LA Fire Family Update

Thank you emergency services!!

Dearest Community, this week has been relentless for our county of Los Angeles.

Zach took the picture above on Tuesday evening when picking July up from daycare. This isn’t too far from our home looking up on the mountains above Santa Monica in the Palisades.

I’d like to exchange 2025 for 2015. Store credit also works.

We left town on Wednesday. We plan to return next week for my labs and my infusion and reassess from there our next steps. My hope is there will be more safety and stability.

Every time I open social media, another friend or family we know has lost their home. It’s haunting. But alternatively, I see so many helpers.

LA gets a lot of sh*t but my community here in town is gold. Hard-working, creative, ambitious, kind, and full of love - they supported me so fully when I needed it and I intend to pay it forward.

This place is a magical, beautiful, complicated, flawed, gritty, expansive dreamland, and full of the best people I know.

I love you, LA.

I’ll be back soon with regularly scheduled content, but these fires have overwhelmed our thoughts and could change so many plans for the future. This is one time a catastrophe IS worse than it looks on TV.

The fire nearest to our home is only 11% contained and the air quality in LA is dangerous. Our plan right now is to plan a week at a time.

I know when challenges strike, the sun keeps rising. LA will keep rising from the ashes along with it.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

WATCH DUTY APP:

The MVP of coverage on this fire. Definitely supplanted traditional media as the go-to resource. If you don’t have it, it’s keeping me sane. They are a non-profit who are truly covering this fire succinctly and thoroughly. Just the facts you need. No fluff. The best map of the fire I’ve seen.

https://www.watchduty.org

MUTUAL AID LA:

An extremely comprehensive list of over 400 helpful listings of all shapes and sizes from animal resources, to free PPE, shelter info, free food, baby formula, to places to apply for financial aid and more. tiny.cc/malan-fire

TIPS FOR THOSE WHO LOST HOMES:

omgteddy

A post shared by @omgteddy

I also read to beware of scams and upfront cash. Wait to sign anything too fast.

WHAT NOT TO SAY WHEN SOMEONE LOSES THEIR HOME:

melissau

A post shared by @melissau

WORKERS RIGHTS:

themamattorney

A post shared by @themamattorney

DONATIONS:

To help folks who have lost homes, monetary support is great to start since many are staying in temporary housing.

The actor and goddess Jamie Lee Curtis posted a vetted list of LA based places to donate in her Instagram grid:

jamieleecurtis

A post shared by @jamieleecurtis

For Parents - HOW TO TALK TO KIDS:

Excellent article in Parents Magazine about how to talk to children about these climate catastrophes: https://www.parents.com/talking-to-kids-about-natural-disasters-8771350

If you know of additional resources, please add to the comments!

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED IT

Not all these apply to the situation in LA, but many of them do. xo

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If you’re new here and wondering, “what happened to this lady?” read:

I started writing this when I was on dialysis. It’s intended to be both memoir and a practical tool to help folks who might be going through something similar or those caregivers and family supporting someone with a challenging diagnosis. NOTE: This is not intended to replace actual medical guidance. Please consult your doctors on your individual challenges and situations. Please talk to your clinicians before adjusting any of your care protocols. Also names have been changed for most of my medical staff.

Thank you to CC Couchois, Roy Lenn, and Dr. Richard Burwick for your founding level donation.