Sorry, Mary, I disagree, but it's a vocabulary thing. In my lexicon, illness is being in a state of "not healthy". I watch a lot of medical shows on TV, and I'm always bothered by their use of the term "sick" for people who are injured.
So I guess it's just a matter of definition. If you have a health condition (like your Diabetes) that makes you not healthy, you have an illness. It's chronic, and whether or not it directly impacts your immediate state of being, you aren't in a state of full health.
I think ill is pretty low on the list of how sick is a person. YMMV, and clearly it does.
The problem I have with that is that by your definition, many people are ill - and the vast majority of people don't know it.
And by that definition, someone with an aneurism (sp) is 'ill'. Someone with high cholesterol or someone who'd had their thyroid removed are ill, since these issues keep someone from being in perfect health.
I'll be even less 'ill' after my transplants, but I still won't be in 'perfectt health'...
I know what you're talking aboutfitchwitchMarch 21 2011, 13:13:23 UTC
When my husband went into the hospital in February, he walked into the ER under his own power. But he was having serious health issues--his abdomen was so filled with fluid that his diaphram couldn't expand downwards and he couldn't breathe. (25 - 30 pounds of fluid weight) He was put on a gurney, propped up, and given oxygen. But because he wasn't constantly gasping for breath, the stupid ER people wanted to send him home. Luckily, his nephrologist told them in no uncertain terms--the man is in cardiac failure--ADMIT him to the hospital.
Of course he was breathing better--he was still, propped up, and on oxygen! If they took off the oxygen and made him walk 50 feet, he would have been gasping and almost falling over. Idiots!
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So I guess it's just a matter of definition. If you have a health condition (like your Diabetes) that makes you not healthy, you have an illness. It's chronic, and whether or not it directly impacts your immediate state of being, you aren't in a state of full health.
I think ill is pretty low on the list of how sick is a person. YMMV, and clearly it does.
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And by that definition, someone with an aneurism (sp) is 'ill'. Someone with high cholesterol or someone who'd had their thyroid removed are ill, since these issues keep someone from being in perfect health.
I'll be even less 'ill' after my transplants, but I still won't be in 'perfectt health'...
Reply
Of course he was breathing better--he was still, propped up, and on oxygen! If they took off the oxygen and made him walk 50 feet, he would have been gasping and almost falling over. Idiots!
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