Finding meaning in an illness journey can be a catalyst for purpose and hope. Dr Selvi Vasudevan endured severe Crohn’s disease that resulted in several surgeries and a relentless series of complications. She was on her chosen path when the disease stole her aspirations and left her without direction. A recommitment to herself and her own healing journey helped her find her purpose again as a healer and prompted her to found Cooking With Crohn’s in order to share what she’s learned with the IBD community.
Information discussed in this episode includes erythrocyte sedimentation rate (sed rate), normal white blood cell (WBC) count, bowel perforation, wound closing by secondary intention, and ileostomy surgery.
Find Dr Selvi on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and on her web site, DrSelvi.com.
Find Amber J Tresca at AboutIBD.com, Verywell, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Credits: Sound engineering courtesy Mac Cooney. “IBD Dance Party” ©Cooney Studio.
Episode Transcript
[Music: IBD Dance Party]
AMBER:
I’m Amber Tresca and this is About IBD. It’s my mission to educate people living with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis about their disease and to bring awareness to the patient journey.
My guest on this episode is Dr Selvi Vasudevan. Dr Selvi was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in college and endured several surgeries and complicated recovery periods but she didn’t let it stop her from going to medical school. She was in the middle of a pediatric residency when the disease changed the course of her life again. She looked for more meaning and purpose in her journey and she found it by first finding her own way to healing and then by sharing what she’s learned with others.
I caught up with Dr Selvi at Crohn’s and Colitis Congress in Austin, which is a medical meeting for healthcare professionals. We sat down for a chat in the press room during our lunch break. Be sure to listen all the way to the end for Dr Selvi’s 5 tips to getting through social functions and special occasions with IBD.
DR SELVI:
So I was actually diagnosed my second year of college. So I was 19 going on 20. And it’s interesting because looking back, I had sort of, you know, a quote unquote sensitive stomach for years, like almost as long as I can remember, hindsight being 20/20 like I had mouth ulcers as a child, but nobody really figured it out. I know. And now it’s like, hmm, so, but I wasn’t diagnosed until college. So what would happen was that I would have these episodes and I thought they were like a stomach virus was what I was told all the time, right. So loose stools, maybe vomiting, it would resolve, I’d be okay. And then again, it would happen and so eventually, like it just got to this point where the diarrhea wouldn’t stop. Even with the Imodium.
AMBER:
Were you taking like Imodium like everyday all the time.
DR SELVI:
Daily. Correct. Yeah
DR SELVI:
Correct.
AMBER:
Yeah. Because the diarrhea never resolved..
DR SELVI:
Exactly. Exactly. And then my parents were like, Okay, well, let’s at least take a look at this. One of our family friends who’s actually a cardiologist, God bless him, started me on the path to figuring out what was going on. So he ran basic blood work and he ran a SED rate and my SED rate, I remember was over 90. And I don’t remember I think I was anemic. I don’t remember the exact number at this point. But um, and then he referred me to a gastroenterologist, a friend of his, a colleague of his who, Oh, I’m sorry, I need to back up for a second. He also ran an upper GI series with a barium swallow and saw thickening in the terminal ileum, which showed inflammation so he said, All right, you need to see my friend who’s a GI doctor. That guy he was…didn’t have the greatest bedside manner. Imagine that, right?
[LAUGHTER]
AMBER:
I know, right?
DR SELVI:
Very clinical, so he ran through like, you know, anybody who’s in medicine or knows that lingo a little bit ran through like differential diagnosis. So he went through four things that it could be one was Crohn’s disease. One was infectious TB. And then one was something else, which I forget. And the only one that stuck with me that day was cancer. And I flipped out. And I came home, and I prayed, and I prayed. Dear God, please let this not be cancer, please let this not be cancer. And guess I should have been a little more clear on my prayer. [LAUGHTER] Because God answered that one.
AMBER:
Yeah.
DR SELVI:
Yeah. So I was not going to go back to him again. So we found another pediatric GI doctor, okay, who took a look at all my scans, ran some blood work, the basic blood work and then did a colonoscopy. And on Valentine’s Day, which up until that point had been my favorite holiday ever.
