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

By Tina Aswani Omprakash

Originally published in IBD Relief on May 18th, 2020: https://www.ibdrelief.com/ibd-stories/my-ibd-story-tina-aswani-omprakash

I remember waking up from a surgery to repair a rectovaginal fistula in late 2011 and being yelled at by an elderly family member for ruining their lives. Even though I was still in a haze in the recovery room, the tears of pain and anguish washed over me. Whether it was my body violating me with perianal fistulizing Crohn’s disease or family and friends constantly reminding me of how much of a burden I was, the floodgates opened in that moment as I asked that family member to please excuse themselves from the recovery area.

You see, it’s really difficult to live with Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis as it is but in many cultures around the world, there is little to no acceptance of young people who have chronic illnesses. And even though I live in cosmopolitan New York City, I have had one foot in two cultures: the country of my origin, India, and the country of my birth, the United States. According to South Asian culture, I was supposed to be taking care of my widowed mother, not being a burden on her. I was supposed to be out working my Wall Street job and supporting my family, not being a frequent flyer on the IBD floor of my hospital. As the oldest child of the family with no father and no brothers, my role was to take care of my family, not be the person being constantly taken care of…

To read the remainder of the article, please visit the IBD Relief website: https://www.ibdrelief.com/ibd-stories/my-ibd-story-tina-aswani-omprakash

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