Dating & Relationships – Own Your Crohn's

Coming Out, Crohn's, Dating & Relationships, diversity, LGBTQ+ health, living with IBD, Minority Health, Pride, stigma, Ulcerative Colitis, Women's Health

This Love Takes Guts

October 11, 2021

Our love isn’t simple, but it’s also the easiest feeling in the world. Being a woman in the LGBTQ+ community, I assumed that I would always have to come out over and over again throughout the course of my life. But when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s at 19 and had my first surgery at 20, I realized that I would have to come out about multiple parts of who I am for the rest of my life. It wasn’t until I found Girls with Guts in 2016 that I found a group of people that I finally didn’t have to go through the process of coming out to, at…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash
autoimmune disease, Black Lives Matter, Caregiving, Coronavirus, Crohn's, Dating & Relationships, J-Pouch, living with IBD, Minority Health, Ulcerative Colitis, Women's Health

Taryn’s Journey: Navigating Relationships and IBD During the Pandemic

April 1, 2021

“I think I might be at the start of a partial obstruction. What do I do?” The words I shared with my husband in late March 2020 weren’t rhetorical. It was more like I dropped a mini bomb into an already stressful situation. Even though I’ve had a series of partial bowel obstructions over the years, this time felt different. We were at the beginning of the pandemic. At a time when merely stepping outside seemed dangerous, a trip to the ER felt terrifying. In that moment, I was asking for much more than just advice. I wanted – no, needed – reassurance that regardless of what was happening with…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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Indian Ostomate Podcast Show: Episode 1 with Tina Aswani Omprakash

July 23, 2020

I recently had the honor of being interviewed by the very kind, positive and uplifting Indian ostomate and advocate named Dinesh Kundnani. Dinesh is someone who I came across early in my own journey as an ostomy advocate and it’s amazing to witness how he’s transformed from new ostomate to a seasoned one. Dinesh now helps others in India especially by showing his ostomy and helping to destigmatize what is considered to be a very taboo medical device. Early on in our interview, Dinesh asked if I would do this podcast show in the Hindi language! I was dumbfounded in the moment but I quickly agreed as I realized how…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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I am NOT a Burden: A South Asian Perspective

July 1, 2020

The recent advice column in the NY Times called “Is it OK to Dump Him Because of His Medical Condition?” has been percolating in our minds for the last few weeks. Tomorrow, July 2nd, 2020, marks 10 years since I’ve been married to the love of my life, Anand. Yes, you read that right: one whole decade of wedded bliss and 14 years of us being together. (See Love Knows No Disability.) I still vividly remember telling him 3 weeks into us dating that I had been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) a few short months earlier and that the disease had taken the lives of my father and…

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

June 22, 2020

By Michelle Cabral My symptoms first started around the age of 11. As I grew into my teenage and adult years, my symptoms worsened. I found myself dealing with bathroom urgency and vomiting on a daily life. I distinctly remember when I was about the age of 16, my mother and I were leaving a restaurant after a night out and I had already vomited. I still remember her saying something to the effect of “one day you’ll be able to go out for dinner and not feel like this.” Little did she know that my life would continue with this trajectory and I would finally be diagnosed via colonoscopy…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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World IBD Day Panel Discussion: Experiences of Minority IBD Patients & Caregivers

May 23, 2020

By Anand Omprakash For World IBD Day, I was invited to be a part of a virtual panel discussion with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, Dr. Meena Bewtra (IBD patient & gastroenterologist) and Stephanie Stinson (IBD patient) highlighting the unique struggles that minority patients and caregivers face. I did this because I wanted to shed light upon the stigmas surrounding chronic illness in my community, especially so when it comes to a bowel disease and to marriage. In many communities around the world, a chronic illness is often viewed as a liability because marriage is considered as a familial “contract” to provide and reproduce and not just a means to provide…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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The Other Side of Crohn’s: Caregiving

December 9, 2019

By Anand Omprakash Originally published by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation on December 3rd, 2019: https://www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org/anands-story “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” – Robert A Heinlein For anyone who has been in a loving relationship – romantic, familial, or other – I hope this quote resonates. Love truly is the condition in which another’s happiness is crucial to your own. In fact, that is the whole point of a loving relationship, is it not? This aspect of love very much applies to relationships in which we are not just partners, but also caregivers. A caregiver is one who takes on…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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Love Knows No Disability

July 2, 2019

Nine years ago today, the love of my life, Anand, and I were married in a beautiful Hindu temple with several of our relatives and friends in attendance from all over the world. It was a momentous occasion for me not just in a traditional sense but because of how close I had been to death just two years prior. But as beautiful as the wedding was, the process of getting married wasn’t exactly a fairytale or a bed of roses. You see, a couple years prior, I was freed of an extremely warped and diseased colon on the 4th of July, 2008 (see blog post: My Very Own Independence…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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