Multiple Sclerosis

For ten years I would not say the name. I said: episode. Said: setback, incident, exacerbation—anything but be specific in the way this is specific, not a theory or description, but a diagnosis. I said: muscle, weakness, numbness, fatigue. I said vertigo, neuritis, lesion, spasm. Remission. Progression. Recurrence. Deficit. But the name, the ugly sound of it, I refused. There are two words. The last one means: scarring. It means what grows hard, and cannot be repaired. The first one means: repeating, or myriad, consisting of many parts, increasing in number, happening over and over, without end.