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Own Your Crohn's

Empowering the Chronically Ill & Disabled to Lead Fuller Lives

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  • advocacy,  autoimmune disease,  Crohn's,  Diet,  immunocompromised,  invisible illness,  J-Pouch,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  Traveling with IBD,  Ulcerative Colitis

    How to Own Your Crohn’s & Ostomy While Traveling to India

    February 18, 2025

    By Tina Aswani-Omprakash As IBD warriors, it’s always nerve-wracking to travel with our conditions and/or an ostomy. For me, it’s been 7 years of me traveling all over the U.S. and Europe for patient advocacy work. And even though I’ve spoken many times virtually for events in India and Pakistan, I hadn’t traveled to the region to speak given the pandemic. Now that we are out of the pandemic and back at in-person conferences, it was fantastic to be invited to speak about my experiences as an IBD patient & ostomate at Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin’s (GAPIO’s) conference in Mysuru, Karnataka, India. Plus, traveling to Karnataka meant…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    When Diagnoses Accumulate: My Sjögren’s Story

    April 13, 2022

    How a clinical trial helped this Crohn’s advocate finally reach remission

    November 24, 2019

    COVID-19 Survivors: Stories of Hope in the IBD World

    May 7, 2020
  • advocacy,  chronic illness,  Disability

    HealtheVoices 10-Year Anniversary (A Reminder of Why We Advocate)

    October 19, 2024

    Originally published by The Insighters® on October 18th, 2024: https://theinsighters.com/blog-posts/13 As I reflect on my HealtheVoices experience this year on the conference’s 10-year anniversary, I see a bastion of hope, of love, and of support for years to come. The love Johnson & Johnson and the HealtheVoices team has showered upon me is something I hold near and dear to my heart. And this year being the first year The Insighters® was able to partner has been especially meaningful to bring research opportunities forward to the patient community. I believe in inroads, in partnerships, and in camaraderie both in the patient advocacy community and amongst industry in the chronic illness…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    I’m Chronically Ill & Depressed; So What?

    June 3, 2019

    The Top 10 IBD Blogs to Follow in 2019

    March 15, 2019

    Talking Gut Podcast Episode 20: Tina Aswani Omprakash on Resilience & GRITT

    May 30, 2020
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  autoimmune disease,  awareness,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  immunocompromised,  living with IBD,  Mental Health,  Mindfulness

    Accepting My Crohn’s Disease to Finally Become Me

    January 15, 2024

    A person I admire once said, “Once you stop fighting your illness, you will allow acceptance to emerge.” I guess I had never looked at illness that way before. Society tells us to fight illness to our last breath, but is it really a fighting attitude we should have? This thought was something I began to ponder after hearing this statement. It took me months to process and understand what fighting vs. acceptance meant for my Crohn’s disease.  Read more on the Healthgrades website: https://www.healthgrades.com/right-care/crohns-disease/accepting-my-crohns-disease-to-finally-become-me. Originally Published on Healthgrades.com, Written by Tina Aswani-Omprakash

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    OYC Trailblazers: An Ode to My Father & Fellow IBD Warrior

    January 30, 2019

    The Waiting Game

    June 30, 2018

    My Pelvic Pain Story

    October 26, 2018
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  chronic illness,  chronic pain,  Colorectal Surgery,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  endometriosis,  extraintestinal manifestations,  Irritable Bowel Syndrome,  Mental Health,  Pelvic Floor Dysfunction,  Pelvic pain,  PTSD,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

    When Diagnoses Accumulate – My Endometriosis Journey

    August 28, 2023

    Last spring, just when I had thought I had turned a corner and had many of my conditions better controlled, I developed a ton of crippling pelvic pain. Within a couple of days, I started bleeding a lot, which made no sense because I had been on hormones for years to stop my periods. Hormonal therapy was presented to me as a treatment option by Mayo Clinic’s gynecology team because I had many peritoneal inclusion cysts (scar tissue filled with fluid in my pelvis) that were wreaking havoc on my bladder before and after major surgeries done to remove my j-pouch. So, it was either hormonal suppression of ovulation or a hysterectomy at age…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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

    February 25, 2020

    Ostomy Awareness Day: Empowering Ostomates to Live Fuller Lives

    November 22, 2019

    IBD Awareness Week Line-Up: Diversity, Mental Health & More!

    December 1, 2018
  • advocacy,  affordable drug pricing,  autoimmune disease,  awareness,  chronic illness,  drug pricing,  health insurance,  pharmacy benefit manager

    A Direct-to-Patient Model: How Online Pharmacy Marley Drug is Revolutionizing Drug Pricing

    September 8, 2022

    Sponsored by Medicure’s Marley Drug. All thoughts & opinions are my own. As patients, have you ever wondered if forgoing health insurance could perhaps save us money on prescription drugs? I honestly hadn’t considered it and this concept blew my mind when I first heard about it. For me, it always seemed like a no-brainer: go through my insurance policy to get access to prescription medications so I can contribute towards deductibles and meet my out-of-pocket costs many months later. But that can take forever and cost quite a lot of money…The reality is we might not have to do that and it might sometimes save us money to bypass insurance. I…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    I’m Chronically Ill & Depressed; So What?

