Take Steps Honored Heroes represent warriors in the Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis community who share their story to inspire others. OC EDITORS MAY 3, 2018 Tina Aswani Omprakash was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at 22-years-old. After many years of suffering from the disease, her colon was removed and she now lives with a permanent ileostomy. Tina shared with us how Inflammatory Bowel Disease has changed her life. “I felt like I was at the top of my game after graduating from college with a career lined up on Wall Street—that’s when the colitis hit. At age 22 – just when my life was about to begin – every day boiled down to “where’s…
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Tear Up Your Flare-Up
Whether it feels like a bus just squashed us flat or we have that sudden urge to defecate with no end in sight, we all know that feeling when a flare is imminent. And while it is no fun, it is a part of living and breathing with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). So how do we manage flares? And more importantly, how do we to cope with them to live the fullest life possible? We all know flare-ups are unapologetically anxiety-producing. But staying in those thoughts may cause us to flounder. Overanalyzing and blaming ourselves for a flare, or even for our diseases, is unfair, unreasonable, and counterproductive. IBD has…
- acceptance, advocacy, awareness, Colorectal Surgery, coping with flares, Crohn's, living with IBD, Ostomy, Ulcerative Colitis
TINA ASWANI OMPRAKASH | 2018 NYC ADULT HONORED HERO
I was at the top of my game having just graduated college with a Wall Street career all lined up and BAM, just like that, the colitis hit. At the tender age of 22, when my life was just supposed to be beginning, my life became a perpetual case of where’s the nearest bathroom and having to bolt to avoid accidents. Between wearing diapers and trying to date while popping pills and using enemas, I began to realize how tenuous life is. It was a scary proposition because my dad passed away at 39 years old from a wicked case of Crohn’s that turned into colorectal cancer, and his sister…
