Skip to content
Own Your Crohn's

Empowering the Chronically Ill & Disabled to Lead Fuller Lives

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Authorships
  • SAIA-IBDesis
  • Testimonials
  • Contact Me
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Authorships
  • SAIA-IBDesis
  • Testimonials
  • Contact Me
  • advocacy,  awareness,  Colorectal Surgery,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  patient rights,  Ulcerative Colitis

    Sepsis Is a Severe, Life-threatening Complication for IBD Patients

    September 22, 2018

    It’s Sepsis Awareness Month, so I’m discussing what sepsis is and how it is often a complication of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal surgery. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “sepsis arises when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs, potentially leading to death or significant morbidity.” WHO statistics show that more than 30 million people contract sepsis each year, and 6 million die from it. But aside from all these scientific terms and statistics, what is sepsis? To me, sepsis looked and felt like the following: It all started with a 103-degree fever, a high pulse well into the 130s, low blood pressure hovering around…

    Read More
    Tina Aswani Omprakash

    Related Posts

    5 Hot Topics Presented at Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2019

    February 27, 2019

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

    June 22, 2020

    ~OYC Trailblazers~ Anisha Zumba-ing Her Way into 2021!

    January 28, 2021
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  Colorectal Surgery,  coping with flare,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  patient rights,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis

    The Value of Support Groups

    August 26, 2018

    In a world where medical professionals have only a few minutes to go over a whole slew of symptoms, medication interactions, and surgical complications, it is impossible to cover the psychosocial aspects of one’s condition(s). These aspects include methods of coping with the emotional roller coaster of living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).This is where support groups come into the picture. They fill that gap between doctor-patient interactions and provide real-time support and understanding to patients caught in the rigmarole of hospital visits, health insurance, and invasive testing. But more than this, the true value of support groups lies in empowering patients by fostering lifelong friendships through a deep understanding of…

    Read More
    Tina Aswani Omprakash

    Related Posts

    Being Brown and Coming Out of the IBD Closet: The Chronic Illness Experience

    August 7, 2018

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

    January 24, 2019

    My Pelvic Pain Story

    October 26, 2018
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  patient rights,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis

    Being Brown and Coming Out of the IBD Closet: The Chronic Illness Experience

    August 7, 2018

    ***Originally published in Brown Girl Magazine on August 2nd, 2018: https://www.browngirlmagazine.com/2018/08/being-brown-coming-out-ibd-closet/*** Just as soon as he landed from India, a good friend called me, half laughing: “Tina, I know exactly what it feels like to be you now! I’ve had diarrhea for the last three weeks after eating at Elco Market in Mumbai! What do I do?” Another time when I was deathly ill, languishing from anemia, malnutrition and weight loss due to 20-30 bloody bowel movements a day, I remember the aunties ridiculing me. They would cackle behind my back as they proclaimed that I did this to myself. “She must have eaten lots of junk food and drank…

    Read More
    Tina Aswani Omprakash

    Related Posts

    ~OYC Trailblazers~ Anisha Zumba-ing Her Way into 2021!

    January 28, 2021

    Disability Awareness in the Midst of Coronavirus

    March 12, 2020

    Ostomy Awareness Day: Empowering Ostomates to Live Fuller Lives

    November 22, 2019
  • acceptance,  awareness,  caregivers,  colorectal cancer,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  Father's Day,  living with IBD,  patient rights,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis

    Honoring My Late Father

    June 17, 2018

    (Daddy at his Doctoral Commencement at Columbia University in the ’70s.) This Father’s Day I honor all fathers. I especially honor my father who devoted his life to the sciences and to his family. He toiled endlessly until the very last minute working until he couldn’t anymore all to ensure his wife and daughters could get by without him. Not a day goes by that I don’t wonder how much better life would have been if he could have lived to see his girls all grown up. ? His battle with Crohn’s and later colorectal cancer may have taken his life but he has become my inspiration to fight incessantly for my…

    Read More
    Tina Aswani Omprakash

    Related Posts

    TINA ASWANI OMPRAKASH | 2018 NYC ADULT HONORED HERO

    April 20, 2018

    Edgar Flores opens up about surviving near-death and the challenges of living with an ostomy in Mexico

    November 4, 2018

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

    November 24, 2019
  • coping with flare,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  patient rights,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis

    Coming Out of My IBD Closet as a Desi Woman

    June 16, 2018

    Every single year the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation chooses a local Adult Honored Hero who shares his/her story and is honored at the Take Steps Walk in the spring. And every single year I attend the New York City walk, raise awareness and funds to help find treatments and someday a cure for these awful diseases. I bring my friends and my family together along with the Foundation’s Women’s Support Group so they can see that we patients don’t suffer alone, that many folks from all walks of life have been through hell and back at a young age. And every single year, one of my closest girlfriends has tears…

    Read More
    Tina Aswani Omprakash

    Related Posts

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

    October 16, 2018

    The Value of Support Groups

    August 26, 2018

    Metamorphosis

    August 13, 2018
  • advocacy,  Crohn's,  patient rights,  Ulcerative Colitis

    A Day on the Hill: Putting a Face on IBD Legislation

    May 26, 2018

    As I walked up the steps toward Capitol Hill, the realization finally struck: I was really doing this. I was really lobbying for better healthcare legislation for patients like myself. More than 100 volunteers and I had traveled from all over the country to Washington, D.C., as part of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s Day on the Hill program (DOH). And we all shared one mission: to bring our stories forward to advocate for improvements in legislation for all of us suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). (Courtesy of Tina Aswani Omprakash) This was the first time I had lobbied for anything, let alone for IBD. I was nervous and excited…

    Read More
    Tina Aswani Omprakash

    Related Posts

    Accepting My Crohn’s Disease to Finally Become Me

    January 15, 2024

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

    December 1, 2018

    IBD Insider: IBD 101 Live Discussion on Facebook

    January 16, 2020
Newer Posts 

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!

Sign Up for New Blog Posts!

Please follow & like us :)

Facebook
fb-share-icon
Twitter
Follow Me
Post on X
LinkedIn
Instagram

Top Posts & Pages

  • Key Takeaways from Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2023
    Key Takeaways from Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2023
  • ~OYC Trailblazers~ Mara Living Her Best Life with a Kock Pouch in Germany
    ~OYC Trailblazers~ Mara Living Her Best Life with a Kock Pouch in Germany
  • ~OYC Trailblazers~ Tanya's Pregnancy Journey Living with Crohn's Disease in India
    ~OYC Trailblazers~ Tanya's Pregnancy Journey Living with Crohn's Disease in India
  • When Diagnoses Accumulate: My Sjögren's Story
    When Diagnoses Accumulate: My Sjögren's Story
  • 7 Tips for Traveling With IBD, From Someone Who Gets It
    7 Tips for Traveling With IBD, From Someone Who Gets It

Clinical Trial Finder

Copyright ©2018-2024 Tina Aswani Omprakash. All Rights Reserved.
Savona Theme by Optima Themes