If you have inflammatory bowel disease, you’re probably aware of the many ways IBD affects body parts that aren’t your bowels—from arthritic joints, to skin rashes, to mouth ulcers, to inflammation behind the eyes, and more. But did you know that ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s can affect your bones too? In this blog post, I […]
Encouragement to Those Dealing with Insurance Issues
Living with chronic illness means hours of frustrating hours spent on the phone dealing with insurance issues. Am I right, or am I right? In this post, I’m going to share a recent experience dealing with a major health insurance issue and how I resolved the issue. If you’re going through a similar experience, read […]
3 Reasons Why Prednisone Causes Weight Gain (And 3 Tips to Stop Gaining More Weight)
If you have Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis, you’ve probably taken prednisone at some point. Prednisone, sometimes referred to as the “devil’s tic-tacs” in the chronic illness community, has some fairly intense side effects including weight gain. But why exactly does it cause weight gain? And what can you do to prevent gaining weight? Keep reading […]
7 Practical Tips to Hide and Prevent Chronic Illness-Related Hair Loss
IBD is an invisible disease. One of the top invisible extraintestinal manifestations I deal with is hair loss. I’ve met many others in the chronic illness community who deal with hair loss, whether it’s due to medications, malnutrition, or the disease itself. Regardless of the cause, there are techniques to hide the hair loss and […]
A Flare Forced Me to Drop Out of Grad School (And Then Helped Me Find the Job of My Dreams)
Something you might not know about me is a terrible ulcerative colitis flare forced me to drop out of college. In this blog post, I share the symptoms of this life-changing flare and why dropping my classes surprisingly turned out to be the best thing for me. Flaring at the Beginning of Grad School In […]
The Link Between Autoimmune Arthritis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
In honor of the annual awareness day, World IBD Day, I’m sharing five invisible aspects of my life with ulcerative colitis. This year’s theme is “Making the invisible visible,” so I thought I’d launch this series by sharing my top invisible extraintestinal manifestation: joint pain. Joint Pain: An Invisible Extraintestinal Manifestation One thing that a […]