After losing Thomas’s mother to pancreatic cancer and navigating Thomas’s aggressive leukemia diagnosis, bone marrow transplant, relapse, and ongoing recovery, Lindsay and Thomas join Dr. Ann Kelley to share their deeply personal journey through cancer, caregiving, grief, and resilience. Together, they explore the emotional realities of serious illness, the often-overlooked grief experienced by caregivers, and how vulnerability, honest communication, and mutual support can strengthen relationships during life’s most uncertain moments.
“If I’m going to go through this, I want to grow through this.” – Thomas Kealey
03:59 Transition from caregiver to patient
09:52 Keys to acceptance and trust in medical care
24:51 Supporting each other through grief and fear
34:59 Practical tools for caregivers and patients
45:11 Talking about fear and end-of-life conversations
55:10 Creating normalcy and connection in the hospital
59:51 Living with uncertainty and foreboding joy
Thomas is a dedicated Preoperative & Post Anesthesia charge nurse in Bend, Oregon. As a co-host of the Brain it On! Podcast, he shares insights from his personal journey with Multiple Phenotype Acute Leukemia (MPAL) and a bone marrow transplant. His mission is strengthened by the mutual support he shared with his mother, who had pancreatic cancer, to inspire and help others facing medical challenges.
Lindsey is an instructor of Human Development and Family Sciences at Oregon State University and the author of PAWsitive Choices Social and Emotional Learning. Her experience teaching in elementary schools and higher education led her to create a curriculum that integrates neuroscience and problem-solving to foster children’s resilience. As a co-host of the Brain it On! Podcast, she shares key learnings from her journey through her husband’s cancer treatment to help others navigate adversity.
Brain It On! – Thomas and Lindsey’s podcast
The Comfort & Healing Companion: A Patient and Caregiver Toolkit for Treatment, Recovery, and Beyond – Thomas &Lindsey’s book, get your copy!
Instagram – Following the Brain It On podcast’s profile
YouTube – Check out their Youtube channel
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Everyone’s heard of attachment styles – but you likely don’t know how much the popular press gets wrong and what the science actually says about how to improve your relationships long term (including how we relate to ourselves). This course is for anyone wanting to more deeply understand attachment (styles vs patterns), unconscious defense activation patterns, implicit scripts… and most importantly, what to do once you do get activated! Online, Self-Paced, Asynchronous Learning with Quarterly Live Q&A’s! Earn 6 Continuing Education Credits – Available at Checkout.
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Or read Marriott & Kelley’s critically-acclaimed book, Secure Relating: Holding Your Own in an Insecure World (HarperCollins,2023) for the most in-depth experience of learning about Secure Relating.
Therapists love it, but it’s accessible to everyone. If you aren’t interested in the background science, just start at Part 2 and we will be talking directly to you – it’s fun!
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