The Other Side of Caregiving: Grief, Vulnerability & Finding Joy with Lindsey & Thomas Kealey (315)

When life changes overnight, how do we find our way forward?

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

Time Stamps for The Other Side of Caregiving: Grief, Vulnerability & Finding Joy with Lindsey & Thomas Kealey (315)

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

About our Guests – Lindsey & Thomas Kealey

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.

Resources for The Other Side of Caregiving: Grief, Vulnerability & Finding Joy with Lindsey & Thomas Kealey (315)

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

Please support our sponsors – they keep our podcast free and accessible to all!

Therapy can be costly, but part of the mission of Talkspace is to provide quality care that is accessible and affordable—whether or not you are insured. As a listener of this podcast, you’ll get $80 off of your first month with Talkspace when you go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code SPACE80.

Talkiatry is a 100% online psychiatry practice that provides comprehensive evaluations, diagnoses, and ongoing medication management for conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression, and more. Head to Talkiatry.com/TU to complete the short assessment and get matched with an in‑network psychiatrist in just a few minutes.

Many new events coming up at TU – Check out our events page to see our highlights and happenings!

Just a few of our fun opportunities!

Beyond Attachment Styles –

Deepening Security in Yourself and Fostering More Secure Relationships

Course available NOW – New LIVE Q&A Coming December 2026!

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