How to Be a Sick Kid

It's time for another practitioner episode! Here at How to Be a Sick Kid we believe in creating space for incredible survivorship and sick kid stories, but we also know that there's a lot to learn on how to function as healthy kids, too. This week's ep is just about that, and it's for absolutely everyone - whether you've been sick, are sick, know someone who is, or think you're the healthiest chap around, there's always more to discover about yourself and new healing modalities to help you be your best self.

You can learn more about Michelle's work at Pushing Beauty and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Keep in touch with How to Be a Sick Kid:

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And you can donate to our Patreon to help us keep going each week!

How to Be a Sick Kid is hosted by Emily Krauser. 

Sometimes, college friends get to reminisce about the good ol' days when our biggest worries were midterms and hangovers. Other times, you get to swap war stories from that time you battled cancer. In this week's episode of How to Be a Sick Kid, we're doing both! Host Emily Krauser caught up with her Ithaca College alum, Dana S., to learn about her history with Hodgkin's lymphoma at 23 and how it didn't stop her from achieving many of her dreams, but that doesn't mean survivorship isn't something she struggles with. In fact, figuring out who you are post-cancer is a massive hurdle, and we talk all about that and more this week.

You can follow Dana on Instagram.

Keep in touch with How to Be a Sick Kid:

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And you can donate to our Patreon to help us keep going each week!

For more information on Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and all blood cancers, please visit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society here.

How to Be a Sick Kid is hosted by Emily Krauser.

Edited by Daniel Emmons and Emily Krauser.

Theme Music by Caymen Kwasney.

Travis Wild is a badass photographer, videographer, and writer. The Michigan native who worked in various non-profits in a few places out west, including San Diego, which has become his home base. His other second home is Truckee, California, just north of Lake Tahoe, which is where he was when we Skyped for this How to Be a Sick Kid episode.

Travis tells us all about his testicular cancer diagnosis and how weird it was to have to "just wait" as part of his extensive monitoring treatment program. We go into the concept of survivor guilt and feeling like a bad cancer kid, how he managed van life (so cool!) with treatment, his remission status, and his work with the Make-a-Wish Foundation. We also talk a lot about insurance, because it can be the worst. 

You can follow Travis on Instagram, check out more of his photography, and learn more about his story on his website, Wild Writes. His dog, Ayla, is also the cutest.

Keep in touch with How to Be a Sick Kid:

• Instagram

And you can donate to our Patreon to help us keep going each week!

For more information on testicular cancer, please visit the Testicular Cancer Foundation. You can also learn more about the Make-a-Wish Foundation here.

How to Be a Sick Kid is hosted by Emily Krauser.

Edited by Daniel Emmons and Emily Krauser.

Theme Music by Caymen Kwasney.

Amanda Smith's story continues in part two of our How to Be a Sick Kid conversation with her. We pick up with the story of her tattoos, which leads to the incident in the Southern California prison she worked in that has left her with PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Despite all that, she is ridiculously strong, and we chat about the year in therapy she's had to help her cope, as well as the benefits of acupuncture and some of the more ridiculous parts about dealing with worker's comp. Smith is also a huge proponent of advocating for your own mental health and getting treatment if you need it, which we also dive into. Trying to remember where you were when Michael Jackson, Princess Diana, or Whitney Houston died? Somehow, that comes up, too!

Keep in touch with How to Be a Sick Kid on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Email us at howtobeasickkid [at] gmail [com]. And you can donate to our Patreon here!

Amanda Smith is a Michigan native living in Los Angeles, and she knows her way around some real sick kid s**t. In part one of our conversation, we talk about how the heck she got to California (it’s a real roller coaster of a love story!) and how she found herself working in the prison system in the Golden State, but most importantly, how learning that she had epilepsy in college has changed her entire health trajectory. And, yes, Van Gogh and Jack’s Mannequin are involved in the healing process. 

