Eastside Family Acupuncture

My latest for on gift card draining and how we can protect ourselves from this problem which costs the economy $228 million a year. According to , these types of crimes are now being investigated by the DHS as organized crime.

It was a joy to work with KatieKrzaczek and . Big love to and friends for supporting me during that difficult time and to Tommy Doyle for looking over the piece before I turned it in.

My latest for on gift card draining and how we can protect ourselves. It was a joy to work with KatieKrzaczek and . Big love to Catie Langston and friends for supporting me during that difficult time and to Tommy Doyle for looking over the piece before I turned it in.

I’ve Got Some Terrible News About That Gift Card in Your Wallet There's no easy way to protect the roughly $200 billion worth of gift cards Americans purchase every year.

Existential love.

FOR SUDC FAMILIES.

We invite you to join us on April 14th at 3pm EDT for our SUDC Sunday Speaker Series.

Melissa Marie Monroe, Ph.D., is a mom, freelance writer, acupuncturist, grief, and trauma advocate, and SUDC Mom to Alice. This will be a transformative discussion on navigating life after the loss of a child. Drawing from her personal journey of losing her youngest daughter, Alice, to SUDC in 2013, Dr. Monroe brings a unique perspective to the complexities of post-child loss. Her acclaimed book, “Mom’s Search for Meaning: Grief and Growth After Child Loss,” has received recognition, and her work has been featured in Insider, New York Times, USA Today, Slate, and Well + Good. In this insightful session, Dr. Monroe will explore “regular parent” guilt, the relationship between guilt and PTSD, differentiate healthy and unhealthy guilt, and provide practical strategies to navigate guilt after child loss. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain inspiration and guidance for your own journey through grief and growth.

Register today: [https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SUDCSpeakerSeries2024](https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SUDCSpeakerSeries2024)

The good news is: my book MOM’S SEARCH FOR MEANING had its first birthday. 🎉

The terrible news: no one should have to live through child or sibling loss. 🦋

Unfortunately, there is no life without death. ♾️

Fortunately, story is one way we can give our life meaning while making our loved ones live on.

My developmental editor and author of “Making it Home,” Teresa Strasser will join me LIVE ON IG Wednesday April 10th at 1 PM Pacific time to discuss writing and editing big feelings.

There will be humor, Q&A, and giveaways!

Please join us!

Sure, I poke pins in my in-person patients, but a good chunk of the healing comes from discussing their health during the pinning.

The most important part of my job is listening to my patients’ concerns and medical history, then educating them about their condition and various treatment options.

My telehealth patients get everything an in person patient gets, minus the pins and plus a little more consultation time.

I’m working on a streamlined way to schedule telehealth sessions online, until then, you can text me or DM me.

To your health,

Melissa

Point Mugu.

Leaving free books with random act of kindness cards because it’s a SUDC awareness month.

If you do a random act for kindness for someone before the end of the month, let us know in the comments. For Alice and all the other SUDC kiddos.

🦋Alice🦋

Leaving free books with random act of kindness cards because its SUDC awareness month.

If you do a random act for kindness for someone before the end of the month, let us know in the comments. For Alice and all the other SUDC kiddos.

🦋Alice🦋

Spring clean your health! And a new recipe. And much more. New subscribers always welcome and appreciated.

Love,

Melissa

Please Come to the Academy Awards of Words + Music!! Here’s a sneak preview of 1/2 the lineup from this Sunday Night’s event, Library Girl Presents: Such A Long Long Time To Be Gone And A Short Time To Be There! Curated w/Steve Hochman. Inspired by the Grateful Dead song “Box of Rain.” Get your tickets now. www.ruskingrouptheatre.com. Click See a Show + look for LIbrary Girl icon! Clockwise left: Cory “Besskepp” Cofer; Thee Holy Brothers (Marvin Etzioni + Willie Aron); Jane Cantillon; Mary Camarillo. Also featuring Melissa M. Monroe, Paul Body, Ryan Hedgecock, Steve Hochman, Jonathan Feldman + Veronica Jauregui.