    June 3, 2019

    About IBD Podcast #40 – Tina Aswani Omprakash’s Story: What Are People Going to Think?

    April 10, 2019

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

    September 24, 2018
  • advocacy,  awareness,  Crohn's,  J-Pouch,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  Traveling with IBD,  Ulcerative Colitis

    7 Tips for Traveling With IBD, From Someone Who Gets It

    July 1, 2022

    Don’t let inflammatory bowel disease and fears of COVID-19 get in the way of your travel plans. Here’s what you need to know before you start packing. By Tina Aswani-Omprakash Summers are a time to look forward to rest, relaxation, and vacations. But for those of us living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), going away on a trip can often mean additional anxiety. And with the addition of COVID-19, anxiety levels are heightened. While many of us want to travel, we struggle to wrap our heads around how to travel when living with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, especially as new variants of the novel coronavirus circulate around the world. In fact, stressing out over travel…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    My Feature During Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week

    November 8, 2018

    Black Lives Matter in the IBD Community, Too

    July 10, 2020

    Happy World IBD Day from Digestive Disease Week (DDW)!

    May 22, 2019
  • advocacy,  autoimmune disease,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  IgG4,  immunocompromised,  living with IBD,  Mental Health,  Minority Health,  Sjogren's

    When Diagnoses Accumulate: My Sjögren’s Story

    April 13, 2022

    April marks Sjögren’s Syndrome Awareness Month, so I thought it was high time I shared my Sjögren’s diagnosis journey now that I’m finally getting answers and treatment to deal with a condition that has been plaguing me for years. It all started in November after my laparotomy surgery. The gastroenterologist presiding over my care in Pittsburgh had noticed how much Restatis (cyclosporine for the eyes) and other eye drops I was using for dry eye and observed how often I was needing ice chips for dry mouth while I was NPO from the obstructions, the surgery and the post-op ileus. The skin on my arms and legs was also flaking…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    My Nomination for the WEGO Health Patient Advocacy Awards

    July 21, 2019

    Happy World IBD Day from Digestive Disease Week (DDW)!

    May 22, 2019

    My Feature for Clinical Trial Awareness with Parexel

    June 1, 2019
  • advocacy,  autoimmune disease,  COVID-19,  Crohn's,  immunocompromised,  living with IBD,  Ulcerative Colitis

    Dropping Mask Mandates: A Time of Anxiety or Joy?

    March 15, 2022

    Last week I went back to school in-person for the first time in 2 years. There was a part of me that was excited, yes, but the other part of me was nervous as all heck. Meeting professors and students I had gotten to know virtually over the semesters felt like there was a human connection again outside of Zoom! And I have to admit that I really enjoyed going to class and being around like-minded people before this pandemic started. It was definitely a loss to go virtual but at the same time, going virtual meant people with disabilities like us could take care of our health while being…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Managing IBD in the Era of COVID-19

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    “I Had an Ostomy—and It Changed My Life”

    December 11, 2019

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

    September 27, 2019
  • advocacy,  autoimmune disease,  Clinical Trials,  Colorectal Surgery,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Ulcerative Colitis

    A Gutsy Feeling: Advocating for the Best Care Possible as IBD Patients

    September 18, 2021

    By Tina Aswani Omprakash **Supported by agutsyfeeling.org, a collaboration between Girls With Guts, Purdue University, College of Pharmacy, and the Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning** In today’s day and age, there are many treatment options for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD – ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease). But given all the new medications on the horizon, how do we as patients participate in shared decision making with our IBD specialists regarding which medication might be best for us? And how do we know when we have given the medication a fair enough shot and that it might be time to move on to the next treatment option? How do we know…

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    IBD Insider: IBD 101 Live Discussion on Facebook

    January 16, 2020

    My Feature in Suffering the Silence’s Photo Series Campaign

    October 6, 2019

    Talking Gut Podcast Episode 20: Tina Aswani Omprakash on Resilience & GRITT

    May 30, 2020
  • advocacy,  autoimmune disease,  Colorectal Surgery,  Crohn's,  Dating & Relationships,  Gastroparesis,  invisible illness,  living with IBD,  Minority Health,  National Minority Health Month,  Ostomy,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

    Bachatera with a Bag: Theodora Shattering Ostomy Stigma Through Dance

    April 27, 2021

    Elegance, beauty, confidence, and rhythm: these are some words used to describe a female Latin dancer. Chemistry, passion, sensuality: these often come to mind when describing or watching a Latin dance couple. Each genre of dance comes with its own culture. Dance shoes, music and certain beats accompany each genre and of course, that exists within bachata, a form of dance I love to practice. Nationally and internationally, people congregate to study, perform and/or socially dance the bachata together and there is absolutely nothing quite like it! Being a bachatera (a female bachata dancer), and 50% of a bachata dance partnership with my husband Marcos, I am fortunate to experience…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    ~OYC TRAILBLAZERS~ Spotlight on Malaysian Crohnie & Ostomate Saravanan

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    ~OYC Trailblazers~ Michelle’s Story on the Intersection of Crohn’s & an LGBTQIA+ Identity

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Recent Posts

  • 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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