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Own Your Crohn's

Empowering the Chronically Ill & Disabled to Lead Fuller Lives

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

    December 1, 2018

    Brown Girl with Guts: Tina’s Journey with Crohn’s Disease

    April 30, 2019

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

    January 28, 2021
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  diversity,  living with IBD,  Mental Health,  Minority Health,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

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

    January 28, 2021

    This blog post has been done in collaboration with Girls With Guts Community Connection. By Anisha Gangotra My name is Anisha, I’m 37 years old and I live in Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom. I’ve lived with ulcerative colitis since 2008, from the age of 24. I experienced my first colitis symptoms following a two-week holiday abroad. My stomach hadn’t felt quite right but I’d also had my period when I was on holiday so I assumed that it was a mixture of jet lag, my body adjusting to a different environment and my menstrual cycle. I’ve always had a sensitive stomach so I didn’t think much of it. When…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    OYC Trailblazers: What Healing Means to Natasha

    March 26, 2019

    An IBS Journey: Tina

    April 21, 2019

    ~OYC TRAILBLAZERS~ Spotlight on Malaysian Crohnie & Ostomate Saravanan

    April 22, 2020
  • awareness,  Colorectal Surgery,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  Fistulizing Disease,  Irritable Bowel Syndrome,  living with IBD,  Pelvic Floor Dysfunction,  Pelvic pain,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

    Pelvic Pain in IBD: An Overlooked Complication

    August 9, 2019

    By Tina Aswani Omprakash, Medically Reviewed by Jenny Blair, MD Originally Published by Oshi Health, Inc., on August 8th, 2019 A complication of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that often goes unaddressed and misdiagnosed is chronic pelvic pain (CPP). CPP is often defined as pain in the pelvic area that isn’t cyclic and isn’t related to pregnancy and that lasts for three to six months. It may affect from 6% to 25% of reproductive-age women, depending on how it’s defined, as well as men and older women. The condition can arise from a variety of causes. How I’ve Experienced Pelvic Pain So how does CPP apply to us as IBD patients?…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Step in Our Shoes: A Discussion on Being an Ally to the Black Community

    June 20, 2020

    My Health Became My Top Priority

    April 16, 2019

    The Beauty of Ostomates Worldwide

    October 17, 2019
  • awareness,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Mental Health,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis,  World IBD Day

    ~OYC Trailblazers~ Harman’s Story from India

    July 10, 2019

    By Harman Singh Randhawa My battle with ulcerative colitis began in 2003. I was 20 years old and in my 2nd year of studying Engineering. By the time the diagnosis came through, I had already lived with pain and inordinate trips to bathroom for more than 6 months. Ignoring my painful symptoms and the discomfort that came with it, I kept delaying getting a thorough checkup. I started experiencing bloody diarrhea for many days. Finally, it was my sister who decided that the situation had gotten out of hand and drove me to PGI Hospital in Chandigarh in Punjab, India. I underwent a few tests and when the blood test…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    As a Chronically-Ill Brown Woman, Here’s Why I Share My Survival Story

    May 16, 2019

    In the Name of Science & Research

    June 25, 2019

    Love Knows No Disability

    July 2, 2019
  • advocacy,  awareness,  Clinical Trials,  Colorectal Surgery,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  Disease Prevention,  Emerging Therapies,  living with IBD,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis

    In the Name of Science & Research

    June 25, 2019

    Traveling home from Mayo was beyond excruciating– horrible abdominal cramping and nausea/vomiting as I could barely walk. After all the testing I had had (4 testing procedures, an ER visit, multiple appts all in 5 days) and my Stelara trough levels coming back as borderline, it was no surprise that my Crohn’s Disease had flared. I was in a frenzy and knew I had to act fast.  Within an hour of landing, my local GI and I came up with a plan to admit me at my local hospital. She asked me to consider enrolling in the POWER clinical research study in which she would reinduce me with a megadose…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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

    May 26, 2018

    J-Pouch Failure – Tina’s Story

    June 15, 2019

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

    February 18, 2025
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  patient rights,  Ulcerative Colitis

    Allowing Acceptance In

    November 21, 2018

    Thanksgiving season is upon us, dearests! As we prepare to celebrate life, love and laughter with our families and friends, it may be tough to avoid the elephant in the room: our chronic illnesses and disabilities. As hard as this may be, we can get through the holidays together by advocating for better quality of life and allowing acceptance of our conditions in! Our bodies may not be in perfect condition but let’s be thankful today and always for the moments of health, peace and joy that shine their way into our lives. ‘Tis the season to allow acceptance to pervade our lives to cultivate more love and better self-care!…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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

    January 30, 2019

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

    October 16, 2018

    ~OYC TRAILBLAZERS~ Spotlight on Malaysian Crohnie & Ostomate Saravanan

    April 22, 2020
  • acceptance,  advocacy,  awareness,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis

    My Feature During Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week

    November 8, 2018

    Pleased to announce that this year I have the honor of representing my fellow IBD warriors for Awareness Week (12/1-12/7) nationally on the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation’s website! REPRESENT!! Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, ages, genders and sexual orientations. IBD affects 1.6 million people and counting in the U.S. alone and over 5 million worldwide. This chronic, autoimmune and often invisible condition is growing by leaps and bounds unfortunately every single year. It wreaks havoc on our guts, bodies and mental health. It behooves us to recognize and de-stigmatize IBD and chronic illness in general so that folks like us can live fuller, happier lives. I…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Day on the Hill 2019: The Faces of IBD Legislation

    May 11, 2019

    Ostomy Awareness Day: Empowering Ostomates to Live Fuller Lives

    November 22, 2019

    What Will People Think? ~A Short Documentary by Chealynn Feaster

    December 27, 2019
  • 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…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Accepting My Crohn’s Disease to Finally Become Me

    January 15, 2024

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

    December 11, 2019

    The Value of Awareness & Advocacy During the Holidays

    December 21, 2018
  • acceptance,  awareness,  coping with flares,  Crohn's,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  Ulcerative Colitis

    Throwback to La Caverna 2006!

    August 30, 2018

    Throwback to the summer of 2006 at La Caverna in New York City, just a few months after my IBD diagnosis when I was 22 (you can literally see how pale and anemic I was). My buddy, Sunil, and I were always the ultimate dance partners wil’in out on the dance floor. Some really fun times that I’m glad I had the chance to enjoy back then. Fast forward 12 years along with countless medications and surgeries, here Sunil and I are again at La Caverna. This time with our amazing husbands recreating dance moves from our college days. As friends for many years, we have come a long way…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Real Talk about Ostomies

    October 5, 2018

    Disability Awareness in the Midst of Coronavirus

    March 12, 2020

    Indian Ostomate Podcast Show: Episode 1 with Tina Aswani Omprakash

    July 23, 2020
  • 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…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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

    October 16, 2018

    Day on the Hill 2019: The Faces of IBD Legislation

    May 11, 2019

    My Health Became My Top Priority

    April 16, 2019
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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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