Tag Archives: podcast

Accommodations for IBD in College – About IBD Podcast Episode 131

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What happens when your professional life and your IBD overlap? Sari Grossman is a research scientist, Crohn’s disease patient, and advocate for patients with chronic illnesses. She shares her experience with Crohn’s disease, including her family history of IBD, diagnosis at a young age, her unusual symptoms, and the impact it had on her life. She speaks candidly about the physical and emotional challenges of living with a chronic illness, and how she has learned to cope with the ups and downs of her condition.

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About IBD Podcast Episode 112 - How to Be Happy & Healthy With IBD: Discussing IBD With Family and Friends

About IBD Podcast Episode 112 – How to Be Happy & Healthy With IBD: Discussing IBD With Family and Friends

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People who live with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis don’t want to feel like a burden. They may feel guilty about changing or canceling plans. Sometimes, people with IBD may not even want to make plans in the first place. A strong support system can help overcome these issues and help patients manage their new normal. Dr Alexandra Fuss, a clinical health psychologist and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and Brooke Abbott, ulcerative colitis patient, founder of The Crazy Creole Mommy Chronicles, and co-founder of IBDMoms tell me how they have productive conversations with friends and family surrounding IBD.

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About IBD Podcast Episode 109 Cover

About IBD Episode 109 – Colitis Conversations: Treating to Target

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Setting goals is an important part of managing IBD. But after controlling symptoms: what other goals do patients have? They can be anything from being able to go up and down the stairs, to cooking a meal, to going back to an exercise program.

Treating to target is a concept that helps in goal-setting. But patients might not be using this method with their clinicians. Dr Neilanjan Nandi, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and IBD specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine and Jacklyn Green, ulcerative colitis patient, writer, and IBDMom, dig deeper into the idea of treat to target from both sides of the equation.

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About IBD Podcast Episode 97 Cover

About IBD Podcast Episode 97 – Wine, Biscuits, and Drinking Water With Author Kathleen Nicholls

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Life with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) brings challenges and many life changes but it can also sometimes bring unexpected opportunities.

Kathleen Nicholls, author of “Go Your Crohn Way: A Gutsy Guide to Living with Crohn’s Disease” and “My Flare Lady: a handbook for today’s (diseased) dame” was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in her 20s. She started a blog as a way to process her disease journey. She was stunned when people started reading it and when publishers became interested. Two books later, she shares the lessons she learned along the way.

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About IBD Podcast Episode 96 Cover

About IBD Podcast Episode 96 – Fatherhood and IBD With Jordan McConnell of Crohn’s Veteran

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The patient advocacy space is lacking the voices of men and especially men of color. The result is that the IBD community is not diverse enough to provide the kind of support that they need.

Jordan McConnell, the founder of Crohn’s Veteran, is looking to change the dynamics of the online IBD space. Jordan served in the military and was eventually discharged due to his Crohn’s disease. It was a shock and changed his career plans unexpectedly. His disease journey showed him that he needed to be the change and he developed his podcast and his brand to support men and the larger IBD community.

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About IBD Podcast 95 Episode Cover

About IBD Podcast Episode 95 – Kelly Owens: Vagus Nerve Girl

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What is the next innovation in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)? Is it the microbiome? Stem cells? Or, is it the emerging field of bioelectric medicine?

IBD is a complicated disease to treat and can bring complications and other, related conditions. The problem is the immune-mediated nature of the disease and how it affects the entire body. For Kelly Owens, who lives with Crohn’s disease, bioelectric medicine has bumped her into remission and changed her life in several ways. Today she goes by “Vagus Nerve Girl” because she had a device implanted in her chest that stimulates her vagus nerve. For her, this treatment has been a resounding success.

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About IBD - The Power In Your IBD Story

The Power In Your IBD Story

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When I asked Rosanne Mottola to come on About IBD and discuss her recent vaccination against COVID-19, I was excited that we could share her story with other people who live with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It has been a difficult year for everyone, but people who live with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis have also weathered a significant amount of uncertainty in regards to their health.

I also asked her to come back to briefly update me after her second dose and I thought I’d add it on as a segment of a longer episode. My intention was to understand how she felt physically and emotionally after the second shot, which wouldn’t take long. But it turns out we had more business to discuss and instead, we created another full-length episode together.

It became clear to me that Rosanne’s experience through the process of agreeing to tell her ulcerative colitis story and in creating Episode 87 with me brought up some salient issues that I’ve probably been long remiss in addressing.

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About IBD Podcast Episode 83 - Gaming4Guts

About IBD Podcast Episode 83 – The Streamers From Gaming4Guts

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Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week is full of events that aim to raise funds and understanding of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). One of these is Gaming4Guts, a gaming marathon to raise funds for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. Participants stream over Twitch during the 72-hour event but they have also formed a community, keeping in contact year-round on the Gaming4Guts Discord server. Kenzie, John, and Mark from Gaming4Guts sat down with me to talk about their personal connections to IBD, the evolution of Gaming4Guts, and what their goals are this year.

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About IBD Episode 68 - What It's Like to Have IBD and COVID-19

About IBD Episode 68 – What It’s Like to Have IBD and COVID-19

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People living with IBD who have suppressed immune systems because of medication are understandably concerned about their risks surrounding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19. Jamie Horrigan, a medical student and founder of “Sweetened By Nature,” lives with Crohn’s disease and gastroparesis and was diagnosed with COVID-19. She describes her experiences with symptoms, diagnosis, isolation, and recovery. She also gives some insight on why a common complication of coronaviruses, called a cytokine storm, may be an important factor of COVID-19 for people with IBD.

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

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

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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.

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