Managing Mental Health and Life

Join me as I share my personal experience of helping my daughter, Emma, acclimatize to her new school environment, while also managing my recovery from COVID. 

This episode also shines a spotlight on the importance of patience and understanding in our everyday interactions. We also touch upon mental health, offering resources and coping strategies. Lastly, I share a sneak peek into what's coming next on the podcast, as well as new content on the website. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Back to School and COVID Recovery
• 8:29 Challenges of Parenting and Being Considerate
• 16:12 Updates on Podcast and Website

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

What's up everyone? Welcome back to the Imperfect Mellow Podcast. It's been a while since I recorded, but I'm excited to be back and I'm planning some super cool episodes for the next few weeks, so stay tuned. I've been meaning to record way back since August when school went back in session for the kids. I have a whole list written out and everything. I'm looking at it right now. Back to school. Disneyland the hurricane Like it's been so long since I recorded. So I must say I'm currently recording while I'm at work.

Speaker 1: 0:55

I'm sitting in the office by myself and so I feel really weird about talking out loud because it's literally like pitch quiet in here, and I'm also scared that someone's just gonna suddenly burst through the office and open a door and they're gonna find me with this little microphone in my hand recording and they're gonna be like what the heck is she doing? And I'm also just recovering from COVID and so my voice sounds like super scratchy and I'm wearing a headphone and so I could hear myself while I'm talking, and so it's super weird. So lately it just feels like it's been one thing after the other. I was actually sick maybe two to three weeks ago. I couldn't eat, I had no appetite. I was literally in bed just sleeping the whole time. I had a fever. I ended up having to call off work for two days, and so I was finally starting to feel better. I was like, okay, moving on, and then last week I started feeling sick again, like all of the same symptoms A fever, no appetite, congestion but this time I did have a sore throat too. So it was kind of annoying, though, because I was sick to the point where I had to call off work again, and so I don't want to be missing a lot of work. So that was kind of annoying, and so I decided to take a COVID test because I always do now whenever I get sick, just to make sure, because I don't want to go to work and get other people sick. So I ended up taking a COVID test, and it came back positive. So I was like okay, that makes sense, though, because first I was thinking I was literally just sick two weeks ago, so why am I getting sick again? I was like can you get sick over and over again like that? And so it made sense to me once I saw that positive COVID test. So then, after that, though, I contacted the supervisor, and they made me stay home until today, so a whole week I was off work, just sitting at home, bored, literally like doing nothing, so that was like the worst thing.

Speaker 1: 3:26

I will say, though, that this time around, the COVID wasn't as bad as the first. So, for those that don't know, I, the first time that I had COVID, was super bad, to the point where I developed pneumonia and I had to go to the emergency room at Kaiser, and it was during the time where all the hospitals were like super crowded, there was no space, and so they ended up putting tents outside of the hospitals, outside of the emergency rooms, to treat patients, and so, yeah, the first time that I got COVID, I had to go to the emergency room, where I sat inside this tent and in this recliner, and it was super cold that day. It was windy, and you know, when you have a fever already like you're, you're cold as it is, I was shivery, I had the chills, and so being in this tent didn't help. It was making it 10 times worse, and so they literally had to put an IV in me. They did x-rays, which, by the way the x-rays were done, outside there was literally, I think, like a plastic curtain or something like that to cover, you know, the patient, and so I remember they were doing the x-rays outside. It was nighttime, it was super windy, so it was just a horrible experience all together. They ended up prescribing me antibiotics and thankfully I recovered, but it was the nightmare. So this time around it was just a hundred percent better. So I just had to suck it up, take medications for the symptoms, just rest, drink a lot of water. But I'm very thankful that it wasn't the same as the first time around. And let me know your COVID stories if any of you had COVID, which I'm sure a lot of you did like just what your experience was with that. But yeah, I was thankful this time around and I'm sure the vaccines helped. I think I have like two or three of the COVID vaccines and so I'm sure that kind of helped as well. But yeah, I'm thankful to be back at work slow day for me today, but yeah, I just feel like it's been one thing or the one thing after the other.

Speaker 1: 6:09

This school year has been, I will say, just going back to this, back to school talk, because I feel like school takes up such a big part of life, especially when you're dealing with little kids and with possibly undiagnosed special needs. That's been the journey this year with Emma is just getting her tested, getting her diagnosed, if any diagnosis fits her. But yeah, for those of you that don't know, emma's had struggles the past two years with school. Right now she's currently in first grade, but Tiki and Kinder were a struggle to where she was lashing out at other kids. She's kind of behind from where she should be, and so I just want to make sure that she gets the right help, the right help that she needs, because I don't want her to be getting in trouble for her behaviors, like if they're associated with any kind of like learning disability or anything like that. And so if your parent has gone through that process, you know how hard or difficult it could be and it really takes a lot of advocating advocating for your child, keeping people accountable, following that, and so that's been another thing that I've been working on. Thankfully, this year the process was actually started for her and she has been doing some kind of testing, and so I'll keep you guys updated on that and that process and how it goes. But so far it's been a better experience because I know in the past when I've requested like any kind of testing, they were kind of just like well, she's still little, like just, you know, let's see, let's see how she does, kind of thing. And so whenever I share that story with anyone, they're like no, like don't let them tell you that, like advocate, and so we're we're trying to do that more now.

