Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The sufferer conundrum.

I recently came across a blog written by a fellow MSer that could have easily been written about me. It was the condemnation of using the terms “MS sufferer.” I use these two terms together, at the frown of my fellow blogger, because I have my own reasons for using them. I consider myself a sufferer because, at this time, it's something I do suffer with, just like I have to suffer with annoying in-laws or noisy upstairs neighbors. It's the annoying pest that whistles in my ear while I go about my daily business and I suffer with it, because it's the hand I was dealt. One man's journey is another man's suffering.
It almost seems petty to attack something so silly as a term, or as it's put elsewhere, a label. It reminds me of those days in high school where we protested the labels we were given by society while others embraced it. Who cares? If I choose to consider myself a sufferer, that's my choice just as it's your choice to use a different phrase. Heck, I even call myself a PCOs sufferer, because, you would too if you've ever spent a half hour in front of the bathroom mirror plucking chin hairs with tweezers you can't even see.
Quite honestly, I picked the phrase up from a medical professional and it was just something that stuck. Instead of attacking the phrase, offer some other coined term we can use instead. Instead of picking apart labels, wouldn't it make more sense to present a united front? Remember, we're the source of available, real life information for the newly diagnosed.

3 comments:

  1. I keep meaning to comment on your blog (P.S. glad you're posting again!). But I agree. I don't usually call myself an MS suffer, just normally an MSer, and I've kind of quit complaining about my symptoms to people just because I got tired of hearing "I hope you get better." Lmao, I might have days with less symptoms, but I won't get "better" till they cure the damn disease. But anyways, nothing wrong with using the term MS suffer, especially when you're suffering constantly. I mean even on my best days, I still usually have at least one symptom going on.

    With my PCOS (yup, we both share the same two diseases, yay for us! LOL), I find it hard to talk about. People know the weight aspect of it and not being able to conceive unfortunately, but I never, ever talk about the fact that I have to shave under my chin and mustache every day. I'm sure they've noticed the light stubble since I have dark roots and just haven't said anything, and they know I have disease that can cause it, but it's still absolutely embarrassing to even talk about. In fact I couldn't even really openly talk about it with my husband until last year. All this time he thought it was a normal woman thing lol, how cute.

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  2. Have you had any luck with spironolactone? My GP prescribed that to me right before I moved but because I frequently have low blood pressure there were some concerns about whether or not I should take it. So I didn't. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm willing to shave it, although I know my sister does (she has similar PCOs symptoms and had trouble conceiving). Instead I spend at least 45-minutes a few times a week plucking away. I'm afraid if I shave it'll be something I'll end up having to do on a daily basis and I have commitment issues (lol).

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  3. No, I was prescribed something else that started with a V (I believe spironalactone was mentioned but because I'm trying to get pregnant, I think I'm not allowed to use it yet) but my insurance wouldn't cover any of it, and it was going to cost me $90ish a month. Which wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't mix reviews on it. In the end I decided to just save up my money to eventually get laser surgery done. I've been on Metformin for several months now though, and that seems to help quite a bit.

    I honestly wish I plucked back when there was a only a few hairs myself. I know it's a bit of a farce, but I still feel like I made the hair growth worse by shaving instead of plucking. I started having hair when I was 15-16, but within the past few years it's spread like crazy. Really sucks but such is life.

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