Mental Health – Own Your Crohn's

autoimmune disease, chronic illness, Crohn's, living with IBD, medical trauma, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Ostomy, PTSD, stigma, Ulcerative Colitis

Navigating Mental Health in Crohn’s Disease

December 5, 2024

Did you know that approximately 25% of people living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) report significant symptoms of post-traumatic stress (PTS)? This PTS is directly related to disease experiences and related hospitalizations and is referred to as IBD-PTS. So what is IBD-PTS? It is when a patient experiences significant trauma related to the underlying condition and that trauma flashes back in the form of nightmares and unwanted memories. It may result in disturbed sleep, hypervigilance, and even low mood, including depression and anxiety. Did you also know that there is a bidirectional relationship between IBD and depression and anxiety? This means declining mental health can contribute to disease activity, and IBD activity can also…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash No Comments

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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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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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Key Takeaways from Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2023

February 24, 2023

The Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2023 took place last month in Denver, Colorado, bringing together more than 1,300 healthcare professionals and researchers from across the globe to share the latest advancements in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). To summarize some of my key takeaways: **Goal is to improve patient care by halting progression of disease** So, own your Crohn’s, own your ulcerative colitis, and stay abreast of the latest and greatest research in the IBD space to advocate for your own best care! To read more about Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2023, please visit the full blog post on the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s IBDVisible Blog. As a patient advocate myself, I…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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Research Highlights from Digestive Disease Week 2022 for the IBD Community

June 8, 2022

Originally Published by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation on their IBDVisible Blog on June 8th, 2022 By: Madhura Balasubramaniam & Tina Aswani-Omprakash After two years of virtual programming due to COVID-19, Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2022 came back with a bang in San Diego, CA last month. There was a lot of research presented about various gastrointestinal and liver conditions and it was exhilarating to see and hear about all the latest developments in the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) space. From emerging therapies to better understanding of psychosocial aspects of IBD in addition to the role of antibiotics in IBD as well as growing up with pets and the development of IBD,…

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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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Key Takeaways from IBD Insider 2022: Patient Updates from the Crohn’s & Colitis Congress®

February 16, 2022

Originally Published by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation on their IBDVisible Blog on February 14th, 2022 By: Tina Aswani Omprakash The third annual IBD Insider was, as always, a great culmination of the events from the 2022 Crohn’s & Colitis Congress®. As patients, we often have many questions about what goes on at these medical conferences and how to understand the research in bite-sized, digestible pieces (yes, pun intended). IBD Insider does just that by bringing to us the newest research updates in IBD for us to stay abreast of the latest and greatest, but also to enable us to make the best shared decisions with our physicians in our care. The…

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Real Talk About Recovery

December 16, 2021

Recovery…it’s not something we talk about enough. Surgery, like the classic Bollywood love story, takes precedence but the moment the couple gets together, they live happily ever and we never hear about the rest. Same thing with the rush and excitement of surgery. We hear all about it but the reality is we never hear about how arduous the recovery is. Today marked a month since my surgery. It was quite an emotional day for me. For those of you just tuning in, I had an emergency laparotomy due to multiple bowel obstructions from previous surgical stapling and complications caused by scar tissue and a hernia strangulating my bowel and…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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Saravanan’s Exercise Tips as a Crohnie & Ostomate

September 30, 2021

As an ostomate and IBD patient, many people often ask me if I am able to play sports. I tell them ‘YES’. Yes, we can actively participate in sport activities, but there may be some restrictions. For example, Larry Nance Jr. is an NBA star who has Crohn’s disease (CD). But his illness does not prevent him from staying active. Although I am not a professional athlete, I do play sports for fun with my friends and it helps my physical and emotional well-being. However, as an ostomate and CD fighter, I have to take extra precautions while being physically active. I used to play football, badminton and volleyball before…

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Gaurav’s Covid-19 Journey as a Crohn’s Patient in India

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Greetings! I’m Gaurav Sengupta, a 32-year-old IBD patient advocate from India. I currently live in Kolkata and run a plastic manufacturing business of my own. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease back in 2015 when I was working as a Corporate Banker in the UAE. I nearly ended up in surgery back then and once again in 2019 due to stricture formation and bowel obstructions. I have been fortunate that my GI has helped to successfully control my disease during both of those flares with the help of oral steroids and immunosuppressants. I recently fell prey to the global pandemic of Covid-19 during its second wave in India. Here, I…

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