IBD: Meeting the need for peer to peer education
Amber
State: Connecticut
Congressional District: CT04
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Diseases
Gastrointestinal Disease
Issues and Challenges
Amber has encountered: Access to Medicine, Copay Issues, Copay Accumulator, Invisible Illness, Step-Therapy / Fail First
My Story
When I was 16 and a junior in high school, I saw blood in my stool. It took a few months to see a gastroenterologist and have a colonoscopy. The inside of my colon looked like raw hamburger and I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
After graduating college, I went a few years without health insurance. When I became insured again and saw a new gastroenterologist, my colonoscopy showed a badly damaged colon, and a colectomy with j-pouch creation was recommended right away.
I realized how little I knew about IBD and how that was dangerous. I began my professional writing career covering IBD, later creating the About IBD blog and Podcast, and co-founded the nonprofit, IBDMoms.
My Motivation and Inspiration
My experiences showed me the need for patient voices and peer to peer patient education. At the end of the day, what’s important to me is doing what’s right for patients.
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