Stay tuned for next week’s part two conversation with Amanda, where we go into the PTSD she now deals with due to an incident at a prison she was working at in Southern California.

This week marks our first episode with a fellow YA cancer survivor, Sean Green. The man of many comedic hats -- stand-up, writing, podcast host of Sports Gambling Podcast and Sean’s Sports Show -- is in his mid-30s and has already had cancer twice. He was diagnosed with melanoma at 18 but he says his real battle came at 29 when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Keep in touch with How to Be a Sick Kid:

• Instagram

For more information on testicular cancer, please visit the Testicular Cancer Foundation.

Meredith B. Kile knew something was wrong when she was tired all the time and having trouble catching her breath, but she never expected a trip to the ER to reveal that she was having a heart attack. Heart attacks aren’t supposed to happen to someone in their twenties, after all, and like most young adults who’ve dealt with illnesses, she’s really sick of hearing that. 

On this third episode of How to Be a Sick Kid, we talked about Meredith’s hospital stay and surgery, making BFFs with nurses, what recovering from a heart attack is like, and the signs you should look out for, because heart attack symptoms are not always the same for women and men. Plus, we get into post-surgery and hospital nitty-gritty, and no, it’s definitely not pretty, but it’s very real and very raw. We also talk about Ithaca College and the KarJenners, because we're not monsters.

You can find Meredith on Twitter and Instagram. For more about heart disease, prevention and symptoms to look for, visit heart.org. 

New episodes of How to Be a Sick Kid drop every Tuesday. Don’t forget to review and subscribe to be the first to hear each one! We switch off weekly between chatting with “sick kids” and practitioners. Keep up to date with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

How to Be a Sick Kid is hosted and produced by Emily Krauser.

Welcome to episode two, our first in the practitioner series on How to Be a Sick Kid.

Millana Snow is the light you didn't know you needed. A wellness expert, she provides both in-person and long-distance energy services, has spoken at NYU and Syracuse University, works with huge brands like Nike and Covergirl, and was the model winner on Project Runway. Being in the same space as her is kind of like having a massive weight lifted off your shoulders. In this episode, we go deep on how Millana found her spiritual path, listening to your intuition, what energy healing and reiki mean to her, and the importance of clearing mental blocks to help get you to a healthier place. 

How to Be a Sick Kid drops new episodes every Tuesday. Don’t forget to review and subscribe to be the first to hear each one! We switch off weekly between chatting with “sick kids” and practitioners. Keep up to date with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Our very first episode is finally here!

First, if you haven’t already listened to the trailer or even if you have, host Emily Krauser goes a little deeper into the meaning behind the title, How to Be a Sick Kid, how her 10,000 hours of illnesses led her to start the podcast, and why it’s a blend of storytelling, hope, and a sense of community for not only anyone dealing with the aftermath of an illness but their friends and family as well. At the end, we’ll also have our first post-interview segment, Trial & Error. 

But the bulk of this episode is all about our very first guest, and we're kicking things off with a literally lit lady -- Theresa Mobilio. In 2018, she went from a healthy twentysomething to a coma after her brain essentially attacked itself due to a disease called Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis. Though it’s not a common illness, it was well-documented by another survivor, Susannah Cahalan, in the memoir Brain on Fire.

Welcome to our podcast preview! We're so excited to have you join us over here at How to Be a Sick Kid HQ. This trailer is to introduce you to this new podcast, which is for "sick kids" (and everyone who loves them!) by "sick kids." The name is tongue in cheek -- your host, Emily Krauser, is a cancer survivor amongst many other illnesses, and in this podcast, she'll be talking to other young adult survivors of any illness to share heartbreaking, heartfelt, and funny stories from the frontlines of sickness.

Not a sick kid? Don't worry! Every other week, we'll be breaking up our storytelling to bring you advice from practitioners to help you live to the fullest, no matter what your health level is. 

We're so excited to have you here! Please like and subscribe. We'll be right here every Tuesday with brand new episodes, starting August 27.