CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Pushy and Rude Gets Rewarded

Waiting for a mammogram is not fun. Even if you are sure you are fine, you are surrounded by women getting tested after their own cancer battles, and women returning because the last test showed something funny. It’s stressful.

So I try to give the benefit of the doubt to other women who maybe act a bit rude in the waiting area. But today at Hoag, one woman was so incredibly pushy and ugly that it warrants a rant.

“Are you in line?” someone innocently asked a woman in line at the center.

“Yes, I actually AM in line. And I’ve been waiting for 30 MINUTES,” the woman snapped. Then she breathed and sighed loudly and tapped her foot. Everyone else looked up to watch.

When she was at the counter, she informed the employees that she’d been waiting for her 10:30 appointment — for 30 MINUTES.

Of course, the woman next to me had a 9:45 appointment. Mine was 10 a.m. We were waiting longer.

But apparently at Hoag, if you throw a hissy fit, you get to skip to the front of the line. This woman was taken next, and the rest of us waited in robes for her to get her test.

Benefit of the doubt — maybe she had just lost a friend to cancer, maybe she was late to a funeral, or to an appointment of monumental importance. You try not to get angry when you don’t really know the facts.

Nonetheless, people should wait their turn and not be mean.

And doctors should take people in the right order — and not encourage rude behavior by rewarding it.