Voices Across America

IBD: Meeting the need for peer to peer education

Amber

State: Connecticut
Congressional District: CT04

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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