AMBER:
Oh, yeah, ruined.
DR SELVI:
Kind of. Yeah, my mom felt bad. She went got me flowers and all that. And then we went back to the office. And that day, he told me seven words that would change the track of my life forever. He said Selvi, I’m afraid you have Crohn’s disease.
[MUSIC: Emotional Piano]
AMBER:
So you were in college?
DR SELVI:
Yeah.
AMBER:
And what was your major in college?
DR SELVI:
Chemical engineering.
AMBER:
Really? Was it?
DR SELVI:
Yes.
AMBER:
Okay, graduated with that, but then you went on to graduate school.
DR SELVI:
That’s right. So, I went on to medical school and actually, if I can mention just real briefly when I was in college, I initially I took a semester off just to digest all the information and all of that. And then my last semester of college, you know, where I was heading towards graduation looking towards medical school, like really got turned upside down. That’s when I had a spontaneous, large interesting perforation, wound up in the hospital, backing up briefly, like I had a fever and I was never a person to get fevers. So I’m sitting in my dorm room with a fever of 104. Go to Student Health Services, they draw blood and my white count was .8. So — nothing. [LAUGHTER]
AMBER:
Yeah. OK.
DR SELVI:
Like, what is going on? And so they’re like, you need to go to the hospital now. Of course, I wanted to go where my GI was, which was like I was in college in New York City, my GI was in Westchester. So I needed to get my parents and get to Westchester. Was hospitalized for a few days. They ran tests, they couldn’t figure out what was going on. My belly was hurting so badly. I couldn’t stand up straight. And I was convinced that I was fine because I needed to go and graduate college, like I had better things to do.
[LAUGHTER]
AMBER:
Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, it is like most kids.
DR SELVI:
Right? Denial much?
AMBER:
I’m not interested, I don’t have time for this.
DR SELVI:
Yeah, no, please. You might need surgery. Are you kidding me? No.
[LAUGHTER]
I had a spontaneous perforation in my large intestine. And I didn’t have a choice. I had to have surgery. Yeah, they told my parents I had 24 hours to live.
AMBER:
I was going to say how long were you walking around with a spontaneous…
DR SELVI:
A few days.
AMBER:
Few days? Yeah.
DR SELVI:
And the morning of surgery, my stomach was literally as hard as this table. Yeah,
AMBER:
Yeah. Yeah. And and oh my gosh, and were you like what was the outcome of that? Like what what complications that you have as a result of that?
DR SELVI:
So I, ironically, the surgery was on the day of my mother’s birthday. And I think I was more broken up about that than the actual surgery.
AMBER:
Yeah, you have a history here. I’m having like, you know, major things happen on you know, holidays.
DR SELVI:
Momentous days.
AMBER:
Oh my gosh
DR SELVI:
It’s crazy. I remember just crying like from when they said I needed surgery the day before, all the way until they rolled me into the OR and they gave me, I don’t know what they gave me, something. Valium or something that calmed me down and it was just like, boom. That was like, all right now I’m good.
AMBER:
Now I’m good. Wheel me in.
DR SELVI:
Yeah, exactly
AMBER:
Do what needs to be done.
[LAUGHTER]
DR SELVI:
And there’s a sweetest like, you want to talk about medical staff like the nurses assistant who is holding my hand like literally sat with me, held my hand for hours consoling me. It’s just amazing. So I went from this college student who was you know, looking towards medical school or taking a year off or working for a year, and then going to medical school had a job in hand to, walking up with an ostomy. And I was on massive steroids for almost two years. So I had this huge, not just a scar, but like they left huge gaps in between the incision. So healing it by secondary intention is what it’s called. And they have these retention sutures. So there were huge gaps of unsewn flesh, basically that just needed to heal on its own. And I woke up to an ostomy on my right side, and then they pulled the other side, the unattached piece of the intestine also to the skin. So I had a bag on my right side, a bag on my left side. I had two drains inside. And this huge incision down the middle and was just like what just happened? Total shock, like I woke up with that ostomy, I couldn’t even look at it for like a month.
AMBER:
Wow.
