Good News / Bad News

I saw my cardiologist today.  When I had that angiogram last month and they told me the blockages in my coronary arteries were not as bad as expected, it had seemed like good news.  It is.  But there's an element of bad news that I received only today, more than a month later.  It has to do with something called "ejection fraction".  Mine is below 30%.  The reason for it, now that blocked arteries has been ruled out as a cause is idiopathic.  That's doctor speak for "we don't know".

So I will be scheduled for a procedure that will have to be done under general anasthesia, with the attendant risks (still very low) and if the test that will be done at the same time doesn't reveal why my ejection fraction is so low, I will probably have to have a pacemaker put in.  It's to reduce the greater risk of heart attack that is attendant with low ejection fracture.  Maybe I should go to medical school so I can understand all this stuff better.  I could be my own class project in cardiology, pulmonology, nephrology and allergy courses.

I managed to put my new resolve to suffer fools at least a little more gladly into effect today before I saw the doctor (I have a great cardiologist, btw).  They weigh you in as soon as you check in and while I was sitting in the waiting room after having hopped on the scale, the guy sitting next to me ask (totally out of the blue) "so how much did you weigh in high school?"  I was taken aback, given that's really none of his damn business and I don't need to hear yet another person giving me shit about my weight.  But I took a deep breath and this is how the rest of the conversation went.  The parantheticals are what I would have said if I weren't trying to be more patient and understanding:

"I don't understand how that's relevant." (none of your damn business)

"Well, you've gained a lot of weight since high school."

"Why do you ask?"  (You didn't know me then and you don't know me now, so it's really none of your damn business)

"Just being friendly."

"Do you really think that most people who are struggling with their weight would find it a friendly gesture to point out that they've gained weight since they were young?"  (No, jerkoff, actually you were being rude as hell)

"I guess not.  If you took offense at what I said, I apologize."

Good news is I didn't jump down his throat.  Bad news is what I should have said is simply "no offense intended, but that's really none of your business" and then just turned away.  But I'll get better at this.

I did do better a little later on, on the way home.  I was stopped at a light and there was a slightly larger than normal gap between me and the SUV in front of me, when the SUV pulled up a bit.  I didn't follow suit and some nimrod in the right lane slowly wheeled his way in front of me.  Once he was definitely inbetween me and the SUV, only then did he gesture that he was asking if I would let him in so he could go from the right lane to the left turn only lane. 

Normally I'd have fumed.  I just rolled my eyes and motioned that it was fine.