ulcerative colitis – Page 10 – Own Your Crohn's

advocacy, awareness, Crohn's, Disease Prevention, Influenza, living with IBD, Ulcerative Colitis, Vaccinations

Don’t Forget Your Flu Shot This Fall

October 21, 2018

As I got up from dinner to use the bathroom, the room began to spin. Thinking I was just a bit dizzy, I continued on my way to the bathroom. I didn’t know it then, but the next five months of my life would be like a carousel as I stumbled my way through labyrinthitis — an inner ear infection — and a symptom that can occur along with the influenza virus. This happened nearly two years ago, but the images are still vivid in my mind. I had been dizzy for over 72 hours when I decided to go to the hospital. It was December, and the streets were festooned with Christmas…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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No More Secrets: An enlightening film that reveals the stigma of having an ostomy in India
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acceptance, advocacy, awareness, colorectal cancer, Colorectal Surgery, coping with flare, Crohn's, living with IBD, Ostomy, stigma, Ulcerative Colitis

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

October 16, 2018

Winner, winner! Inspirational role models we look up to. Ostomy awareness involves advocacy, and to be effective in advocating for change we need influencers. Advocacy can be standing up and speaking out for a cause, voicing concerns about misconceptions, or connecting with individuals and organizations who need support. All of these exceptional women have won awards this year for their public advocacy efforts. Amber Wallace won a WEGO Health Award. View image on Twitter WEGO Health@wegohealth Congratulations to 2018 #WEGOHealthAwards Best Kept Secret winner Amber Wallace! @ostomydiaries Check out all the finalist & winner videos from this year’s celebration here: https://wegoh.co/2OWMWdb 4:50 PM – Oct 8, 2018 4 See WEGO Health’s other…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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Accepting My Crohn’s Disease to Finally Become Me
January 15, 2024

Talking Gut Podcast Episode 20: Tina Aswani Omprakash on Resilience & GRITT
May 30, 2020

Indian Ostomate Podcast Show: Episode 1 with Tina Aswani Omprakash
July 23, 2020
acceptance, advocacy, awareness, colorectal cancer, Colorectal Surgery, Crohn's, living with IBD, Ostomy, patient rights, stigma, Ulcerative Colitis

Real Talk about Ostomies

October 5, 2018

On the eve of World Ostomy Day, I write this blog post in hopes of debunking many of the myths surrounding living with an ostomy. So here goes nothing… I always get super excited when friends and family muster up the courage to ask about my ostomy. It makes me feel so connected to them and like I’m being recognized for all of me and not just the healthy-looking parts of me. I feel their concern, their love and most of all, their interest in how I live my life, chronic illness and disabilities abound. See, the thing is, living with an ostomy is often the proverbial elephant in the…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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June 3, 2019

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April 22, 2020
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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When Diagnoses Accumulate: My Gastroparesis Story
August 29, 2019

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MC Capital T Reppin’ from the BK Walk!
June 25, 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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May 16, 2019

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June 3, 2019
acceptance, awareness, Colorectal Surgery, coping with flare, Crohn's, living with IBD, Ostomy, stigma, Ulcerative Colitis

Metamorphosis

August 13, 2018

This past weekend marked 3 years since my series of surgeries at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. That trial was my greatest test to date. 3 surgeries back to back to clean out remnants of j-pouch, rectum and anal sphincter that left behind a wound the size of a small football. From daunting saltwater whirlpools, Jackson-Pratt drains, Hydrogen Peroxide flushes into my pelvis, a wound VAC and procedures under sedation every other day to clean out the wound. I was on 6 different painkillers and I was barely hanging on for life. In the months prior, I had drains galore, one from my back down my leg with a bag…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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April 20, 2018

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April 22, 2020
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…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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November 21, 2018
coping with flares, Crohn's, Dehydration, hydration, living with IBD, Ostomy, Ulcerative Colitis

The Hydration Challenge

July 22, 2018

We all know the feeling of waking up to our legs cramping, and our voices barely squeezing out a faint peep as an intense lightheadedness sets in. These symptoms, among others, are classic indications of dehydration. And with summer now in full swing, it is high time we talk about the importance of hydration. So, why does dehydration happen and why is it so important to stay hydrated as an IBD patient? According to the Mayo Clinic, “dehydration occurs when you use or lose more fluid than you take in, and your body doesn’t have enough water and other fluids to carry out its normal functions.” Dehydration comes into…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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June 10, 2018

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awareness, coping with flares, Crohn's, Independence Day, living with IBD, Ostomy, stigma, Ulcerative Colitis

My Very Own Independence Day

July 4, 2018

Today, Independence Day 2018, marks 10 years since my colon and rectum were removed in emergency. I was 24 years old, 85 lbs, being fed by a PICC line and the hair on my head was greying from malnutrition. I was dying from IBD my doctors warned me as they urged me to have surgery. I remember that day so clearly when my then boyfriend/now husband, Anand, along with my close friend, Radhika, drove me into the city to have emergency surgery. And when my surgeon came up to me in the emergency room, he expressed that I may be too far-gone, that he was…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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acceptance, coping with flares, Crohn's, living with IBD, Ostomy, Ulcerative Colitis

The Waiting Game

June 30, 2018

Does nail-biting anxiety wash over you as you await results after a colonoscopy, MRI, or CT scan? Or restlessness while waiting for your latest round of biologics to start kicking in? Yeah, me too. I sit here today twiddling my thumbs endlessly as I await my ileoscopy and upper endoscopy biopsies from last week. This form of anxiety is all part of the waiting game. We patients live in constant agony while test results are pending, especially when a definitive diagnosis depends on those results. We worry as we take dose after dose of the latest round of immunosuppressants, earnestly hoping that this medication will be “it” — remission, finally. These feelings…

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Tina Aswani Omprakash

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