The ABC’s of Crohn’s & UC: “R” & “S”
I can’t believe we are almost at the end of the alphabet! There will be one or two more posts after this one and then my glossary of Crohn’s & Ulcerative Colitis will be completed. But before we get to that point, we have a few more letters to get through.
Tonight, we tackle R & S.
Caring for Crohn’s Interviews Oak Park Behavioral Medicine
I recently had the opportunity to ask Dr. Tiffany Taft and Stephanie Horgan of Oak Park Behavioral Medicine some questions for Caring for Crohn’s and I am very excited to share the interview with everyone.
From L to R, Dr. Tiffany Taft & Stephanie Horgan
Oak Park Behavioral Medicine, located in Oak Park, Illinois, specializes in working with adults and children living with chronic medical illnesses. Dr. Taft and Stephanie are experts in the psychology of digestive illnesses, including IBS, Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, and Eosinophilic GI diseases, but also treat patients with other chronic illnesses.
What’s even more unique about this practice aside from the focus on treating patients with chronic illness is that both Dr. Taft and Stephanie are fellow Crohnies!
Read on to hear about their practice and how they help improve the psychological health of IBDers.
Caring for Crohn’s Affordable Care Act Primer Part 2: Insurance Choices & Costs
In this second installment of the Caring for Crohn’s Affordable Care Act Primer, I explain the provisions of the law designed to increase affordability and accessibility to health insurance.
Caring for Crohn’s Affordable Care Act Primer Part 1: Consumer Rights & Protections
The more I write and talk about the Affordable Care Act, the more I realize people actually are not that familiar with the specific details of the law. I will do my best to summarize the important parts and provide you with the implementation dates. However, for real specific questions, you should visit www.healthcare.gov– it’s an invaluable source providing all the information you could ever want on the law. It’s also where I got all of the information below from.
Because the law is so massive, I will be breaking this down into several posts by category: consumer rights and protections, insurance choices and cost, senior services, and employers. Today’s post will address provisions related to consumer rights and protections.
The ABC’s of Crohn’s & UC: “O” & “P”
We are over halfway done with the ABC’s of Crohn’s and Colitis series! I hope it’s been informative thus far for those who have been following along.
Next up in the ABC’s of Crohn’s and Colitis series: O and P.
New Year, New Provisions of the Affordable Care Act Effective
Now that we are officially in 2013, new provisions of the Affordable Care Act (health care reform) become effective. As I wrote last year, there are many provisions in the Affordable Care Act that are extremely important for IBD patients, like eradicating the preexisting condition exclusions. While that doesn’t go into effect for another year, there are some important aspects of the law that go into effect this year.
Below is a list of those provisions and what they entail. All information was obtained from the timeline on www.healthcare.gov.
Caring for Crohn’s & UC: Year in Review
This has been a great year for Caring for Crohn’s, both on the blog and personally.
After toying with the idea for several months, I finally launched the blog in June. After a few months on Tumblr, the blog was merged onto WordPress and now here we are!
In just six months, I wrote 73 posts and the blog received over 3,600 views, and gained 19 WordPress followers, 50 Tumblr followers, 124 Facebook fans, and 175 Twitter followers. Thank you all SO much for your readership and support– this blog branched out beyond my wildest dreams and I am so appreciative of all of you who made that happen.
Without further ado, here are some of the 2012 highlights for Caring for Crohn’s!
WordPress’ 2012 in review for Caring for Crohn’s
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.
IBD & Depression
If you have IBD, you know how taxing it can be, not only physically but also emotionally. It’s no surprise given the symptoms IBDers live with on a daily basis- painful cramps, diarrhea, weight loss, loss of appetite, and nausea. Living with these can wear you down and eventually, you might find that you have fallen into a bout of depression.
According to the World Federation for Mental Health,
“Quite often, physical and mental health disorders go hand in hand. Research shows that persons with severe or chronic physical illnesses often have a co-existing mental health problem.”
A Holiday Wishlist for Crohn’s & Colitis
Living with IBD, whether you are the patient or the caregiver, is taxing on everyone. I’m sure you have wished for something to help with the burden- from financial assistance to new medication and everything in between.
Every year, children (and some adults too) around the world write up their wishlist for presents for the holiday season. In that vein, here is a holiday wishlist for Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.
Caring for Crohn's & UC 