The joys of living with nystagmus: The Head Shake

The joys of nystagmus:

Riding my bike down a hill on a road in a central Brisbane suburb, a truck, to my left, was pulling out of his driveway to head in the opposite direction that I was. I noticed him well in advanced and obviously I stopped just before his driveway and waited. He was really quick with the execution of his 2 point turn, so no one was slightly annoyed.....or at least I thought no one was annoyed....as the truck drove past me, he lent out of his window and yelled at me "what the *bleep* are you shacking your head at!? You *bleep*ing idiot!" I went to explain "sorry dude I have nystagmus and......." But two things stopped me:

1. I figured, what's the point!? This guy's clearly an angry human being, if you're gonna react that badly that quickly, then there's no settling people like him. I know drivers don't like cyclists at the best of times, and from what I could see, he hadn't done anything wrong for him to deserve getting the "shaking head of disapproval" from anyone, so for him to just flip out like that....he must be hiding something.

And 2. more importantly than point 1., he was already driving off, so it would've been impossible for me to explain to him what nystagmus was in that short time.....

It didn't bother me too much, but I would be lying if I said that it didn't get to me at all as it was playing on my mind for about an hour or so after the episode. But, screw it, I'm always gonna have nystagmus, my head is always gonna have to shake, therefore I do sometimes have to deal with people who think that I am disagreeing with them, or disapproving of them and their actions, which is something I have to live with and deal with....but I don't have, nor will I bother to waste my time with angry, irrational people, ever. He will always be an angry person, nothing will change that ... Easier said than done sometimes, but we shouldn't let these people get to us.

Good luck out there guys, stay safe and, above all else, look out for each other.