Sorry, I'm Sad

Kelsie checks in almost six months after losing Chris to share how she's been doing, what the doing of death has looked like , where she's at now that the doing is done and what's next for Sorry, I'm Sad. Support Sorry, I'm Sad on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kelsiesnowShare your own stories of grief, loss and the importance of hope with Kelsie by emailing stories@sorryimsad.com.Join Kelsie's new Instagram page to see what she is reading @kelsiesreads.Support the show

On Chris and Kelsie's 16th wedding anniversary, almost three months after Chris' death, Kelsie talks about life without her husband and best friend. Support the show

Kelsie shares updates on Chris' health, what his two-week stay in the ICU in December cost him in terms of function and independence, how the Snow family is adapting to life in the last six months and why Chris is not joining her for this episode.Support the show

In October Chris' disease reached a tipping point and sent the Snow family into a months-long free fall. Now, more than four months since things started spiralling out of control, Chris and Kelsie sit down to talk about what happened in October, about losses of function that started to turn the tide of how their family works and about the trauma of repeated medical emergencies.Support the show

Kelsie is back with an update on the Snow family and to read her most recent blog post, which can be found on her website, www.kelsiesnowwrites.com. Support the show

After a tough fall season for Chris' health, Kelsie offers short update on how the Snows are doing and when Sorry, I'm Sad will be back with new episodes.Support the show

In the Season Three opener, Chris and Kelsie talk about the loneliness of longterm illness, about the difficulty of watching your person grieve losses and grapple with profound sadness, about feeling isolated and alone in rooms full of people or even next to the person you love most, and about how to let people know you see their struggle and that you care. Support the show

In this season two finale, Chris and Kelsie answer questions submitted by followers on Twitter and Instagram about life, marriage, illness and work three years removed from Chris' ALS diagnosis. Support the show

Steve Gleason, the former NFL safety who has been living with ALS for 11 years and been totally paralyzed for eight of those, joins Kelsie and Chris for a conversation about how he and his family are flourishing in a life most people would find impossible thanks to radical acceptance, deep compassion for themselves and each other and abiding love. Support the show

Photos of ESPN SportsCenter anchor Nicole Briscoe’s family look like  a dream life, but infertility and the isolation and shame it causes are an all-too-common nightmare. Nicole and her husband, professional race-car driver Ryan Briscoe, worked for 10 years to make their picture-perfect family. The end result was two beautiful little girls. The path to that point involved seemingly endless cycles of hormones, needles, IVF treatments, never being diagnosed with a disease that can directly impact fertility despite being seen by countless fertility doctors and miscarriages so numerous you lose track of exactly how many there were.Now, only two months removed from a hysterectomy, Nicole talks about it all – the complicated and conflicting emotions, the guilt, the anger, the shame, the isolation, the resulting grief from 10 years of thinking constantly about getting pregnant and staying pregnant and losing pregnancies – in an effort to help other women going through the same thing know that they are not alone. Support the show

One year after her first appearance on Sorry, I'm Sad, Sandra Abrevaya joins Kelsie to talk about her life over the last 12 months, their friendship and their husband's shared illnesses. Sandra cofounded I Am ALS and Synapticure with her husband, Brian, after he was diagnosed with ALS about five years ago. More than an interview, this is a conversation between two friends, two women, two mothers, two wives, trying to make sense of lives they never envisioned for themselves, trying to find a way to  find joy and luck and gratitude and hope in a world that sometimes feels dark and filled with sadness. This is about finding a way to still ask, in spite of the odds -- what if it all works out? Listen to Sandra's first Sorry, I'm Sad episode. Learn more about I Am ALS. Learn more about Synapticure.Support the show

The pandemic that never ends is still disrupting our daily lives and killing many, many people no matter how tired of it we are. Darren Markland is an ICU doctor at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and has been in the trenches since the pandemic started. His twitter account, @drdagly, has swelled to more than 55,000 followers since he began recounting raw, broken-down stories of patients he has treated. He joins Sorry, I'm Sad to talk about the state of the pandemic, how he has managed his own mental and physical wellbeing during the last two years and where he finds hope. Support the show

Four years removed from her stroke, Kelsie and Chris talk about how it happened, the physical healing required in the weeks and months after her six-day hospital stay in 2018 and the emotional healing that they realize is still unresolved.Support the show