Speaker 1: 8:29

So it's November, it's the week before Thanksgiving and I feel like the year went by super, super fast and it feels like every year that goes by just goes by faster than the previous year for some reason. And I feel like I don't know. I feel like when Emma's in school, I'm in school, and so that kind of makes the year go by really fast. And I don't know if it's just me or there's other parents out there, but I love when Emma's home and so I'm really excited that she has next week off from school, because I just love having her home. Like I would keep her home from school every day if I could do. Any of you feel the same way, or is that just me? I just feel like when she's back at school, there's just so many things that you have to worry about, like sleep schedules, homework, eating habits, making sure that she eats drinks water, laundry, like just a bunch of extra, like harder things, and now she has PE, and so it's a lot to keep track of. Let me know if anyone else feels the same way.

Speaker 1: 9:52

And then another thing is something interesting that I have on my notes that I wrote down is being considerate of others. So being considerate of others. The reason I wrote this was that a couple of months ago, when I was getting Emma's passport application ready, we started getting Augusta Freddy, and so one of the things that we needed to get for her passport was the passport photos, obviously, and so we ended up going to I think it was CVS to get the passport photos done, and not just CVS, but other than. If anyone else has noticed, a lot of places right now are, like, really understaffed. I feel like there's not enough employees, especially like at grocery stores or CVS, or like even restaurants. I feel Like there's not enough workers.

Speaker 1: 11:02

And so at the CVS that we went to, there was only one employee working, so it was this young boy. He was covering the cash register, and so when I wanted to get the passport photos, I had to wait for him, which I didn't mind I didn't have a problem with like I could wait, and so I waited when he was finally able to come over like after helping. You know this long line of customers at the register and that's another thing. They only have one cashier and they have, like these self-checkout machines, right, but none of the self-checkout machines were working and if they were and like something went wrong, this guy had to get out of the register to go fix it and to go fix the self-checkout. So it's like extra work for him. So I felt really bad.

Speaker 1: 12:00

So anyway, I see like he finally comes back to help me take Emma's passport photos. Not to mention, emma was super cranky that day, so that didn't help the situation, because when he was finally over to take the photos, she was refusing to take the photos. She was crying, she was upset, she didn't want to stand still, and so we literally had to like talk her into, or try to talk her into standing still for the photo. So it took a long time. So customers started accumulating back at the register. There was like a little line of maybe two to three customers waiting. There was someone at the self-checkout having problems, so anyway she was finally still and he was taking the photos and then, after he took the photos, he was going to print him out, you know. So he started going to the printer to print him out and I mean, to be fair, the people weren't waiting long.

Speaker 1: 13:06

So I know I said there was like two to three people at the cashier but it had literally only been like maybe two to three minutes. But this lady came up, she literally walked all the way over from the self-checkout and she like literally topped the worker on the shoulder and she's like hey, like hello, and she literally said I need help. And at that moment I like laughed out loud and I was like, wow, which I caught myself after. I was like, oh, my gosh, did you? Just laugh out loud and I said, well, I need help too, and he's helping me right now. Like, can you please be patient? You know, well, I didn't say that second part, I thought that to myself, but I did say out loud like, well, I need help too, he's helping me right now. And so, yeah, that's why I wrote being considerate of others, like just be considerate, be patient.

Speaker 1: 14:14

If you're going out, not just to CBS, but even like at restaurants or like any kind of establishment right now, I feel like a lot of them are understaffed. Not a lot of people want to work in person. I feel A lot of people are preferring to work from home, you know, in this post-COVID world. And so just be considerate of others when you go out to these places, when you go to stores. Like, a lot of these people aren't getting paid well either. I mean, minimum wage right now in California is, I feel I think it's $14, correct me if I'm wrong, but $14 an hour is nothing, like literally nothing. So a lot of these people are working for minimum wage.

Speaker 1: 15:06

And so just be patient and be nice to other people and even at restaurants, like, be patient with the workers, with the waitresses, and just with everyone. Like, don't be entitled, don't go in with this attitude of entitlement. You know what I mean Be considerate, be patient. So that's my PSA for this week. But, yeah, other than that, I restarted my job, as I mentioned in the last episode, and so I've been busy and I feel like I'm still adjusting back to this 40 hour work week and so, yeah, hopefully I'll be better able to manage my time so that I'm able to record more podcast episodes. I'm also gonna be having some really cool guests. Come on, share their stories, share their philanthropies, what they're working on and just get this podcast back up and running. So I'm really excited.

Speaker 1: 16:13

So, yeah, thank you all for coming back on board and listening to this week's episode. Let me know what your thoughts are, if you could relate to any of the stories that I shared today. And then, as always, please remember to share, subscribe to this podcast and also check out our website, imperfectmolecom, where you could find a lot of different mental health blogs. I actually just published a blog recently I think sometime in October, but check it out if you haven't. It is related to suicide prevention. And also, don't forget, I also have a mental health merch on my website, so if you haven't checked it out, go ahead and look at it. And then thank you for the support. I hope to record soon and so hopefully it's not another three months. But thank you all, hope you have a good night.