Author Archive
#ThisIsIBD: Laura
Today’s #ThisIsIBD story is from Laura. Laura is one of my good friends from Team Challenge who, despite having Crohn’s disease, is a speed demon half-marathoner many times over (she ran the Jamestown Half Marathon last year in 1:41).
Laura, 30, Crohn’s disease
#ThisIsIBD: Jeffrey
Today’s #ThisIsIBD story comes from Jeffrey . Jeffrey is another IBD blogger and sits on the board of the Intense Intestines Foundation.
Jeffrey, 41, Crohn’s disease
I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in the 1980’s and went through years of being sick but just wanting to feel better and live my life. I didn’t know much about the disease, and, due to a lack of resources and motivation, I didn’t see any point in learning more about my disease. I spent years ignorant of what I had.
In 2011, my life with Crohn’s disease changed, and so did my goals. My father-in-law, who lived with ulcerative colitis and had an ostomy, passed away due to complications from his disease. I looked up to him in my battle with IBD and he was an inspiration in how he lived his life. I also went into my worst Crohn’s disease flare that same year. I started going through depression and felt like my life was going downhill real fast.
Three years later, my life has completely changed. Having IBD has built up my character and confidence. Thirty years ago, I didn’t fully understand Crohn’s disease and wouldn’t talk to anyone about it. Now I am well educated about my disease, research and the new treatments that are being developed. I run a support group that helps other find their voice to speak up. I feel like I have been quiet with my disease for way to long and now that it has helped define who I am, I will never keep quiet about it again.
#ThisIsIBD: Andrea
When I sought out stories for my recent Huffington Post piece to illustrate life with IBD, I received an incredible amount of personal stories from people living with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, too many to fit into the 1,000 word limit I had for my piece. In observance of Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week, I am going to share the additional stories on my blog throughout the week.
First up, my friend Andrea from The Great Bowel Movement.
#ThisIsIBD
This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post; however the stories included below are the full versions and not the ones that appear externally.
December 1 marks the start of Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week, an important week within the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) community to bring attention to Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (UC), two debilitating digestive diseases that cause crippling abdominal pain, persistent diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and weight loss.
More than 1.4 million Americans live with these diseases, yet most people are unfamiliar with them, thinking that IBD and irritable bowel syndrome are synonymous, or downplaying the symptoms.
“One of the most challenging things is that every patient’s disease is different,” says Rick Geswell, president and CEO of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. “We know that what works for one patient, may not work for another. And it’s so unpredictable. Some patients are so sick that they can’t even leave their homes. Others may have mild disease for most of their life and then all of sudden they flare and land in the hospital. That’s why it’s so important for all patients to rally together — especially during awareness week.”
As Geswell says, it’s hard to grasp the reality of living with these diseases. So in order to explain what it’s like have an inflammatory bowel disease, I asked several patients to share their experiences.
CCFA CEO Addresses Hot Button IBD Issues
There are many hot button issues related to inflammatory bowel disease and when I met with Rick Geswell, president and CEO of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, I took the opportunity to address two of them- the use of the word “cure” related to ulcerative colitis patients, and mortality associated with these diseases.
Microbiome & IBD: The future of treatment?
When I sat down with Rick Geswell, president & CEO of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) in September, I knew the conversation would focus primarily around CCFA’s Genetics and Microbiome Initiative. I had seen the video that CCFA put out but beyond that, knew very little about the two initiatives and definitely had no idea how microbiota are linked to Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. But what I learned about it is fascinating.
Reblog: Ileostomy, colostomy, urostomy: What’s the difference?
My fabulous friend Stephanie at the Stolen Colon is one smart cookie. Her most recent post about the different types of ostomies is so informative that I needed to share it with you all. You can view the original post here or by reading below.
Meet Rick Geswell, CCFA President & CEO
As many of you know, I am a big supporter of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). I am an alumnus of its Take Steps and Team Challenge programs, sat on the board of its Connecticut Chapter, and I am currently helping its New York City and Fairfield/Westchester Chapters develop communications strategies. I believe that they are the organization that has the most amount of clout in the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) field and has the ability to create the most change and bring us closer to finding a cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
I recognize that there is some discontent in the IBD community over how CCFA engages with them. There have definitely been times when I have been unhappy with how they have responded to a certain article, their use of levity about a serious topic (clown shoes in the Escape the Stall campaign), and how slow they are, at times, to jump on the bandwagon with social media campaigns. That being said, with a $70 million budget, they remain the biggest player in the IBD world. Therefore, I believe that, regardless of your personal experiences with CCFA, it is an organization that we all should rely on for the well-being of those with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
I was recently given the opportunity to sit down with Rick Geswell, president and chief executive officer of CCFA, to learn more about him, about CCFA and its initiatives, the future of the organization, and the future of IBD treatment. I will be relaying my interview with him over several blog posts in the near future and to start, here is the first in the series- Meet Rick Geswell.
Disclaimer: The details I am reporting below are directly from Rick Geswell of CCFA and do not represent my personal beliefs (although many are aligned). If you want to know if I agree with something, please feel free to ask me in the comments or email me at caringforcrohns@gmail.com.
A conversation about pooping
I know that I have been radio silent on the blog for several months now, and I am sorry for that. Life has gotten very busy and the blog has taken a backseat to everything else. But I am still looking at the comments and am involved with the online IBD community- just to a lesser extent.
Two quick things before I get into this post-
- New Huffington Post piece is up- World IBD Day: It’s Not All Sunshine and Flowers
- My letter to the editor appeared in the NY Times this week in response to a recent column about IBD
Now onto tonight’s post.
I have an incredible group of friends who all have IBD that I met through Team Challenge last year- Kelly (Crohn’s disease), Laura (Crohn’s disease), and Katie (ulcerative colitis). They all live in Connecticut and I was so sad to leave them last year when Dan and I moved for my job. It’s nights like tonight when I am reminded how much I truly love having them in my life.
Tonight I have been part of a group text message about things that these ladies have done while pooping (at one point, I had 43 unread messages). Summarizing it won’t do it justice, so I am just going to write it out verbatim for your enjoyment.
Cure vs. Remission: Thoughts from a Crohn’s Caregiver
Recently, I was engaged in a Facebook argument (mature I know) with someone about whether or not Crohn’s disease could be cured. She (who doesn’t have the disease) was claiming that it could be cured by eliminating trigger foods from the patient’s died. I was trying to explain to her, with little success, that yes, if you eliminate trigger foods, some patients will experience a decrease in symptoms and subsequently may enter into a period of remission; however, that does not mean they are cured.
This argument really made me angry and I started to do a little digging online and was astounded to see how much misinformation there is out there. That is why I wrote this piece for the Huffington Post:
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are the two main diseases that make up the broad inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis. In patients with these diseases, the body’s immune system attacks parts of the digestive tract and causes inflammation, cramping, diarrhea, bleeding and all sorts of other issues.
According to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, “To date, there is no known cause of or cure for IBD, but fortunately there are many effective treatments to help control these diseases.”
Medications, surgery, and diet modifications can help patients with inflammatory bowel diseases live regular lives. In patients with Crohn’s disease, neither of these treatments induces a cure; the best they do is bring a patient into a symptom-free state (remission, see below). Patients with ulcerative colitis can be treated with the surgical removal of the colon; however, surgery will not cure the underlying inflammatory disorder that the patients have, leaving them susceptible to pouchitis, arthritis, skin ulcers and other autoimmune diseases. The bottom line: When you have an inflammatory bowel disease, you have it for life.
Please take a look at the full piece here!
Caring for Crohn's & UC 