FOR SUDC FAMILIES.

We invite you to join us on April 14th at 3pm EDT for our SUDC Sunday Speaker Series.

Melissa Marie Monroe, Ph.D., is a mom, freelance writer, acupuncturist, grief, and trauma advocate, and SUDC Mom to Alice. This will be a transformative discussion on navigating life after the loss of a child. Drawing from her personal journey of losing her youngest daughter, Alice, to SUDC in 2013, Dr. Monroe brings a unique perspective to the complexities of post-child loss. Her acclaimed book, "Mom's Search for Meaning: Grief and Growth After Child Loss," has received recognition, and her work has been featured in Insider, New York Times, USA Today, Slate, and Well + Good. In this insightful session, Dr. Monroe will explore "regular parent" guilt, the relationship between guilt and PTSD, differentiate healthy and unhealthy guilt, and provide practical strategies to navigate guilt after child loss. Don't miss this opportunity to gain inspiration and guidance for your own journey through grief and growth.

Register today: [https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SUDCSpeakerSeries2024](https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SUDCSpeakerSeries2024)

Are you ready for it? Probably not. Millions of peri and post menopausal women are being medically gaslit every day, largely due to an unconscionable lack of medical education around menopause, even among board-certified GYNs. is one of several GYNs committed to improving the lives of menopausal women and changing the way medical care is provided to them. Thank you Dr. Mary Claire for highlighting my words in a post re: the staggering lack of care provided to menopausal women. I feel validated! WE APPRECIATE YOU. We are ready for change. 🫶

It was my honor and privilege to review stunning memoir-in-essays LOVE IN THE ARCHIVES: A PATCHWORK OF TRUE STORIES ABOUT SU***DE LOSS for

To have a piece in LARB is the dream of any sane writer (oxymoron, I know), but front page, top? Maybe I’m still asleep. I owe my dreams and sanity to for early eyes/ears, Tom Zoellner and Bryce Becker for expert editing, my wonderful teacher for everything, and everyone at LARB.

For Lydia and all those gone too soon.

*988 Su***de & Crisis Lifeline

We can all help prevent su***de. The 988 Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals in the United States.*

The recent NYU Langone study connecting febrile seizures to SOME SUDC deaths is an enormous breakthrough, but also brings mixed emotions. A huge thanks to for giving this piece a home.

And thank you to for suggesting I pitch them. It worked. And thanks to for teaching me the ropes.

For Alice and all the other SUDC kids. 🦋

And OMG, I just realized it’s the first story on the front page. 😭❤️‍🩹🦋

https://slate.com/technology/2024/02/sudden-unexplained-death-childhood-nyu-study-febrile-seizures.html

Lady and ’s Moonee got their rainbow bridge.

Rain was not forecast. And luckily it didn’t happen yesterday because Lady REALLY wanted to spend her day outside, and her mortal enemy rain would have pi**ed on her peace train passage parade.

15. 💖

Writer's Digest's review of MOM'S SEARCH FOR MEANING was uploaded today. Grateful.

"This book is exemplary in its voice and writing style. It has a unique voice, and the writing style is consistent throughout. The style and tone are also consistent with or will appeal to readers of the intended genre...Melissa Monroe has poured her heart into Mom’s Search for Meaning, her memoir about losing her second child who died in her sleep as a toddler. With a strong and personal voice Monroe shares the impact this devastating loss has had on her life and what tools she has used to cope with grief and PTSD including EMDR and acupuncture. With curiosity and honesty she invites the reader on the journey she needed to take to find the strength to survive her new normal. “It’s simply exhausting to force yourself to live on Earth day after day when one of your children is no longer bound by its gravity,” she writes. Monroe is dogged in locating the resources and support she needs and generously shares those throughout the pages of Mom’s Search for Meaning along with tools for grieving readers and readers who have loved ones enduring grief."

