My Brain Exploded (Twice) | Sunken Bone Flap Syndrome

What happens when your brain is a literal ticking time bomb and nobody tells you until it goes off? Meet Martin. At 16, he was just a normal kid until a rare brain malformation (AVM) ruptured, sending him into a month-long coma where he "tripped balls" to a Lil Wayne soundtrack provided by the ICU staff. But the rupture was only the beginning. After a grueling months long recovery he got hit with a second rupture, a brain infection, and devestating complications he was left with "Sunken Bone Flap Syndrome". A condition where atmospheric pressure literally pushed his scalp into his brain. It’s a story about hitting rock bottom multiple times and finding the "gains" every single time you climb back out.Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN

What happens when you think you have a stubborn UTI, but you’ve actually fractured your pubic bone from running too many damn marathons? This week, the fellas sit down with Genevieve, a distance runner who woke up one morning feeling like she’d been kicked in the box. Literally. After two months of a particularly painful "detective" mission It turns out she has Osteitis Pubis. A stress fracture in the cartilage where your hip bones meet. Genevieve gets raw and hilarious about the work required to find the truth, the vulnerability of pelvic floor physiotherapy (shoutout to the pelvic wand!), and the identity crisis that happens when your body forces you to stop "Forrest Gumping" your way through life’s problems.Genevieve's Newsletter: https://buttondown.com/NarritivitySceneFollow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN

What does a Super Bowl champion know about a virus most men think is "just a women's problem"? Laurent Duvernay-Tardif has spent his life protecting quarterbacks, but now he’s on a mission to protect your health. In this episode, the NFL star and medical resident joins the boys to strip away the stigma surrounding HPV. We dive into the startling reality that 75% of sexually active Canadians will contract HPV, yet most men have zero clue about the long-term consequences. Laurent breaks down why head and neck cancers are skyrocketing in men and why our current healthcare system doesn't even offer us a way to screen for it.For more info on HPV: Knowhpv.caFollow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN

What do you do when you’re born with a brain-body communication glitch?. If you’re Dr. Dan, you don't just "manage". You go out and collect a PhD, a Paralympic gold medal in table tennis, and a career as a dating coach just to keep things interesting. This week, the fellas sit down with the legendary Dr. Dan to talk about life with Spastic Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy. Dan gets real about the "Super Crip" pressure to be ten times better than everyone else just to be seen as equal. But the real meat is in the mindset. As a psychologist and author of The Confidence Equation, Dan breaks down the "veil of misperception," the toxic trap of Instagram comparisons, and why your self-doubt is actually just a bunch of external voices living rent-free in your head. You can find more of Dr. Dan on Instagram: @dr.dan.phdFollow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN

What do high-performance fighter jets and a stage four cancer diagnosis have in common? More than you think. This week, we’re joined by Dr. Avishek “Avi” Kumar, a man who pulls double duty as both a practicing oncologist and a U.S. Air Force Flight Surgeon. Avi spends his time breaking the sound barrier in F-16s and fighting the "slow-motion car crash" of cancer diagnoses in young adults. We dive into the "too young" trap: why 30-year-olds are increasingly being hit with colon cancer and why the "warning lights" are being ignored. From the G-force toll on the body to the "caliber" of your poop (yes, Avi uses military terms for dookie) this episode is about unlearning the shame that is quite literally killing us. Avi's IG: https://www.instagram.com/avikumarmd/Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN

What happens when your body decides to Marie Kondo your entire large intestine, but the healthcare system treats your "vestibule" like an optional extra? This week we sit down with Emily. At 23, she went from a "healthy" young woman to shitting blood 20 times a day which eventually led to living life with a permanent Barbie butthole. But the real horror story isn't the Ulcerative Colitis diagnosis; it’s what happens when you try to navigate a high-risk pregnancy in a system that compartmentalizes your "gut" from your "baby" until the two collide in a traumatic, 25-week micro-preemie delivery. 

What do you do when your spine decides to "leak" before you're even born, leaving you with a "jizzy back rat" and a tube running from your brain to your belly? We’ve covered Spina Bifida before, but never quite like this. Meet Joshua, a man who has spent 48 years navigating the world from a wheelchair and dealing with an exposed spine. AKA Spina Bifida. The fellas get up close and personal with the medical realities of "leaky" spines and the surgical interventions that happen before a baby even hits the delivery room. The wildest part? Joshua can throw a spear further than all of us. We also dig into Joshua's experience in navigating a long distance marriage, and it's adorably heartwarming. Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN

What happens when you go from a senior spring break in Jamaica to poopin "gallons of blood" in the ER? Meet Taryn: 20 years old, a D1 volleyball player for the University of Northern Iowa, and a total boss living with Ulcerative Colitis (UC). After a senior trip to Jamaica turned into a month-long nightmare of abdominal pain, internal bleeding, and a very wrong E. coli diagnosis, Taryn had to face a new reality: a chronic "sister disease" to Crohn's. In this episode, we get into the literal weeds of living with UC. Taryn talks about showing up to college workouts as a rookie looking "deceased," why her teammates thought she had a heart condition, and the awkward-turned-awesome moment she had to tell the whole team why she was actually dying on the floor. If you’re living with IBD, supporting someone who is, or wondering whether you can still chase big goals with a chronic illness, this one’s for you.You can watch this entire episode over on YouTube.Follow Sickboy on Instagram, TikTok and Discord!

What happens when you’re born with a medical anomaly so rare that doctors treat you like a "cluster of defects," but you grow up feeling completely able-bodied? This week, the boys sit down with Kayla, who was born with unilateral anaphthalmia. Which is a fancy way of saying she was born without one of her eyes. But the "missing eye" is actually the least wild part of this story. Kayla takes us deep into the "Wild West" of 90s medicine, where she underwent six major facial surgeries between the ages of six months and ten years - all without anesthesia because doctors back then didn't think babies could feel pain. (Spoiler: They definitely can). We dig into the "cutthroat" nature of the disabled community, the struggle of being "not disabled enough" for resources but "too different" for the able-bodied world, and how a "that really emo haircut" became the ultimate survival tool.You can watch this entire episode over on YouTube!Follow Sickboy on Instagram, TikTok and Discord.

It may have started with a joke about getting his "back blown out", but it turned into a wild story of a two-year medical saga involving brutal nerve pain, mobility issues, and a diagnosis nobody saw coming? Meet our new friend Ryan, a professional drummer who felt a literal "pop" in his back while he was sick and quickly realized his life was about to change. After months of being told it was just "getting old" and facing the classic medical gaslighting shuffle, Ryan took his health into his own hands. We dive into the bizarre world of SCNES (Superior Clunial Nerve Entrapment Syndrome)—a condition so rare in adults that the only guy who could fix it was a pediatric surgeon in Cincinnati. Ryan breaks down the "back mice" (lipomas) that mashed his nerves into a cluster, the frustration of being a musician who can't sit on a stool, and the wild reality of having to leave the country just to get a "yes" from a doctor. This one is for anyone who’s ever been told it’s "just back pain" when it absolutely was not.Check out Ryan’s Music:https://www.instagram.com/_kyliefox_/https://www.instagram.com/waylonnapadogan/https://toobadjim.bandcamp.com/Follow Sickboy on Instagram, TikTok and Discord!