DR SELVI:
Like I would make my mom like, help me take care of it I just yeah, I didn’t want to change it. I didn’t want to look at it. any of that.
AMBER:
Did you know what an ostomy was prior to this?
DR SELVI:
Never even heard of it.
AMBER:
Yeah. Okay. Oh my gosh, a real shock.
DR SELVI:
It was a major shock. Yeah.
AMBER:
Do you think also that it was emergency surgery that perhaps or there just wasn’t any time to discuss that with you? Do you think that’s part of it?
DR SELVI:
I think so. For sure. It was kind of like, yeah, you don’t really have a choice. You need to do this now.
AMBER:
Yeah.
DR SELVI:
And my parents were worried and my parents were freaked out and I think that…
AMBER:
I mean, you could have died. Easily.
DR SELVI:
Which I didn’t know of course until after the fact, they weren’t going to tell me that.
AMBER:
Yeah, Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
DR SELVI:
By the way, you might die in the next 24 hours. So yeah, there’s that.
Yeah. So I think I also felt like I had to be strong for them. So I had to, you know, like, Oh, I’m okay. Everything’s fine. Like I’m gonna be okay. Don’t worry, you know, kind of thing and dying on the inside, and like blocking things and not really allowing it to sink in.
AMBER:
Right. And I think I probably know the answer to this question, but I’m gonna ask it anyway. Was your mental health addressed at all during this time?
DR SELVI:
No, no. And I don’t know if people I don’t actually, remember people tried to address it or not. But for sure I wasn’t going to go there because I was fine. Like, or at least I was going to fake that I was fine. Right. But yeah, I was not fine. Severely depressed. I was home for almost a year waiting for that incision to heal, because they said once it healed that they can reverse things. And since I was on those massive doses of steroids, it took at least 9 plus months. And in the meantime, I developed a compression fracture. So there was that pain as well. It was just like one thing after the other.
AMBER:
Oh my gosh, yeah. So you’re having, it wasn’t the gap year that you wanted.
DR SELVI:
No. Clearly not.
[LAUGHTER]
AMBER:
You ended up having one, but it wasn’t what you wanted. So take me through what, what, what you did next when you decided to go back to school?
DR SELVI:
Right. So then I wound up having that second surgery so the ostomy was reversed. And I feel like every post-op course ends up being this huge dramatic thing so yeah, that time I wound up in the ICU like my kidneys shut down my liver shut down. Like I wasn’t producing urine.
AMBER:
Just from a reversal?
DR SELVI:
Yes. Something about the anesthesia I think just didn’t sit right with me.
AMBER:
Oh my gosh. Okay. Yeah,
DR SELVI:
So I was like completely groggy, out of it. My GI doctor, at this point, switched me to an adult GI doctor. So, anyways, he walked into my room and he was just like, something weird is going on. Yeah, I think he’s the one who kind of figured it out. I don’t have 100% confirmation of this. But you know…
AMBER:
You don’t know anything that’s going on half the time. You’re just really out of it.
DR SELVI:
Right. Yeah, this is based on like what my parents were telling me that he basically figured it out. So then I wound up in the ICU and it was just, I was on dialysis like for a week. Yeah. Because my kidneys just were not producing any urine. And he would walk into the room like, with this just really sad face like serious like, you’re not producing urine, and I remember teasing the most like so when I start producing urine are you going to do a happy dance? [LAUGHTER] Mine you, this man is extremely serious.
AMBER:
Yeah.
DR SELVI:
You know, like walks in like very serious very somber, you know tells you what he needs to tell you and like, that’s it like, I’ve never heard him crack a joke like ever. And I have this amazing nephrology fellow who would connect with me every morning, her face was the first face I’d see. And she just encouraged me. She’s like, no, don’t worry about it. You’re young, you’re healthy, like you’re going to heal. Don’t let all of their nonsense get to you. And I mean, you know whether that’s right or wrong. We can debate…
AMBER:
Kinda doesn’t matter, though, right?
DR SELVI:
It doesn’t matter. Right
AMBER:
She gave you hope.
DR SELVI:
Exactly. And that’s what I needed at that time. Yeah. And then one fine day my kidneys finally kicked in and they started to produce urine. And my GI doctor walked in and I said so: you gonna do that happy dance?
