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Empowering the Chronically Ill & Disabled to Lead Fuller Lives

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  • Ableism,  acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  Body Positivity,  colorectal cancer,  Colorectal Surgery,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  Ostomy Awareness Day,  Self-image,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis

    The Beauty of Ostomates Worldwide

    October 17, 2019

    Happy #OstomyOctober, everyone! After doing a piece about things we can do with an ostomy last year, it only seemed appropriate this year to highlight how diverse the population living with all types of ostomies is. Just to backtrack, many of you might be wondering what an ostomy is. According to the United Ostomy Associations of America (UOAA), “ostomy surgery is a life-saving procedure that allows bodily waste to pass through a surgically created stoma on the abdomen into a prosthetic known as a ‘pouch’ or ‘ostomy bag’ on the outside of the body.” There are generally three types of ostomies: (1) colostomy, (2) ileostomy and (3) urostomy. A colostomy takes a resected…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Indian Ostomate Podcast Show: Episode 1 with Tina Aswani Omprakash

    July 23, 2020

    My Feature in Suffering the Silence’s Photo Series Campaign

    October 6, 2019

    The Other Side of Crohn’s: Caregiving

    December 9, 2019
  • Ableism,  acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  Body Positivity,  Colorectal Surgery,  Crohn's,  Fistulizing Disease,  living with IBD,  Minority Health,  Ostomy,  Ostomy Awareness Day,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis

    My Feature in Suffering the Silence’s Photo Series Campaign

    October 6, 2019

    Originally Published in The Mighty on October 2nd, 2019: https://themighty.com/2019/10/suffering-the-silence-chronic-illness-photo-series/ “I was diagnosed 13.5 years ago but I feel like for a long time I kept it quiet. It’s so deeply stigmatized in American culture. Crohn’s being a bowel disease makes it very difficult to talk about. It has to do with something that nobody talks about. It’s so debilitating. A lot of times it’s mistaken for an eating disorder because our weight can be all over the place so nobody wants to ask us what’s going on because they’re ashamed to. We want to be asked how we’re feeling. Since I became an advocate, more and more people are…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Indian Ostomate Podcast Show: Episode 1 with Tina Aswani Omprakash

    July 23, 2020

    University Accommodations in the COVID-19 Era

    September 7, 2020

    Disability Awareness in the Midst of Coronavirus

    March 12, 2020
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  Body Positivity,  Colorectal Surgery,  Crohn's,  Gratitude,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  Ostomy Awareness Day,  Self-image,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis

    My Ostomy, My Lifesaver

    October 3, 2019

    In honor of National Ostomy Awareness Day, blogger Tina Aswani Omprakash shares her journey with an ostomy and how she broke through the taboos she faced. By Tina Aswani Omprakash Originally published in Everyday Health on October 2, 2019: https://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/my-health-story/one-woman-shares-her-gratitude-on-world-ostomy-day/ I woke up from surgery feeling like someone had taken a hammer to my stomach. The strong smell of antiseptic assaulted my nose as I struggled to take in breaths of air. I cracked my eyes open and looked around my white hospital room. My nurse and her aide pulled back the curtain separating me from my roommate and I lay motionless as they transferred me from a stretcher to…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Day on the Hill 2019: The Faces of IBD Legislation

    May 11, 2019

    World PTSD Day 2019: The Faceless Woman

    June 27, 2019

    No More Secrets: An enlightening film that reveals the stigma of having an ostomy in India

    September 24, 2018
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  Colorectal Surgery,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Mental Health,  Minority Health,  Ostomy,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

    ~OYC Trailblazers~ Mollie’s Story: Living la Vida Latina with Ulcerative Colitis & an Ostomy

    September 27, 2019

    By Mollie Tinnin My journey with chronic illness began my senior year of high school after a violent assault left me hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. At the time, I received eight units of blood and during the treatment of the injuries I had sustained, the physicians discovered I had ulcers in my intestines. The treatment of both these injuries and my ulcerative colitis have been complicated in that they both are intertwined and affect each other even until this day. I’ve tried several medications, such as Mesalamine, but with the scar tissue and the ulcers both being in the same location, medication has not been very effective for me. Surgically,…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    My 9/11 Story: Paying Kindness Forward

    September 11, 2019

    All of these exceptional women have won awards this year for their public advocacy efforts

    October 16, 2018

    As a Chronically-Ill Brown Woman, Here’s Why I Share My Survival Story

    May 16, 2019
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  living with IBD

    My 9/11 Story: Paying Kindness Forward

    September 11, 2019

    I still remember that beautiful sunny Tuesday morning. I had just moved into the city and started my freshman year at NYU Stern School of Business a little over 2 weeks prior. I remember being in the shower getting ready for class when I heard my roommate scream, “Tina, come out here!” Half asleep still and hair soaked, I sauntered over to her television. She pointed in utter shock at the screen showing the first tower up in flames after being hit by a plane. I stood there lifeless in shock watching the breaking news unable to register that this had happened a mile and half south of me. Soon…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Throwback to La Caverna 2006!

