Tag Archives: j-pouch

About IBD Podcast Episode 103 Cover

About IBD Podcast Episode 103 – J-Pouch Surgery for Ulcerative Colitis With Vikram B. Reddy, MD, PhD

Ulcerative colitis surgery is sometimes viewed as the last stop for treatment but it can be a good option to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Dr. Vikram Reddy, Division Chief of Yale Medicine, Colon and Rectal Surgery, answers questions about j-pouch surgery including how patients feel about it, how he manages his patients after surgery, what complications might occur, and why surgery for ulcerative colitis is complicated and nuanced.

Continue reading
About IBD Episode 63 - Accommodations, Health Insurance, and IBD at Work

About IBD Podcast Episode 63 – Accommodations, Health Insurance, and IBD at Work

People who live with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis have more to consider when it comes to the workplace. The cost of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) means that a comprehensive insurance plan is a must, which may limit job choices. A flare-up or complication that results in absences can lead to poor performance reviews or difficulties with supervisors or co-workers. How can people with IBD cope? Three women who live with IBD, Megan Starshak, Mary Elizabeth Ulliman, and Tina Aswani Omprakash, tell their stories about missing work, being underinsured, and changing jobs while managing IBD.

Continue reading
About IBD Episode 55 - You Have to Take Care of Yourself

About IBD Podcast Episode 55 – You Have to Take Care of Yourself

Being diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) at any time or at any age is challenging. However, the pre-biologic era was especially difficult because of the lack of treatment options and the absence of some of the legal protections that are in place today. Danielle O’Connor tells her story of being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at a young age and how she managed her career as a special education teacher through many hospitalizations and surgeries.

Continue reading
About IBD - 20 Years Later_ The Matrix and My J-Pouch

20 Years Later: The Matrix and My J-Pouch

I was fortunate to see The Matrix on its first run in theaters when it came out on March 31, 1999. We knew little about the movie at the time, only that it was science fiction and it looked amazing and that we would want to see it on the big screen and not later on VHS (DVD was not yet mainstream). The movie came out only a few weeks after my first of two surgeries to create my j-pouch (or IPAA, ileal pouch-anal anastomosis) to treat ulcerative colitis (which is one form of inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD).

I love The Matrix, and how could I not? It contains so many narrative aspects I enjoy, including science fiction, robots taking over the world, an unconventionally beautiful and lethal female character, and a kick-ass soundtrack. To be honest, there are a lot of things about the plot that don’t hold up to serious scrutiny. But that’s fine, it is still amazing and undeniably groundbreaking in both storytelling and technical aspects.

When The Matrix opens, the watcher has no idea what is going on. This is my favorite way to be pulled into a story: absolutely cold, with no frame of reference. There’s no exposition; the narrative plunks you right into this universe that works differently than the one you know. You have to make a decision right then and there, if you are all in and if you’re ready for the filmmakers to take you on the ride and teach you about their world. For me, it was my first time being out of the house and enjoying myself after having surgery, and I was so ready for the journey.

(Mild spoilers for The Matrix are contained in this article, so if you haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen it lately, go watch it now. I mean, how can you exist in the world and understand what other people talk about without having seen it?)

Continue reading

Your Body Is Depending on You to Be Assertive

About IBD Podcast 38 – Your Body Is Depending on You to Be Assertive

It’s common for people with IBD to look online for patients who have a similar disease journey to their own. For men, however, there are fewer places to find such a peer because there are not as many men in the IBD influencer space as there are women. That’s where Rasheed Clarke, author of Three Tablets Twice Daily, blogger, and ulcerative colitis and j-pouch patient steps in. Hear Rasheed contrast how his running career is different before and after j-pouch surgery, his thoughts on being one of the few male voices in the online IBD community, how we can encourage more men to share their journey, and the wild and wonderful thing he did with a toilet for World IBD Day in 2017.
Continue reading

Coming Clean About My IBD Mistakes

Coming Clean About My IBD Mistakes

I’ve made many mistakes along my disease journey. The first, and most dangerous, was to believe that my fate was already sealed.
This post was sponsored by AbbVie Inc. Personal opinions and thoughts are my own.

Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week is December 1-7. If you have Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, get tips from gastroenterologist Dr. Corey Siegel, a Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis expert, by visiting the online Expert Advice Tool before your next trip to the doctor’s office.

When I was 16, I was diagnosed with a disease I’d never heard of called ulcerative colitis. Approximately 700,000 people in the United States are affected by ulcerative colitis – a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by inflammation of the large intestine (colon and rectum). It is not caused by food or a contagious disease. 

Those are the facts. Now, for the reality. Continue reading

Episode 25 - You're 40-Something Years Old!

About IBD Podcast 25 – You’re 40-Something Years Old!

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.

Continue reading

Podcast Episode 24 - You Have to Have Joy

About IBD Podcast 24 – You Have to Have Joy With Sara Ringer

With an invisible illness such as IBD, it can be challenging to protect your quality of life. Patient influencers often push themselves in the service of others and that may seem strange to those that follow along on social media. How can someone be so sick and yet be able to attend a medical conference? Sara Ringer of Inflamed and Untamed explains how what you see online can be misleading and how she manages two difficult digestive diseases, all while striving to live a fulfilling life that includes being a resource for other patients seeking information and support.

Continue reading

About IBD Podcast 20 – This Is Just the Beginning with Michael Tresca

Take a journey back to 1999, when cellphones were a rarity, dial-up internet access was still in use, and Amber had her first surgery of the 2-step j-pouch process. Amber’s husband Mike, a writer and communicator, journaled his thoughts on the day of the surgery. This journal was recently uncovered and Amber reads it to Mike and gets his reactions and further recollections of that challenging day.

Continue reading