Category: Family
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Journal Entries – Late April
April 21, 2016 So here I am writing, journaling, trying to get burden off my back, out of my chest. Too heavy. Too painful. Not exceedingly so, but like a long keen. Yes, I am keening, mourning the loss of my parents. They are alive, but I mourn their loss of cognition. Nick [my husband]…
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Exhausted
My body is simply exhausted from the stress and responsibilities I’ve taken on since my mother had her stroke. I still haven’t allowed myself to feel the grief in my heart at her losses. Her sudden plummet into vascular dementia and loss of speech and language comprehension due to her stroke are absolutely devastating, more…
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I Was a Workaholic Mother
Laurie Hollman, Ph.D. featured me in her HuffPost Women blog article, Living With Bipolar Disorder as a Mother and Workaholic. Her article quotes my wordy answers to her interview questions. Interview with Kitt O’Malley 1. Discuss your decision-making to work and mother at the same time. Before I even became pregnant, my husband and I purchased a house we could…
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Updated My Resources Page
Now that I’m one of WEGO Health’s 7 Bipolar Depression Patient Leaders You Need to Know, I decided that I would update my Resources page. Actually, the two have nothing to do with each other. Just promoting myself, thanking WEGO Health, and passing on the resources… By Category Mental Health Youth & Young Adult Mental…
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Just Finished My CE's!
Just completed my continuing education (CE) for my California Marriage and Family Therapist license (LMFT). To renew my license this time around, among the courses I took, I chose the following three timely and emotionally charged ones: Older Adults and Mental Health, School Refusal, and Chronic Illness in Children. Yes, I’m firmly in the Sandwich Generation, parenting a sensitive adolescent while…
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Stroke and Swallowing
Sunday night I spent the late night and wee hours of the morning at the emergency room with my mother because she had aspirated food and liquids at dinner. She’s doing very well now, but is again experiencing dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing after stroke. When the nurse at Silverado, my parents’ memory care community, told me that my…
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Vascular Dementia and Psychosis
My husband, son & I are visiting my sister, her family, and the in-laws (my sister and I married brothers) in Oregon. Beautiful outside. We can see Mt. St. Helens peaking out in the distance, but it doesn’t really show up in this photo. Trying to focus on nature’s beauty to give my mind and…