He did!
AMBER:
He did?
DR SELVI:
On the spot.
[LAUGHTER]
AMBER:
What did it look like?
DR SELVI:
It was kind of like a jig. And yeah, he was is a tall man. So it was a sight to see.
AMBER:
He was probably so worried about you.
DR SELVI:
He really was. He really, really was like everybody was. You know, if I went back and told that younger self of mine that you know, things would be fine and I’d be where I am today. She would not believe me. She would have been like, yeah, right.
[LAUGHTER]
AMBER:
Yeah. How is that gonna happen?
DR SELVI:
What are you on right now?
AMBER:
So but how did you how did you manage all of this? Were you just like surviving, trying to get through medical school?
DR SELVI:
Pretty much. Yeah. So I’m going I got to medical school and to anyone who’s been there knows medical school is no joke.
AMBER:
I mean, even if you haven’t done it, yeah, you’d like I mean, you don’t really know what it’s like, but you have this, you know, nebulous idea that it’s a very challenging thing. And then how do you manage it with a chronic illness, especially as it sounds like yours wasn’t very well controlled at the time.
DR SELVI:
Correct.
AMBER:
Yeah.
DR SELVI:
It was hard. It was definitely hard. And you know, there are so many days, you know, I was thinking about this earlier this morning, and recently, you know, where I would be in just so much pain, I couldn’t make it to the lecture hall. And so, you know, we had notes that we could refer to, and there were certain things that we could do from home. But you know, there were days where I just wanted to be there, and I just, I couldn’t, because I was curled up in a ball in pain at home. Or, I would be driving to a rotation. Like, I remember driving to a rotation, like literally screaming because my intestines are just in such pain.
And, you know, I love the medical profession. I love doctors. But sometimes there’s also that pressure of like, you know, you need to pull your weight and you can’t be the weakest link. And whether it’s said or not, that’s kind of the expectation, or at least that’s what was definitely in my head was like, I don’t want to be the weakest link. Like, I don’t want to be the one who’s going to be like, well, I need special help for this or that or, you know, whatever. So I would just try to suck it up and deal with it. And you know, I have a fistula too and that was interesting because, you know, thankfully, it wasn’t too active, but it was enough to literally drain me sometimes.
So it was hard. I was very fortunate that some of my rotations were at a hospital that were close to my parents house, which is where I was staying, which made life easier. So at least I had a short commute. Third year is the toughest year where we have all of our major rotations. And one of my classmates wound up becoming a really good friend of mine. She was on the same track as me and supported me through a lot of stuff. And I think also just being at home, having my parents like my mom would cook for me, and that support certainly meant a lot and great friends as well.
AMBER:
Yeah. So you had a pretty good support network around you as you were coping with medical school.
DR SELVI:
Yeah.
AMBER:
And Crohn’s disease. And a fistula.
DR SELVI:
Yeah.
AMBER:
So you graduate.
DR SELVI:
Yes.
[LAUGHTER]
DR SELVI:
By tooth and nail, yes I did.
AMBER:
By some, just by your own sheer tenacity, I’m sure. And then well, what did you do next?
DR SELVI:
So then I, I went into residency for pediatrics, which was a joy. Also challenging
AMBER:
No, for sure. Like that is hard to see children who are ill.
DR SELVI:
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I would say a big part of what was getting me through my days was just the inspiration that these kids would give me you know, their will to fight is like nothing I’ve ever seen. And their ability to recover from really, really, really devastating illnesses is amazing. All of my experiences as a patient certainly served me as a doctor, too because I could put myself in a patient shoes in a second.
AMBER:
Yeah. So when you did your residency in pediatrics, Yes, okay. Did you finish with that?
DR SELVI:
So yeah, life had other plans.
AMBER:
Life had other plans, yeah.
DR SELVI:
Yes.
AMBER:
Or did the Crohn’s disease have other plans?
DR SELVI:
Crohn’s. Yeah. Exactly. So my previous surgery site decided to start stricturing. And I didn’t realize it I was so you know, focused on my work and busy and all of that kind of thing that I didn’t notice the symptoms. I was like, Okay, I’m vomiting. Well, maybe I picked up a virus from one of the kids like, yeah.
