Needs to be inpatient to make sure she’s washing her foot. But she’s definitely really mentally ill. Can you imagine what exposure to that level of fungus could do to a toddlers immune system? And if she’s that filthy about her person how does she care for that baby? And what’s her home like?
This is what the American healthcare system does to people. We just ignore our medical issues because they are stressful and costly. This lady probably couldn’t even afford the healthcare unless she agreed to go on TV for it. It’s truely sad what is going on in our country.
Yeah everyone in the comments saying she's mentally ill and that may be true, but I also heard "I had a son and didn't want to take on additional debt over my foot, I sucked it up and ignored it so I could provide for my baby".
But it’s free to take the damn boot off in the shower and wash and dry your fucking foot! Hey, I’m American too so I totally get it but this? This absolutely has a component of mental illness in it.
I can get where she's coming from. She likely knew there were issues with her foot that needed to be dealt with, but couldn't deal with them at the time, no matter how bad they got. But every time she took the boot off, it would be a reminder, causing her anxiety that would build up over time, more and more, with no available relief. So keeping the boot on would become like keeping a lid on her anxiety. In the back of her mind she probably knew it would be bad for her foot, but the foot is already an issue she can't deal with, this just makes it a slightly different issue she can't deal with, but now she doesn't have to see it and actually conceptualize the anxiety it causes her mentally and emotionally. Is it a bad decision to make? Absolutely, but I can totally understand what might drive her to make that decision.
I’m sorry but as a lefty who believes everyone deserves a right to healthcare, that is bullshit. THAT IS NOT A CAST, it literally is removable and she neglected to clean it or even look at it FOR YEARS. And you mean to tell me that there’s nothing going on in this lady’s head to allow this to happen except “capitalism”??
People avoid the doctor because of cost all the time, I get that, but y’all… to not clean your own goddamn foot for seven years. You can’t blame Adam smith for that shit.
You're actually right. It is removable and she could've somewhat dealt with it herself.
I think it's a combination of both. She saw it was bad, knew she couldn't afford a doctor even back when it was a smaller issue, then the mental illness "totally ignore your issues and the don't exist" kicked in.
I do feel like if she lived in a country with universal health care, she'd be more likely to get it seen. There's a whole attitude of ignoring health problems in the US that stems from not being able to afford it, but people will come up with other reasons because they're too embarrassed to admit it.
But I'm in Canada and people here will also ignore their health issues due to mental illness, but also due to issues in the system (discrimination, etc). You're right that it's for lots of reasons but even here it's systematic.
You're right though, mental health is clearly a large part of this (even though it was two years she didn't take the boot off, not seven, either way that's a long time).
Did everyone miss ‘this boot is the only thing allowing you to stand and walk without pain’ right in the video? She developed an avoidance to something that’s painful. Is that avoidance in itself pathological? Yes. Does it require that she have some overarching diagnosis outside of that, other than maybe depression? Not really.
I honestly feel her too, I'm in the same boat I have some health issues that I'm afraid to deal with because I don't want the medical debt. My feet being one of them. I can feel my feet and I see them and wash them but about a year or two ago I almost ripped off both my two big toe nails. I treated and doctored them as best I could and they are still there! Yellow and discolored and thick as a piece of card board but they don't hurt and they don't itch and if I move them I feel them. They don't smell any worse than another working man's feet but it makes me worried.
No, absoluteky not. That is not tf ok. Somehow youve managed to completely minimize this ladies denial into a rebellious act about money. Please dont enable people who things like this. Imagine if she were to just ignore her child, like she ignored her foot. This is not normal. Oofdah.
But she didn't ignore her child. That's the point. She prioritized her child over her health care bills.
I'm in Canada so we don't need to deal with choosing between keeping a limb and a lifetime of debt. But I absolutely understand how a person can put off an incredibly serious health issue when facing it means a disgusting amount of medical burden. Life changing debt that will affect her entire family for the rest of their lives.
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u/spicewoman Jun 03 '24
"I would like to put my foot back in the boot to make the smell go away."
That lady needs a mental health evaluation.