat Stevens Song]
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