AMBER:
Yeah.
DR SELVI:
Denial much? [LAUGHTER] And then it was just like, you know, I was trying to push myself and I’m like, just give me the steroids. Like, I don’t care like I need to push myself through and my GI doctor is like you really sure about that. Like, maybe let’s try something else. like 6-MP didn’t work for me. You know, they tried me on methotrexate, but it wasn’t enough. Like, it was bouncing from one thing to the next. And so I was like, just give them the steroids. I don’t care. Like I just need to get through and my body was like, yeah, no. And I was vomiting one fine day, I was on call and I was vomiting overnight. And I just couldn’t do it. Like I couldn’t stop vomiting and I left and I went to another hospitals’ ER because I didn’t want to be treated at my hospital that’s just too embarrassing.
AMBER:
That makes a lot of sense.
[LAUGHTER]
DR SELVI:
And then came back and you know, at some point, like the pain just became overwhelming. So I’d have like spasms on and off. And I wound up actually in my hospitals’ ER, just in excruciating pain, like needing morphine and was admitted. And then I don’t know that they found it actually, then I think they just kind of treated me for pain and for a flare and sent me home. And then a few months later, I needed surgery. And so I was admitted, initially to my hospital, and they transferred me to Mount Sinai. And then there they saw that I developed a stricture and needed to have surgery and it was another traumatic ordeal.
AMBER:
Oh my gosh. And you’re missing work this whole time, of course.
Dr Selvi 17:56
Right. And that was when I knew that I was done.
AMBER:
Oh, really?
DR SELVI:
So I knew my body was just done. It was crying out. I remember being hospitalized and just crying inconsolably because I just knew I was done like, medicine, I couldn’t do it, not in that shape and form.
AMBER:
Not in that way.
DR SELVI:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I thought that was it. And I didn’t know what I could do, but all I knew was that I couldn’t do that anymore. And some part of me, I think, deep down realized that I needed to focus on myself, although I really wasn’t ready to admit that either. But, but yeah, it was time to finally give myself number one priority.
[Music: Emotional Piano]
AMBER:
So then you started in a different journey. Yes. So take me take me on that. How did that begin?
DR SELVI:
Okay, so first, I would say after all this happened, I came really depressed and I didn’t realize it until much later. So at this point, I felt like I lost my health, I lost my job. I lost my purpose. I, on some level lost my will to live and with all of the medical procedures and everything that I had undergone, I felt like I lost my dignity. Yeah. And so at that point, I was just like, what is there and I was just a shell of a person, you know, like just kind of existing. So I had a cooking blog, actually, for several years and I would follow other cooking blogs. And somehow in the course of this, gluten free fell into my lap, and I was such a bread addict, like, like, I have to give that up. Like, oh my God, I’m like, no bread, no pasta. No, no buttermilk biscuits like no Cinnabon?
[LAUGHTER]
AMBER:
No Cinnabon, oh my gosh.
DR SELVI:
Well, for a million other reasons there.
AMBER:
Like, no, I’m with you on that. I don’t want to give that up either.
DR SELVI:
Yeah. But then at some point, I thought, okay, maybe if I can ease into it if it helps, maybe it will actually be worth it. And so, so I kind of, you know, ease myself into it, decreasing slowly and then I would substitute like I’d use a lot of the gluten free substitutes, initially. And I started to feel better. It’s like, huh, that’s interesting. And then paleo fell into my lap, and then I started easing into that. And then eventually I wound up on the GAPS diet. Have you heard of that?
AMBER:
Yes.
DR SELVI:
Okay. So it’s kind of like the SCD diet, which is pretty popular, but sort of you add bone broth.
AMBER:
Restrictive?
DR SELVI:
And it’s certainly restrictive. Yeah, time intensive too. But I feel like that finally started to give me a sense of purpose. Like there was something I could actually do.
AMBER:
So at some point, you probably realize that you could help other people on their journeys.
