Tag Archives: family

About IBD Podcast 53 – He Would Do the Same for Me

Caregivers play an important role in the disease journey. For Rebecca Kaplan, whose husband, Dan, lives with Crohn’s disease, caregiving has been a large part of her life at times. When she went looking for support for herself as a caregiver, what she found was a need for more resources. She went on to not only create a support space for caregivers but also to take a leadership role in the inflammatory bowel disease community that benefits everyone who is touched by these diseases.

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About IBD Podcast 40 – What Are People Going to Think?

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People who live with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis experience stigma because of their inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The taboo topic of bowel disease can permeate all aspects of a person’s life, especially when there are cultural influences also at play. Tina Aswani Omprakash, who lives with Crohn’s disease and a permanent ileostomy, shares her story of personal empowerment and how she is working to help other people with IBD live their lives with confidence. Tina describes how IBD has profoundly affected her family as well as why she decided to become an outspoken advocate for the IBD and ostomy communities and start her blog, Own Your Crohn’s.

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About IBD Podcast 39 – Help for Parents With Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis

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How does IBD affect your family? Do you know about the tools and resources that are available to help you on your disease journey? On this episode of About IBD, I talk with the Director of Patient Education and Support at the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, Catherine Soto, who outlines the many tools the Foundation provides for anyone with IBD, including those made just for parents, kids, and teens. I also spoke with Dr Rajeev Jain, who tells me about a new, one-of-a-kind resource for women with IBD who want to be mothers, called the IBD Parenthood Project. And finally I called upon Brooke Abbott, co-founder of IBD Moms, to talk about her role as a patient in developing the IBD Parenthood Project, and she entertains me with a small rant about social media.

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How to Cope With Your IBD Guilt

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We think of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as being a disorder of the digestive tract, but anyone who has IBD will tell you that it affects the entire body. Something that is often overlooked when dealing with digestive disease is how it affects our emotions. Some people with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis find that there’s one emotion overwhelmingly associated with the disease: guilt. Continue reading →

About IBD Podcast 32 – Community Doesn’t Just Create Itself

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What are your traditions around Thanksgiving? What we eat and how we celebrate Thanksgiving depends on where we live, our ethnicity, and our family traditions. What matters is coming together and remembering to be thankful. Brooke Abbott of The Crazy Creole Mommy Chronicles and IBD Moms tells me about some of her family’s Thanksgiving traditions and how she talks about being grateful with her son. We discuss some of the ways we try to support the IBD community and what we can do better, especially during the hectic and stressful holiday season. Plus, see the end of the show notes for some of Brooke’s recipes!

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How to Learn More About Your Family IBD History

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Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) tends to run in families but it’s not as simple as being passed down from parent to child. It’s more complicated because of the number of genes that are involved and the fact that it’s the genes plus some “trigger” that starts the disease process. In fact, many people with IBD don’t have a family history of the disease. Even so, it’s worth digging into family history in order to learn if there’s more IBD or immune-mediated conditions in the family.
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About IBD Podcast 27 – Welcome to Camp Oasis

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What is your favorite week of the year? For the kids, counselors, and volunteers at Camp Oasis, their favorite is camp week. Learn more about a summer camp that’s designed especially for kids who have IBD but is also the place where the campers actually feel the most freedom from their disease. Amber visited camp on visitor’s day and talked with campers, leaders in training, and counselors to find out what makes Camp Oasis so special to them.
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Amber’s Top Picks for Breastfeeding Gear

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In honor of World Breastfeeding Week, I thought I’d share some of my favorite products that helped me when I was breastfeeding. “Wait,” you ask, “I thought all you needed was a pair of lactating breasts?” Yes, that’s true, you can breastfeed with nothing besides your breasts and your two arms, but let’s not be martyrs. It’s fine to rely on some items to be more comfortable and make the nursing experience more rewarding. After all, we should do whatever we can to make the time breastfeeding as pleasant as possible. To that end, here are the items that I used — and liked — while I was nursing my two children.
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About IBD Podcast 25 – You’re 40-Something Years Old!

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How does IBD impact the family? Couples who are thinking about having children when one or both of them have IBD often have questions about how the disease will affect their family. Amber interviews her 8-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son about how IBD does — and doesn’t — affect their lives.

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About IBD Podcast 2 – Let’s Talk About “The Talk” With Your Partner

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The second edition of the About IBD Podcast where I talk with 3 women with IBD about their experiences in telling their partners about their illness.

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