--Judge, 31st Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.

Made my day.

This is why we write our words.

Mom’s Search for Meaning available online, wherever you buy books. 💫

I talked to about Alice,
, PTSD, and traumatic guilt.

We are the second story in this roundup.

Thank you to for running this excellent series on the many manifestations of grief. You are helping so many people.

Jonathan Armstrong with the photo credit. 🦋

Link here and in my stories.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2023/11/17/grief-loss-stages/71532806007/

My article on coping with grief-based insomnia for was published today.

Big thanks to and Chester Wu, MD from .science for agreeing to be interviewed for the piece and to editor Erica Sloan for placing it in her excellent series on insomnia.

You can read here:
https://www.wellandgood.com/grief-insomnia/?fbclid=IwAR0Wgkm1eQiCdPj7qW7rVc6jxUklIArtb8c4pfcFsNBguQABtKe8lpUzkeY_aem_AcliBHTq_4Ja5nzrnXyjZx3JIor8bCRllmtBfQhgea0fGwni3prEFGsb5X_rxJnQUm0&mibextid=9R9pXO

Join us Friday, Nov 10, for a workshop on doing at-home Gua Sha facials!

Gua sha tools are included in the price, but bring your own oil!

Wine/snacks are included for this happy hour self-care workshop!

Space is limited, so RSVP here on the Eventbrite!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/742582954607?aff=oddtdtcreator

By request, we are hosting a one-time workshop on how to do gua sha facials at home! The price includes tools but bring your own oil. Everyone has different skin needs, so bringing your desired oil is best!

We'll go over the basics, practice, and have snacks.

Hope you'll join us!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gua-sha-facial-workshop-tickets-742582954607?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

Speechless.

Thank you for honoring MOM’S SEARCH FOR MEANING and the memory of my Alice. 🦋

Speechless.

Thank you for honoring MOM’S SEARCH FOR MEANING and the memory of my Alice. 🦋

My very first teacher. I started dance at 2 yo with the unstoppable Donna Hixon. I studied with her for well over a decade and learned so much more than dance.

Donna taught us priceless life lessons like, discipline, commitment, finishing what you start even if the wheels come off, punctuality, teamwork, and rolling with the punches.

A more even tempered human I have never encountered.

She’s almost 90, but looks exactly the same, walks the same, talks the same, and is sharp as a tack.

She’s been my teacher, champion, hero, and friend for 52 years. I’m a lucky girl.

Midwest Tour for Melissa’s book “Mom’s Search for Meaning!”

Sat Oct 14:

Lutheran Hillside Village 10:30am- 12pm
n.beans Morton from 2-4pm

Sunday, October 15:

1-3pm

I can’t wait to see all of you! It’s been way too long.

Books will be available at Sheffields and Leaves N Beans but supplies are limited! Books cannot be sold at Lutheran Hillside Village. You can order yours ahead of time at the link below.

https://geni.us/MomsSearchForMeaning

This is one of the last pictures I had with both of them. Alice left us just 3 months later, but we didn’t know that then. Grace is still here living up to her name.

Forever grateful for both. They are my greatest creation, my biggest joy.
💖🦋

I had a longer version of this piece on my desktop for 7 years and never knew what to do with it.

Thank you to ⁦‬⁩ for giving it a home and for being one of the few willing to give a voice to bereaved parents. Thank you to Anna Rollins for helping me edit pre-publication and to Susan Shapiro for everything. And thank you to the many, many people who have supported me all these years.

https://www.insider.com/moms-need-to-stop-judging-each-other-parenting-2023-9?fbclid=IwAR3gFWuO7XXK-6kkpJIouUdqsEl4RWN_VtoUR-XJdGlruSc5LjXTye7y19M_aem_AQrUgue6E16-EoYbPwNlvMW6OTcsn5koyorMQUD_Hp3tpLP4-n9LSD3W4LAsu93hGKA&mibextid=9R9pXO