DR SELVI:
Absolutely. Yeah. That was my big aha. And it took me a long time to get there. You know, once I finally started to feel a little better. Then I started to, like, explore what do I want to do and I started to actually enjoy life again. So I was like, Okay, now I can actually build those relationships that got lost, like, you know, find those friendships again that fell by the wayside, you know, go out to restaurants travel, like, do all of those things for a while, and then I was like, You know what? I was meant to be a healer like, you know, that’s what I always wanted to do. So how can I do this in a way that’s going to help people but in a way, that’s not going to hurt me.
And so that was when health coaching fell into my lap, and I went to school for at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, okay, and I became a certified health coach. And so that gave me not just the nutrition background, but also like holistic wellness, you know, it’s we kind of talked about that, and those words are sort of bounced around a lot, but it really is a way of life for me. And it really spoke to me and so I said, Okay, how can I take all of these tools now, my personal experience with Crohn’s my love of cooking, put all of that together and how can I give back to the IBD community? And that was when cooking with Crohn’s was born. And so yeah I work with people with IBD really closely, to help them to soothe their guts naturally, so they can enjoy life again. And it’s been amazing.
AMBER:
And so when someone contacts you to your website, and then you get started with them, what’s that process like?
DR SELVI:
So, whenever they contact me, we have a call first. So I talk to them about their unique situation. Because you know, as we know, everybody’s situation is unique, no two people are the same. So then we figure out what are their next best steps, you know, sometimes it’s someone else that I know that I’ll refer them to. Sometimes it’s something else. Sometimes it’s something that I have. And if it winds up being that I’m able to work closely with this person, we tailor it to their particular situation, so their likes their dislikes.
Basically, the point is that we try to figure out what their body likes best, and how to optimize their healing for them, given their current medication Given their current medical history, how can we optimize things so that their bodies in the best way possible to, for example, even take their current medical regimen? And make sure it’s working to the best of their ability? Like, are you doing things that are inadvertently or sometimes honestly, we do it on purpose, sabotaging our regimen? So I’ve seen the power of that. And that’s what I try and show my clients when I work closely with them. And that’s my goal for them, you know, because I’ve tasted how good life can be. And that’s what I would love for other people to experience and if I can do that for one person, like, that’s enough.
AMBER:
I feel like: Your journey meant something then.
DR SELVI:
Absolutely, you know, and it’s like, you know, people talk about, oh, if I could do things differently, and you know, if I could rewrite the past. A: I can’t rewrite the past and B: it’s taught me so much.
AMBER:
Yeah.
DR SELVI:
And if I can take what I’ve learned and the mistakes that I’ve made, and I can help someone else like it’s worth it.
[Music: Piano Transition]
AMBER:
So you have 5 tips for getting through social functions or family functions when you have IBD.
DR SELVI:
Yes.
AMBER:
All right. Dr. Selvi. Lay it on me.
Dr Selvi 24:14
Well, the first one I’m going to say is, you know, learn to say “no.” So I think sometimes we say yes to things. Just because we feel like we’re obligated to. It’s okay to say no, you know, it’s okay to put yourself first and, in fact, it’s imperative to your healing. So if it’s something that feeds your soul, and you makes you feel good, and you’re going to really enjoy the people who are there, then go otherwise, let yourself say no, let yourself off the hook. So yeah, that’s the first one before we’re even talking about going like: do you want to or do you not want to ?
AMBER:
All right, number two,
DR SELVI:
Okay, number two, is having a buddy or a wingman, or I guess a wing person, not to be discriminative. Yeah. You know, somebody that you can rely on, whether that’s a spouse, whether it’s a close friend. Someone who has your back and maybe you have either a code word or a code like eye contact. It doesn’t have to be overt but just something so you know, if things are getting to be too much and you need to get out that this person knows and they can get you out of there smoothly and it’s not a scene. It doesn’t have to be dramatic and sometimes just knowing that that person’s there and that “out” is there, it just makes it easier and you don’t even need it in the first place.
AMBER:
All right, number three.
