Category: Health
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My Kid Gets Migraines
My son has suffered migraines since he was at least two years old. I would regularly get phone calls from daycare to pick him up because he was sick again. We did not know what was happening. We thought that he was getting gastroenteritis, aka “the stomach flu.” Then my sister observed that when we celebrated holidays with…
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Fear of Loss
Thursday night I saw my psychologist over the disaster that was Tuesday. First I had her listen to the distraught voice recording I made that night. I told her about my son’s recurring gastroenteritis. He’s suffered from migraines with vomiting since he was a toddler, has gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and gets gastroenteritis regularly during the…
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I’m No April Fool
This admittedly amateurish attempt at April Fool’s Day poetry (yes, that’s rather heavy-handed alliteration – accept it, I like it, I’m on A roll) I originally wrote for STIGMAMA.com. I may not be a polished or proficient poet, but perhaps I am indeed a fool… Perhaps, just perhaps, NOW THERE ARE TWO OF US. Even more likely, now…
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Why I Keep Away from Madness, Dyane Leshin-Harwod #MarchMadness
I love this post written by my dear friend Dyane Leshin-Harwood of Birth of a New Brain: Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder for STIGMAMA.com. She eloquently and powerfully explains how she takes care of herself, how she pays attention to what feeds and nurtures her, and how she protects herself. She is my role model in self-care, in setting limits, in being…
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I’m Sick & Had to Cancel
I am SO disappointed. Woke up this morning with gastroenteritis. Not able to go on my trip to the San Franciscod Bay Area. Not able to be interviewed for Rebecca Gitenstein’s study on mothers with bipolar disorder. Not able to meet up with my old friends from high school. Not able to meet my friend and…
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Do NOT Smoke!
First of all I hope and pray that I am able to emotionally support my husband as he experiences grief, having lost his oldest brother last week to lung cancer. Grief, anxiety, and the fear of loss is what prompted me to begin writing this blog back in September 2013. My husband benefitted from visiting his brother before he…
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Grief, Compassion, and Love
Today my husband flew up to visit his brother who is at home receiving hospice care for advanced lung cancer which has aggressively metastasized. This post serves as a prayer for my husband, his brother, and the rest of their family. I’m at a loss for words. This is also my second Writer’s Quote Wednesday 2015 post. Thank…
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Prevent and Treat Childhood Trauma #1000Speak for Compassion
[ted id=2194] Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where…
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Bipolar Disorder and Seasonal Affective Disorder
Outside a cacophony of birds outside loudly pronounce that they have important work to do, nests to build, eggs to lay, offspring to bring into the world. Spring has sprung. The sun is bright. The season of rebirth is here. Hypomania is officially here, as well, folks. Yes, I have concurrent bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder.…