IT'S JUST MY PERIOD! IT'S JUST MY PERIOD! IT'S JUST MY PERIOD!

OK, so last week there was this, where the cardiac rehab nurses were threatening to refer me to the dietician for my period-related weight gain. That every woman gets. That had subsequently disappeared by the time they expressed their "concern."

Today, near the end of exercise class, while we were moving from the gym back to the room where we do our warm-up/cool-down, the dietician showed up--and made a beeline for me. Oh hell no.

Sigh. She reiterated the "concern about your recent weight gain." I said, "OH MY GOD," and did the facepalm thing, and said through my hands in an obviously irritated voice, "Do you people never deal with any menstruating women here?! IT'S JUST MY PERIOD! IT'S JUST MY PERIOD! IT'S JUST MY PERIOD!"

The instructor at the front of the class glanced in our direction and tried to hide a smile.

The dietician tried to "shush" me. I told her that the weight was already gone, even (it is). She looked very nonplussed, said they did have some women of child-bearing age in the program, one of whom gained and lost six pounds every month. She mumbled something about being caught off-guard and left. It wasn't really fair of me to hit her with both barrels, but seriously now.

We have at least three things going on here.

1. The nurses were completely ignoring me the other week when I said the weight gain was just related to my monthly menstrual cycle. Being ignored makes me cranky. Yes, I know I've had a heart attack; that doesn't mean I don't know anything about my body.

2. If they weren't willing to listen to the patient, me, they could have at least bothered to check the facts on the ground before calling in the nutritionist. The fact that the weight gain has been reversed is documented there on the chart that we fill out every exercise session.

3. They lied when they said they were going to "monitor the situation" before calling in the dietician. They blindsided me by calling her in when they led me to believe they were going to at least look at my stats again first.

I feel disrespected and unheard and like I can't trust them now, and that's not good.