Living

Yes, I once spent over 367 days in the hospital due to complications with Crohn's. Many days I was too sedated to talk or think straight. But there were also many...

"Eat this, not that!" screams the advertisement on TV. That phrase sure captures the history of living with ulcerative colitis or Crohn's. For years, gastroenterologists handed me a printed out...

"Storms make the oak grow deeper roots." –George Herbert Last night, I saw rippling streaks of lightning across the black night sky. It flashed its wiry, electric charges, and my...

I first started talking openly about having inflammatory bowel disease in 2014. I had pouchitis, and I was sick of people not getting that I was ill, because I looked...

It has been 12 years since I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. And within those 12 years, I have tried many medications, some being: mesalamine, Remicade, Entyvio, Humira, Stelara, azathioprine...

If there is one thing we can always count on with Crohn's disease, it is its unpredictability. We can be cruising along, doing our thing, enjoying life when BAM! A flare...

My IBD diagnostic journey took several years longer than it should have. I started showing consistent symptoms in the fall of 2009, and wasn't correctly diagnosed until early 2016. During...

The pain is back. Like a jackhammer in my gut, I feel the pulsating, rippling high-tide of pain throbbing throughout my belly. As I draft these words, I sit hunched...

I recently was giving an oral medical history to a new medical provider. This past fall, I was diagnosed with asthma, and I had been seeing a pulmonologist to manage...

As an IBD advocate, I talk all the time about how this is far more than just a pooping disease. As anyone with IBD knows, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis...

Colonoscopies and living with IBD go together like milk and cookies – you cannot have one without the other. It is highly likely that as a Crohn's or UC patient...

Living with ulcerative colitis can be difficult, requiring constant attention. After being diagnosed, I felt that my life had been upended. I struggled to find ways to cope and often...

It is a pretty scary time when you start having symptoms that you cannot figure out or understand. It's sometimes even scarier having to go see a doctor, or even...

There are many routine questions asked at my doctor's check-ups and one of those is always: How much do you weigh? My relationship with my weight has always been a...

I will admit, I have an addiction. It's a good addiction. I promise. I am addicted to coffee. I really love it, and have acquired such a craving for it. I know...

Failing a medication is always a hard blow to deal with. When you first try a new drug, you think that this could finally be it. This medication can finally be the...

With Crohn's and ulcerative colitis comes pain, sickness, flares, and so many emotions. Through all of my difficult health struggles, having my service dog Piper by my side has been...

It is inevitable. If you have Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, you will be asked for a stool test at some point throughout your IBD journey. For me, personally, I...

If you have Crohn's or UC, you have likely fallen into the "low iron" category. Malabsorption of key nutrients like iron, vitamin D, and B12 are common among IBD patients...

"Variability is the law of life, and as no two faces are the same, so no two bodies are alike, and no two individuals react alike and behave alike under...