Living

I recently found myself presented with the perfect opportunity for a self-care day. My partner was hosting an old college friend at our place for the weekend, and being the...

We all get flares from time to time throughout the year, sometimes more than we would like, but have you ever noticed that they are either worse or more frequent...

Recently, I had to go to the salon to get my hair cut. It took about 3 hours. That meant 3 whole hours of sitting in a chair in a public...

I turned 55 last month and June marked my 35th year with a Crohn's diagnosis. It might say 55 on my drivers license, but in my mind, I still feel...

Recently I was trying to think about 1 pivotal moment in my life that was impacted by Crohn's disease and shaped me as a person, and I think it's naive...

I think the title says it all. Yes, it happened. The dreaded intensity of urgency hit me hard on my vacation to Disney World. There was no way around it. I had no...

Living with inflammatory bowel disease is such a multifaceted set of challenges. There are obviously physical things we struggle with – from abdominal pain to frequent and urgent bathroom trips...

"Oooh... It smells so good," I think to myself. I try to ignore the sizzle, crackle, pop of greasy goodness. But it's right there in front of me. "You know...

"Low-residue"? What's that? The low-residue diet limits the intake of foods that are high in fiber, particularly insoluble fiber. The purpose of this is to reduce the amount of undigested...

It has been 12 years since I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. I look back at all I have been through with this complex diagnosis, and I feel like my head...

Through the 13 years of living with Crohn's disease and the many years of experience I have been a part of the the IBD community as a moderator, contributor, and...

The eternal question: What's for dinner? Regardless of whether you have Crohn's or ulcerative colitis, figuring out what to make for dinner (again . . .) can feel like a...

We all know that we are living in unprecedented times. I guess if there was a silver lining to this pandemic it would be that we all learned how to...

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...