What made you choose your username?

[sally]

This is great! Having never done Internet before, I was rather skittish about the name thing. Icthus is the Greek word for Christ, and was used in times of great Christian persecution to identify followers of Jesus. One person would draw an arch in the sand and if the other were a Christian, he would draw his arch, making a fish symbol. They would then know they were brothers in Christ, and could speak freely to one another.

I chose Icthus because I feel like I am in a place of great difficulties. One night three years ago at the dinner table, I gave my family that day's doctor's appointment results (which were a result of POTS but I hadn't been diagnosed yet.) At the conclusion, I said to my husband, "Don, you can't die before me. I can't live without you." "Don't worry, Lefty, you'll be just fine," was his response. 14 hours later I was a widow with a 15 and 18 year old, both at home in home school. My best friend had died at 6AM while trying to rescue our family puppy on a frozen pond. This is where Icthus comes in. Now my best friend, protector, defender, shield, and comforter is Jesus. Were it not for Him, I probably would not be alive right now. And so, here I am, drawing my arch in the sand but I'm definitely not doing it bending down.

Thank you so much for being here. You all have been such a comfort and confirmation to me. I read your entries, and then know I am OK - it's "just" a POTS thing that my body is doing. Thank you, thank you.

By the way, I asked my doctor for a disability parking placard because I lost my valet service (Don). I received it in the mail a week ago. YEA!

I'm am so sorry to hear of the loss of your husband, he sounds like a special person that anyone would have appreciated knowing and your relationship sounds special. Your story and reasons behind your name is a beautiful story of love, courage & sacrifice. thank you for sharing it with everyone.

[Mrs. Glass]

Hats off to you. This is a great subject. Very upbeat. I got my name Mrs.Glass due to the way my daughter had to explain to my youngest grandson why I could not get in the floor and play with him anymore. Does anyone remember the movie Unbreakable? Well there was a character on there whose bones were as brittle as glass and he was called Mr. Glass. Well my bones are as brittle as glass, and that is the only way that he understood, so my nickname is Lovingly Mrs. Glass. Vanessa PS. My Grandsons also call me Mimi, which evoloved from Memaw and Mommy, which is another story in itself.

Thanks for your wonderful post. Vanessa

I just thought there are some really unusual usernames on here, wouldn't it be interesting if we all said a bit about why we have the ones we do?

I'll go first...

Persephone is related to my experience of dysautonomia.

For those of you who don't know, Persephone was a Greek Goddess of the underworld. She was collecting flowers one day in the sunshine and living a happy life when all of a sudden,from NOWHERE the god of the underworld snatched her away to his kingdom under the earth where spirits of the dead live. Demeter, her mother, was goddess of harvest and out of grief made the earth cold so the crops died- that's how winter came about.

In the end she struck a deal with Hades who agreed that for half the year Persephone could stay on earth with her mother (the earth is ok then- that's spring and summer time). But the other half would be spent in the underworld with him- autumn and winter . This myth is actually to explain the seasons and why they exist, but I've always been drawn to the actual story.

I think POTS was a bit like Hades for me- I was minding my own business quite happily when BANG- it hit me hard, too, and took me into a very dark place, away from the light and happiness I'd known.

And because my POTS seems to run in cycles, I feel very much like half my life is spent sick and half well. So I can identify on that level too.

It's not all bad though- without the darkness, we wouldn't appreciate the light.

So that's why I'm Persephone...I really did feel at the time that POTS had robbed me of half my life.

[rossman]

Great idea...I chose my name based upon my daughter's iceskating achievements. She is working (in her spare time) on completing the two dances left to earn her a gold medal. Her spirit in iceskating despite some nasty judging and her perserverance in spite of it seemed like good qualities to emulate!

Cool topic. Amazed that I hadn't seen it before. I've read some very interesting posts.

I use "Rossman" because several people from completely different circles started calling me that. It's very interesting how I can go into a new community where no one knows me at all and eventually someone starts calling me Rossman, and it sticks. My name is Ross. Sometimes I'm called "dress for less", but Rossman comes up a lot, and it sticks.

Rossman

[yikespanic]

I often wondered about this to! Some of you are very creative! YIKESPANIC --- well my very first episode happened to me on my way to work while driving! It was very scary and I didn't know what was happening to me, (Later found out that being dehydrated, I was sick, brought out my POTS symptoms) I had to pull my van over to a very deserted Metroparks Lot and had a very long Panic Attack. I thought I was dying right then and there. The Panic Attack made it even worse. I eventually made it to work, thank God I worked with my sister, she drive me home, I was to scared it might happen again. When I got home, I went on the internet, and a site expained panic attacks, so when I made up my screen name for the site, I though YIKESPANIC was very appropriate.

Kim