    August 30, 2018

    My Ostomy, My Lifesaver

    October 3, 2019

    Ostomy Awareness Day: Empowering Ostomates to Live Fuller Lives

    November 22, 2019
  • acceptance,  awareness,  Body Positivity,  Colorectal Surgery,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  Dating & Relationships,  Egg-Freezing,  J-Pouch,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  Pregnancy in IBD,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

    ~OYC TRAILBLAZERS~ Katie’s Story: Baby-Making Prospects & Egg-Freezing with a J-Pouch

    September 4, 2019

    A Nursing Student Tells OYC Her J-Pouch Story and How That Led to Her Courageous Decision to Freeze Her Eggs to Someday Have Children. By Katie Gene Friedman When I was first diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in my senior year of college, my colitis responded to medication and didn’t take up much of my life. Consequently, I only disclosed my diagnosis to my then boyfriend, best friend, and immediate family. During a bad flare and particularly stressful semester in grad school studying social psychology, that group expanded to include the nucleus of my social circle and some professors. At that point, my disease affected what I was doing but not…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    TINA ASWANI OMPRAKASH | 2018 NYC ADULT HONORED HERO

    April 20, 2018

    OYC Trailblazers: What Healing Means to Natasha

    March 26, 2019

    Honoring My Late Father

    June 17, 2018
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  Gastroparesis,  Ostomy

    When Diagnoses Accumulate: My Gastroparesis Story

    August 29, 2019

    As Gastroparesis Awareness Month is coming quickly to a close, I thought it high time to share my story. As many of you know, I was diagnosed in June with a form of digestive tract paralysis (DTP), specifically gastroparesis, via antroduodenal manometry and a gastric emptying study. And let me just say, this diagnosis was one of the toughest pills I’ve had to swallow in recent years. Not because I hadn’t known that some kind of DTP diagnosis was in the works but because I was blindsided by the resurgence of Crohn’s along with small bowel dysmotility on top of the gastroparesis. And it knocked me down and it wore…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week: Minorities, Mental Health & IBD

    December 9, 2018

    The Waiting Game

    June 30, 2018

    Day on the Hill 2019: The Faces of IBD Legislation

    May 11, 2019
  • Ableism,  acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  caregivers,  Colorectal Surgery,  Crohn's,  Dating & Relationships,  Disability Justice,  Fistulizing Disease,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

    Love Knows No Disability

    July 2, 2019

    Nine years ago today, the love of my life, Anand, and I were married in a beautiful Hindu temple with several of our relatives and friends in attendance from all over the world. It was a momentous occasion for me not just in a traditional sense but because of how close I had been to death just two years prior. But as beautiful as the wedding was, the process of getting married wasn’t exactly a fairytale or a bed of roses. You see, a couple years prior, I was freed of an extremely warped and diseased colon on the 4th of July, 2008 (see blog post: My Very Own Independence…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    What Will People Think? ~A Short Documentary by Chealynn Feaster

    December 27, 2019

    What IBD Awareness Means to a South Asian American Woman with Crohn’s

    June 17, 2020

    Inspire’s #KeepUsAllSafe COVID-19 Campaign

    April 12, 2020
  • acceptance,  awareness,  Colorectal Surgery,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Mental Health,  PTSD,  Stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

    World PTSD Day 2019: The Faceless Woman

    June 27, 2019

    In honor of World PTSD Day today, I release a poem I wrote some weeks ago surrounding the medical trauma I’ve faced as a Crohn’s patient. This poem is not for the faint of heart so I will not be offended if you cannot read it. Post-traumatic stress is a term that’s often thrown around lightly but it has serious implications for people who have been in battle for their country, for their lives and against chronic illnesses. Everyday is a minefield with an array of flashbacks and memories that keep us from living our best lives. I urge you all to learn more and to respond to those who…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    World IBD Day Panel Discussion: Experiences of Minority IBD Patients & Caregivers

    May 23, 2020

    Metamorphosis

    August 13, 2018

    Basmah’s Journey: The Cultural Impacts of Being an Egyptian Crohnie

    April 18, 2021
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Mental Health,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

    I’m Chronically Ill & Depressed; So What?

    June 3, 2019

    You might be looking at this photo and thinking, “Oh, Tina looks like she’s having a great time enjoying beautiful weather in the park.” Can you tell an hour before this photo was taken, hubs struggled to get me to leave our home? Can you tell I had been curled up in bed crying? Can you tell it was next to impossible for me to get myself ready and out of bed that afternoon? NOPE. The truth is photos on social media and the Internet, in general, can be so deceiving. What you see here is a woman with Crohn’s and 37520572 other ailments smiling in a park because that’s…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    OstomyConnection SPOTLIGHT: Dr. Harikesh Buch works to shatter stigma and improve post-surgery care for ostomates in India.

    January 24, 2019

    A Valentine’s Day Special: Dating & Relationships with an Ostomy

    February 25, 2020

    Day on the Hill 2019: The Faces of IBD Legislation

    May 11, 2019
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  • Feb 18, 2025 How to Own Your Crohn’s & Ostomy While Traveling to India
  • Jan 05, 2025 Key Takeaways from Advances in IBD (AIBD) 2024
  • Dec 05, 2024 Navigating Mental Health in Crohn’s Disease 
  • Dec 04, 2024 Highlights from ACG 2024: SAIA’s IBDesis’ Patient Experience
  • Nov 18, 2024 SAIA is proud to announce Tina Aswani-Omprakash, MPH as our full-time CEO!

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