Author Archive
Running for a Cure
For the past several years, I’ve heard amazing stories about people participating in the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America‘s Team Challenge half marathon program. For those who don’t know, Team Challenge is a half marathon training and fundraising program. Team Challenge participants “train with professional coaches and like-minded teammates for a rewarding and exciting 13.1 mile endurance event at one of our great destination races while raising vital funds for research into these diseases. Funds raised help make new treatments possible and fuel the search for cures.”
REMINDER: Next Week, NYC Open Bar/Pop-Up Shop to Benefit the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America
Do you like alcohol and vintage clothes? Live in the NYC area?
If so, make sure you come to The Vintage Twin‘s Open Bar & Pop-Up Shop NEXT WEEK! Ten percent of the proceeds from the three-day pop-up shop will go to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America! And since it’s President’s Day and many people are off, what can be better than a Monday Funday?
Sarah Choueiry Talks About Her Journey With Crohn’s
For those active in the Crohn’s blogging world, you’ve come across Sarah Choueiry at one point. Sarah is the amazing person behind the My Journey with Crohn’s blog, which recently became a non-profit!
Below, Sarah talks about her Crohn’s journey and how she came up with the idea for her foundation, as well as its goals.
IBD Medical Terms in Plain Language
I was going through my Twitter feed the other day and came across something from Care Novate Magazine, an online resource that provides information on caregiving, social media and medical literacy. It’s a really cool idea and I spent awhile going through the site, which is how I came up with this post.
The most difficult part of living with a chronic illness like IBD is understanding what your doctors tell you. No matter how hard they try, medical jargon is still used in explanations, and a lot of the time, patients and their loved ones don’t fully understand what’s going on.
Interview with Reid of Wanted: Crohn’s End
Earlier this week, I came across WANTED: Crohn’s End on Twitter and was intrigued by the name alone. After clicking to view the profile, I learned that there’s a person behind the Twitter handle- Reid Kimball- and an exciting project to raise awareness of Crohn’s disease and the alternative methods people try to treat it.
According to its website, WANTED: Crohn’s End is a documentary about empowered patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis who use controversial alternative treatments when nothing else works. They have listened to their gut, and took a proactive approach to ending their condition despite mainstream medicine saying there is no cure.
Below, Reid answers questions about his journey with Crohn’s, the documentary, and how you can get involved.
Family Medical Leave & IBD
When Dan had his blockage in 2011, I was just starting a new job. I was four months in and hadn’t been there long enough to be able to take much time off. I was lucky that my employer allowed me to alter my schedule for two weeks to work from home and take time off to take care of Dan, but not all caregivers are as lucky as I am.
For those who don’t have flexible options for time off to take care of a loved one, there’s the Family Medical Leave Act.
IBD & the Paleo Diet
If you’re like me, cooking special foods to help your loved one with IBD feel good is like a second nature. IBD patients have different needs than those who can tolerate normal diets. There are a lot of different diets that IBD-ers try as a way to help reduce symptoms and enable them to live pain-free lives- SCD, low-fiber, low-residue, gluten-free, dairy-free, etc. Today, I will be focusing on one specific diet: the Paleo diet.
According to the Food Lover’s Kitchen, the Paleo, or “paleolithic,” diet
“…is based upon the idea of eating the foods our bodies were designed for through thousands of years of evolution. These foods were available to early people through hunting and gathering [meat and fish, nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables].”
IBD & Social Security Disability
We all know IBD can be disabling- the chronic pain, fatigue, surgery and complications.
But did you know that IBD could qualify you for Social Security Disability benefits?
My Best Friend, A New Crohnie, Tells Her Story on Caring for Crohn’s
A few months ago, my best friend Julia was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. The diagnosis, like it is for so many people, has been difficult for her to wrap her mind around. I remember how hard it was for Dan when he was first diagnosed- understanding the disease, getting used to living with it, finding trigger foods, getting on the right medications, having tons of procedures, etc. But Julia has handled it with grace, no matter how down she feels.
Julia (on the right) and I in August 2012, two months before she was diagnosed
Julia spent some time last week writing down her thoughts about being diagnosed and what its been like for her. So today’s post is written by her, a new Crohnie, on learning to live with Crohn’s disease (note: Julia is a nurse so there will probably be a lot of medical terminology in this):
I feel like this all came out of nowhere.
Crohn’s disease?
I was half-awake, half-sedated, with the 100mcg of Fentanyl and 17mg of Versed I was given for my esophagogastroduodenoscopy and colonoscopy. My gastroenterologist, who I had met that day after seeing a GI Nurse Practitioner in the office a few months prior, stands over me as I come to. He told me, in medical terms (I’m an ICU nurse) that they found ulcerations and inflammation in my terminal ileum and that he highly suspects that I have Crohn’s disease. He told my friend who was picking me up (an ER nurse herself) that I would have to have a few scripts filled and that I should start taking these medication that day. I said, “Crohn’s disease?”
He said, “Crohn’s disease.”
New Study Shows Depressive Symptoms Tied to Doubled Risk of Crohn’s in Women
A recent study published in the January issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology shows a link between depressive symptoms and the incidence of Crohn’s disease and UC. The following information was taken from a write up on MedicalXPress.com:
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School collected data from 152,461 women who participated in either the Nurses’ Health Study I or II. From the data collected, a total of 170 cases of Crohn’s and 203 cases of UC were reported from this population.
“We observed that depressive symptoms are associated with a two-fold increase in risk of CD but not UC. Although both recent (within four years) and remote (baseline) assessments of depression appear to influence disease risk, the association with recent depressive symptoms appeared more prominent,” the authors write. “Our findings support the potential importance of a biopsychosocial model in the pathogenesis of CD and suggest the need for further studies on the effect of depression and stress on immune function and regulation.”
The researchers found that women with depressive symptoms within the past four years, were more than two times more likely to be diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. However, no similar link between depressive symptoms and increased risk of UC was identified.
This is an extremely interesting development. As we all know, depression and IBD can go hand-in-hand due to the physical and mental toll the diseases take on your body. However, now there is scientific evidence that actually shows that psychological factors can contribute to developing Crohn’s disease.
You can read the full study here.
Caring for Crohn's & UC 