Dr. Sharon Yvette Waters, MD

I have never felt more condescended to or hated as a human being than the five minutes I spent in Dr. Waters care at Kaiser Townpark. I came in to urgent care around midnight, and despite the place being a ghost town (zero others in the waiting room) I spent two and a half hours in a hospital room before EVER seeing Dr. Waters, who after ordering a test for me sight unseen, finally came in with the results. I don't think she looked me in the eye the entire time, and was so unbelievably hateful. I came in concerned about a possible blood clot due to a deep aching pain in my calf and thigh, combined with a family history of pulmonary embolisms. When she came in, she didn't say hello or anything, she walked over to the computer in the room, sat down, and after a minute said I had no clots. She asked me to describe my pain and when I said it was an intermittent, deep, dull ache she just kept trying to make me rephrase it and looked at me like I was stupid for not knowing how to verbalize… my pain in any other way than that. I told her it wasn't sharp, and that it wasn't sore, and that it did not feel like a muscle pain. I told her the pain tended to happen with my leg bent and she scoffed and repeatedly told me “if it hurts when you bend your leg that's just your leg stretching,” as though I've reached 30 years on this earth never experiencing a muscle stretch, and wouldn't know the difference between PAIN and my MUSCLES STRETCHING. Repeated attempts to clarify this were met with the same verbatim comment. After this 60 second exchange, she "examined" my leg (literally from me sitting in the bed, she did not look at the back of my legs, where my pain was, AT ALL) for half a minute and declared the visit over. I was honestly so taken aback by her hateful attitude I just let it go at the time, but honestly, the more I think about the experience the more upset I get. It was not the introduction to Kaiser care I would wish on anyone. I don't know if she was fatphobic, or racist, or what, but all I know is that I left that room feeling so dismissed and belittled I never wanted to return to that facility. I've never had a doctor refuse to actually CONVERSE with me about my medical issues or look me in the eyes before. If we want plus sized patients to actually seek out medical care we need to be welcoming, not aggressive and nasty. Dr. Waters had the bedside manner of an angry alpaca. :(

She saved my life. I wouldn't be alive if not for her.

Her quick assessment and rapid response saved my husband's life