A Multiple Sclerosis VOCABULARY
I had three ideas for a new blog this week. Unfortunately, I also had a very dirty house. Being a germ-a-phobe, the dirty house won.
So I’m posting an oldie. In honor of World MS Day next week, I wanted to post a favorite. (More on World MS Day at the end of this post.) This blog is such a favorite of mine that I sent it to the editors of Something on our Minds Volume II where it was published.
I hope you find it helpful my friends……
Some people say that good things come from bad.
Many others say that is crap.
I’m not about to earnestly debate this argument as my brain is just too fatigued to give it much thought. But I will honestly say that one thing good that arose from my multiple sclerosis diagnosis was the increase of helpful vocabulary words beginning with the letter “I.”
Before MS, if someone were to ask me to quickly name a word that starts with the letter “I,” I would have to think for a few seconds. Then I would say “Indian” which is no longer politically correct, and since Native American doesn’t start with the letter “I,” would be wrong anyway.
If I was given more time I might come up with igloo or iceberg, maybe iguana, but I would really have to think for a bit. Pretty sad since I was an English major in college.
But since MS, I know many words that begin with the letter “I” and some are actually helpful in my MS world.
I don’t mean “injection” which is technically helpful in a healthy way but is definitely not helpful in a real life way.
Nor do I mean “interferon” which I had never heard of before MS, and do not know what it means, but know that it is printed on my box of “injections” right over the words “Chinese hamster ovary cells.”
Nor do I mean “infusion” which I am sure I had heard of before MS but never really thought too much about.
The “I” words that have been added to my post diagnosis lexicon and which are truly accommodating are “ish” “ing” and “icth.”
Let’s start with my favorite-“ish.”
I love “ish.”
“Ish” rocks my world and absolves the normally precise me from all responsibility.
“I’ll be there around 9ish,” can actually mean, “no I won’t, but I’ll give it a good try.”
Or, “I have no idea what time I will get there and cannot even begin to try to rationalize how my morning will proceed and how fast I might be moving, but I will roughly aim for some time around 9 in our particular time zone.”
On a stretch it can even mean, “We didn’t state a specific time, did we?”
The reason why “ish” is so good is because not only are you not committing yourself in any way, the ishness of “ish” can be broken down by several factors.
My view of “ish” is not your view of “ish” and 9ish can be anything from 7 to 11 and there is nothing anyone can do about it!
It doesn’t just work on time either. When someone asks my age, “30ish” or “how often do you exercise, “often, I try to exercise once or twice a week, ish.”
Do you see the beauty of “ish?” I never appreciated it until my diagnosis but I am thrilled to have “ish” to help me out.
“Ing” is great to use when I try to describe symptoms that are totally indescribable.
My ears are making this “ringing,” “buzzing,” or “clopping” sound.
My fingers are “aching,” tingling,” and “vibrating” all the “freaking” time.
My foot is “dropping,” my legs are “weakening” my head is “pounding,” my brain is “fogging,” my eyes are “blurring,” my skin is “itching,” my stomach is “twisting” and my bladder won’t stop “going.”
“Ing” doesn’t let me off the hook as much as “ish” but it sure makes it easier to explain what is going on in my body even when I have no clue what that is.
But if I’m really too tired to come up with an appropriate “ing” word or there are just too many too sort out, then the best word is “icth.” “Icth” just sums it all up.
Some days, you are just not with it and MS is doing its best to do you in. Well meaning people may say to you “well, tell me, specifically, how do you feel?” Sometimes you just don’t have the specific words they need to understand. So I just say I feel “icth.”
It’s important to let out a little breath when you say you feel “icth.” If you are not sure about “icth,” then please allow me to tell you it is the next step up from “ick.”
Anybody can feel “ick.” But when “ick” is not encompassing enough of your overall ickiness then you must use the word “icth.” “Icth” is “ick” times twenty.
Not only does “icth” describe your ickiness combined with all your other symptoms combined with your overall exhaustion, it also says “stop asking me how I feel because I don’t have energy to explain it to you!”
MS friends, far too many times, “icth” is my favorite word.
May you not have to say “icth” too often.
But if you do, then I’m glad “icth” is available for you too.
Friends, World MS Day is 5/27/15! This is a day where MS’ers from all over the world come together to share our struggles, our symptoms, our strengths, and our stories. It’s a day for all the way over 2 million of us.
Don’t know what you should do on this day? Well check out the World MS Day link for ideas.
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I am so guilty of using ISh when i say what time I will be getting somewhere
But you do “ish” backwords, showing up early to stuff. Remember when we went to Motley Crue and you showed up five hours early? You were so excited!!!
Protandim helps a lot.
Hard to be working and have to get everywhere on time with a wheelchair slowing us down. People do not get how much planning it takes.
So true my friend. I’m not in a wheelchair but I can only imagine how much longer that would take. That is one of my issues- I constantly forget how much slower I am all the time.
Thank you for checking out my blog and commenting- my best to you!
Yvonne I really relate to this one. I can’t imagine having MS and I pray I never get anything, because I am the slowest, laziest, always tired, irritable and OVER things, person I have ever met. Everything is already a huge effort for me. I suppose depression mixed in with in debt permanently, and staying at moms, could be the ingredients to this feeling. You are amazing. I read these and wonder how you can be so positive and always smiling. My goal is to be more like you. You are a big inspiration. <3
Dear Nichole- thank you for those incredibly kind comments- I really appreciate them! The things you mentioned are all very serious and very stress inducing and they can totally overwhelm us all the time. And I definitely have my share of major breakdowns. But I was lucky in that immediately after my diagnosis, my little brother’s inappropriate comment had me laughing and I was able to see how it helped. When I am able to make fun of the things that are frustrating me, it makes me feel like I am fighting back in some way…If I can then use those frustrations to make someone else laugh, all the better! The laughing doesn’t really help with the tiredness, slowness or the irritability… But sometimes it make those things a little more fun!! My very best to you friend!
well yeah I was early for the concert but it was Vince after all, but at our last get together I was the last to arrive
I got kind of freaked out when you were the last to arrive last time-it was very unlike you!