DR SELVI:
Number three is bringing a safe food to a family event. And I personally love this one obviously because I love to cook but it’s also I feel like sometimes people think “Oh you poor thing. You’re on this restrictive diet. Oh, you can’t eat this, oh woe is you,” and it doesn’t have to be that way. Like you know we all have foods that we enjoy that everyone can enjoy. So when you bring something to a family event, A: you feel like you’re part of it, B: you know people see that you’re living and you know you’re actually able to enjoy things and, you know, and at the very least, like, you know, you have something that you can eat, that’s not gonna make you sick. And that gives you some peace of mind.
AMBER:
Yeah. Perfect. All right. What are we on? Number four?
DR SELVI:
Yes.
AMBER:
Number four.
DR SELVI:
So number four is taking a few minutes just to focus on the positive. So what I mean by this is, you know, the word gratitude list has been thrown around a lot, but it’s just taking five minutes to list three things that you’re grateful for. And sometimes it’s even just like: I woke up today to fight another day. That’s a win as far as I’m concerned. And when you do that, you shift your mindset to a more positive mindset. You look at things differently, and it just decreases your stress. And it makes things just that much more enjoyable. So morning or evening, I love doing it in the morning personally, because it just starts my day off on the right note. But that can just help to, to ease all of that chatter in your mind all that stress that you might have around situations.
AMBER:
Yeah. I love it. Alright. Last but not least, number five.
DR SELVI:
Last but not least, is to enjoy yourself. You know and just enjoy the company enjoy being able to be out like if you’re actually able to be out and you’ve been struggling like know, just enjoy that time and you know, allow yourself to enjoy those interactions. Make sure you avoid your trigger foods as much as possible. No, I do have times where I’m like, this thing that I know so-and-so makes is amazing. And it’s worth it. So I’ll have a spoonful or two but know your limits and just enjoy the event.
AMBER:
Yeah, that’s, that’s such great advice. Thank you so much. I love actionable things. I love tips. So thanks so much. So how has the conference been? We’re at Crohn’s and Colitis Congress in Austin.
DR SELVI:
Yeah, it’s been fantastic so far. Yeah. But I’ve learned a lot for sure. I’m able to connect with some really amazing people. Right? Definitely feeling inspired. And got to see you. It’s been far too long since we met.
AMBER:
I know, right? A little while. Yes, you were definitely on my radar, I wanted to connect with you. And just the fact that we were both here at this time just made it perfect. So thank you for taking an hour out of your Congress to come and talk with me. Your story is so impactful. You’ve been through so much, but I love how you have taken it and framed it and used it to be a driving force in the IBD community and to help other people. That’s because I feel like that’s really what it’s all about otherwise why did you suffer the way that you did?
DR SELVI:
It’s true. It’s absolutely true. And I feel like we all have our own story. And you know, everyone is just so inspiring in their own way and the strength that this community has just never fails to inspire you. And thank you so much for, you know, for interviewing me, and I’m so glad that we met and you know, I’m glad we were able to meet up here and in Austin at this conference. And thanks for doing what you do. You know, putting these stories out there and just inspiring people like you.
AMBER:
Thank you so much. You’re adorable. This has been so much fun.
DR SELVI:
This has been a lot of fun. We could just go on forever.
AMBER:
I know. Maybe we’ll have a part two. Thanks, Dr Selvi.
[Music: IBD Dance Party]
AMBER:
Hey, super listener. Thank you to Dr Selvi for sharing her story and for the 5 tips for making it through family functions and special occasions with IBD.
You can find Dr Selvi on Facebook (as selvi.vasudevan), Instagram (dr.selvi.ibd), Twitter (DrSelvi_), and on her site, drselvi.com. I will put all her information in the show notes and on the episode 64 page on my site, aboutibd.com. She promised me some brownies if I pronounced her name right so I really hope I nailed it!
Did you know you can help me keep producing this show? By subscribing in your favorite podcast app and leaving a review there. I’m a small creator and I don’t have funding or a staff, so I stay in business through people like you subscribing and sharing my content. Sharing is simple, it’s free, and it will ensure that I can continue to be an independent voice in the IBD community.
About IBD is a production of Mal and Tal Enterprises.
It is written, produced, and directed by me, Amber Tresca.
Sound engineering is by Mac Cooney and theme music is from Cooney Studio.
Until next time, I want you to know more about IBD.