In March 2018, Jessie Ravnsborg was diagnosed with ALS. She was just  35 years old. She died just before her 37th birthday. In today's episode, our second about Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), you’ll meet Jessie through her mom, Heather Lucier. This is a story about choosing joy, about wringing out all the good from life that you can for as long as you can and, when the joy can no longer compete with the darkness of a most insidious disease, choosing to say goodbye. It's about facing your mortality, about knowing what matters to you in life and about the bravery of understanding what it means when those things move beyond your reach. Support the show

Over the course of the next two episodes you’ll hear two very different stories about two very different lives. 70-year-old Laurel and 36-year-old Jessie had no connection in life, but they both had progressive, incurable diseases that steadily robbed them of independence and quality of life. They both also lived in Calgary, and that meant they had access to Alberta Health Care’s Medical Assistance in Dying program, also known as MAiD. Both women, whose lives traveled such different arcs, chose to use MAID. Today you’ll hear Ryan Leslie tell his mom’s story. Ryan is an on-air NHL host for Sportsnet and on Hockey Night in Canada. His mom, Laurel, who had the chronic lung disease COPD, died in September 2021. Going through the experience of MAID left an indelible impact on Ryan, Laurel’s only child. Then, in two weeks, Heather Lucier talks about her daughter, Jessie Ravnsborg, who died in November 2019 at the much-too-young age of 36. Heather’s story is, of course, different than Ryan’s. Jessie’s death was out of order. Children are supposed to bury their parents, not the other way around. About 18 months before Jessie died, she was diagnosed with ALS. As is so often the case for ALS patients, Jessie’s deterioration was swift. So, too, was her decision to wring all the love and goodness out of the days she had left and, then, when her quality of life diminished beyond the point when moments of happiness could pierce through the darkness of her disease, she would use MAID.Support the show

In 2018, Dr. Richi Gill and his wife Raman were living the life they had worked so far for -- after the gruelling years of starting a family during Richi's surgical residency, the Gills were back in their hometown of Calgary surrounded by their friends and family and Richi was living out his dream as a successful bariatric surgeon. Their three children, Saava, Akaash and Arwyn, were 8, 6, and 5 years old. It was a beautiful, happy life.  Then, on Valetine's Day that year, Richi suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury while boogie boarding in shallow water during a family vacation in Hawaii, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down and with only minimal use of his hands. Last week, Raman shared her perspective on Richi's accident. This week, Richi talks about his injury and how the Gills have settled into this new life -- one they didn't expect, one they of course wish was different, but one that is still so very beautiful and happy.  Support the show

By 2018, Dr. Richi Gill and his wife Raman were living the life they had worked so far for -- after the gruelling years of starting a family during Richi's surgical residency, the Gills were back in their hometown of Calgary surrounded by their friends and family and Richi was living out his dream as a successful bariatric surgeon. Their three children, Saava, Akaash and Arwyn, were 8, 6, and 5 years old. It was a beautiful, happy life.  Then, on Valetine's Day that year, Richi suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury while boogie boarding in shallow water during a family vacation in Hawaii, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down and with only minimal use of his hands. In this two part series, Raman and Richi offer their perspective on Richi's accident, his injury and how they have settled into this new life -- one they didn't expect, one they of course wish was different, but one that is still so very beautiful and happy.  This week: Raman's story.Next week: Richi's story.Support the show

In 2017 Jeff and Jill Quigley had two little boys and were excited to add a third child to their family, but at Jill's 18-week ultrasound  everything came undone. Baby Aria had cardiomyopathy -- a heart incompatible with life. For the first time in their marriage, Jeff and Jill had to navigate grief together, and they had to help their 4- and 6-year old sons understand what was happening as well.Support the show

On a sunny day in August 2005, Nicky Elson, along with her parents and a friend, decided to float down  the Bow River, a quintessential summertime activity for Calgarians and one that changed the Elson family forever. Nicky and Kelsie talk about the trauma of that day and about the grief and heartache that followed. Trigger warning: this episode contains conversation about drowning. Support the show

On their 14th wedding anniversary, Chris and Kelsie talk about how Chris' ALS has impacted their marriage, how they communicate, how they parent, as well as the different ways they process and deal with their sadness and grief.Support the show