One of the biggest questions we get in “how do I handle my relationships while living with a chronic illness or disability?”  And there are all types of relationships—romantic, familial, parents, siblings, caregivers, friends, doctors—that we experience every day. There’s so many complexities in how our relationships can thrive, so throughout Season Two, our podcast will bring you guest experts that exemplify the best of these relationship…starting with the first relationship we experience: parental dynamic. We’ve enlisted a mother-daughter duo from Canada, and one of our Global Brand Leader-All Stars, 17-year-old Madi Vanstone and her mom Beth. Not only does Madi use her large social media platform as a teen with cystic fibrosis to empower others to live beautiful well-rounded lives, but her and Beth also fights to improve medical necessities for other CF fighters, like going to Canadian Parliament to gain expensive medications like Kalydeco to have government coverage. Now they are powerhouses in the CF activism realm, having raised funds for CF Canada and InvisiYouth, along with being featured activists in CF books and movie reviews like the recent FIVE FEET APART.  In this episode, Dominique, Beth and Madi discuss the best ways parents and their young adult kin can interact both within the medical questions and in our non-medical lives, the top ways to talk to your parents when you’re feeling every sort of emotion about your health, give advice on how to boost your self-esteem in advocating with your doctors, family or public activism, tells us stories about why the entire Vanstone family has matching tattoos and their love of ice hockey, chats up pop culture headlines on our love fest for Justin Baldoni and his directorial debut of FIVE FEET APART and while chronic illness representation in cinema is not only vital to make our stories more visible, but they need to be told with as much passion as Baldoni brought to the film in tribute of the wonderful Claire Wineland’s legacy, talk about the ways we can grow from a shy activist to a public speaker like Madi as she’s grown up with CF, divulge the best tips when you and your parents may disagree, laugh endlessly on how being an advocate IS COOL even as a teen—especially when you’ve got your family supporting you, and the best advice on how to maintain the ‘normal non-medical’ side of your family dynamic like setting aside specific time to NOT talk about your chronic illness/disability journey. And...introduce a new segment about a teeniatrics® way of life! This is the first of many episodes reflecting on the relationships that take up our lives, and the dynamic duo of Beth and Madi showcase the full-range of how to thrive in a relationship with our parents in our full lives, both medically and personally. Take notes people, this episode is filled with lots of nuggets of knowledge!

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Wanna support our nonprofit?

• Watch on YouTube
• Shop
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Donate