Katie Schwenk
Bio
Mom to almost a baseball team!!! My husband brought 3 kids to our marriage and I brought 4. We are crazy busy and definitely opinionated.
Stories (4/0)
eyes half-opened
It's a bright, sunny, beautiful day. Outside anyways. But inside it's a different story, it's raining, and gloomy, with little chance of letting up. Hurricane Madi is in full force, catastrophic damage. Damage to herself, my house, and sadly others. See, she doesn't do it with malice, or deviousness, she's autistic, and doesn't really know what she's doing. She can't talk and when she needs something and can't communicate she proceeds to bang her head off everything cement blocks, pavement, counter tops; EVERYTHNG, she doesn't discriminate! Alysa will walk by her not even saying a word to Madi and Madi will haul off and start beating Alysa up. I'd tell Lysa that Madi doesn't understand what she's doing and why. I would explain Madi's brain is like a bunch of wires that are connected properly, and her brain isn't quite like ours. My heart shattered, she was too young and didn't understand. But that didn't let the "love taps" stop her. She was going to go play with her sister. They were sisters first, diagnosis later. They played hard everyday. She can get distracted by a butterfly fluttering by.
By Katie Schwenk3 years ago in Families
My storytelling artwork
When I was 20 I buried my dad. nonHodgkins Lymphoma. I was a wreck. Literally broken. At 28 I buried my younger sister. Glioblastoma (nastiest, most aggressive form of a brain tumor you can imagine). I lost my best friend, shopping partner, confidant, therapist. I was on autopilot, just going thru the motions, the flow of the day, with no real direction or focus! I needed to have you both with me!! And poof! Out popped the first tattoo design. I was going to use my body as a way to beautifully capture a glimpse of time in our lives. I wasn't going to be alone anymore, I'd have pieces of you with me.
By Katie Schwenk4 years ago in Families
A sad story: What Mental Health Awareness
1 in 5 adults in America experience mental illness. Nearly 1 in 25 adults suffer serious mental illness. One half of all chronic mental illness begins before the age of 14; 75% by age of 24. 1 in 100 (2.4 million) American adults live with schizophrenia. 26% ( 6.1 million) American adults live with bipolar disorder. 6.9% (16 million) American adults live with severe depression, 18.1% ( 42 million) of American adults live with anxiety disorders. 46.4% of American adults will suffer a mental illness in their lifetime.
By Katie Schwenk4 years ago in Psyche
