Her first episode was triggered by taking steroids for a case of the hives.
Fortunately for her, she has been stabilized on meds ever since and has not had a recurrence!
"I never take a holiday from meds," she said.
My only beef with Pauley is that she says of herself, "I'm bipolar." C'mon Jane. You're not your illness. Contrast: I'm cancer. People w diabetes like me say I'm a PWD, person w diabetes. And this, unfortunately, is forever, due to my antirejection meds.
She lavishly praised Penn Foundation of Sellersville, PA who serve people in both Bucks and Montco. In sponsoring the event, they also celebrated their 90th anniversary. They started with a dozen members of the staff and now have 900.
Penn Foundation, in this age of austerity, has cultivated community partners - hundreds of them - and can afford to publish beautiful brochures like this one
Highly unusual and wonderful!
The parking lot at Calvary was packed. The church is beautiful. The auditorium large. We had great seats with no one blocking Little Us on the extreme right of the theater.
You know what really annoys me? Women who go thru their pocketbooks.
That's how I spent the first 10 minutes, while numerous introductions and thank-yous and an award ceremony took place. Yes, I was going thru my two pocketbooks (one held my diabetes food) and my jacket pockets searching for my camera.
Not until we returned to H's car did I find it: it had fallen outa my pocket and into the space between my passenger seat and the cupholders. Aaargh!!!
Oh no! Anger is a sign of bipolar d/o. Maybe mine's coming back.
Jane Pauley said she had to accept that her illness was forever.
She describes herself as being ugly to her family during the first year after diagnosis while she was trying to get stabilized.
Her psychiatrist, who she still sees, advised her not to tell a soul. But being an 'authentic' individual, as a friend described her, 'one of the most normal individuals on the planet,' she had no choice but to be herself and tell the truth of why she was hospitalized.
Her husband of 32 years or something like that is Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury cartoonist. They have twins - a boy Ross and a girl Rachel - and a younger boy Thomas who was in middle school when his mom first got ill. Thomas paid no attn to the illness while daughter Rachel rarely spoke to her mom b/c of her horrid mood.
Rachel, said Pauley, lives in Philly, has heard many of her mom's talks and is now making up her sofabed so Pauley can sleep there after the show.
What I particularly liked about Pauley's performance was her intimacy with the audience. She paid frequent tribute to people - including mental health consumers - she had met earlier that day at Penn Foundation, such as a bipolar woman, Judy, who is a teacher.
Pauley mentioned her son Ross, a teacher like Judy, who is so fond of his mother, she joked, that he moved all the way to San Francisco.
Originally a Hoosier, Jane and her husband live in NYC. Since I'm not much of a TV watcher, I didn't know about Jane's storied history with NBC as a former co-host of The Today Show. My sister Donna apprised me of all this. She got two free tickets for the Anderson Cooper show in NY tomro. Don't ask if I know who he is.
While Jane was speaking, I reached into my bag and got out my cheese and ate silently. People with diabetes must eat frequently, which is quite OK by me.
On the way home down the superhighways, Harriet drove right over a dead deer - thump! - and there were two more dead ones by the side of the road. Killed by drivers in this era of deforestation.
Plus it's mating season.
I'm so glad I went. You can now count me a true fan of Jane Pauley. She's not on Facebook or I'd be one of her thousands of fans.
I like Jane Pauley also. Not a fan of dead deer though. Makes me sad.
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