Bowel Moments

Send us Fan Mail This week we talked to Myisha Malone-King! Myisha is the brains and moderator behind the Facebook group Game of Crohn's n Chronic Illness ! The goal of this group is to offer support and knowledgeable information about inflammatory bowel disease and to inspire others to not be afraid or hide because of a chronic illness. We talk to her about what discussions happen on the pag...

Send us Fan Mail This week we spoke to Marita Kametas, MSN, APN, FNP-BC, CMSRN, COCN! Marita is an Advanced Practice Provider Leader, IBD APN, and Ostomy Specialist in the IBD Center at the University of Chicago. We talked to her about all things ostomy! We discussed how providers can speak to patients about all of their treatment options including surgery and ostomies and how that language can re...

Send us Fan Mail ***Warning that this episode includes an open discussion about sexuality and may not be suitable for all audiences.*** This week we talked to the lovely Julia Gaspare-Pruchnicki! Julia is a medical student that was initially diagnosed with UC when she was 9 years old. She went on to have a colectomy and J-Pouch when she was 10 years old. After struggling with pouchitis and fistula...

Send us Fan Mail This week we spoke to IBD and Rare Disease advocate, Aaron Blocker ! Aaron lives with Crohn's disease as well as an ultra-rare disease called Hypophosphatasia. We talked to him about managing both illnesses and coordinating his care. We talked to him about how he set up his very popular and informative Facebook community called Support for Crohn's & Ulcerative Coliti...

Send us Fan Mail This week we had such an interesting and fun conversation with Dr. Meredith Craven ! Dr. Craven is a licensed health psychologist and she's the Director of GI Health Psychology in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Stanford Health. We spent quite a bit of time talking about gut directed hypnotherapy and other brain-gut behavioral health techniques. We also had...

Send us Fan Mail This week we brought back friend of the show and former guest, Hannah Cramer! Hannah and Robin have both been using Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to help them with their medical trauma.  EMDR is a psychotherapeutic technique used to help people process and recover from trauma and problematic traumatic memories that may interfere with life. They've found...

Send us Fan Mail This week we had such an informative conversation with Dr. David Choi! Dr. Choi is a Specialty Clinical Pharmacist and the Associate Director of the IBD Center at UChicago . We talked to him about his role as part of the IBD care team and how he plays an important part in patient advocacy and in getting the patient the treatment they and their provider think is best. We discussed...

Send us Fan Mail This week we spoke to Nicole and Luke Pavlin! Nicole is living with Crohn's disease and Luke is her husband and care partner. We talked about the process for her to get diagnosed and the unusual birth defect she has that complicated her case. We talked about her ongoing struggles with food anxiety and medical trauma and how the GRITT- IBD program and staff have helped her cop...

Send us Fan Mail This week we talked to Nir Salomon! Nir is the Founder and Director of the Integrative Gastroenterology unit at Sheba Medical Center in Israel. He's also the Co-Founder and Head of R&D at Evinature . Nir has done research for more than a decade on neutraceuticals for the treatment of IBD. We talked to him about his training in this area, what neutraceuticals are and how t...

Send us Fan Mail This week we talked to Dr. Michael Dolinger ! Dr. Dolinger is an Assistance Professor of Pediatric Gastroenterology at the Icahn School of Medicine and Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital. Dr. Dolinger leads the Henry and Elaine Kaufman intestinal ultrasound program at the Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, the first of its kind in the United St...

Send us Fan Mail This week we talked to Lori Plung! Lori has been living with Crohn's disease for more than 40 years and she has been living as fully and as well as possible. She's now been diagnosed with short gut syndrome and so we talk to her about what that is, what it's like, and how she uses TPN to optimize her nutrition and hydration. We also talked to her about how she came...

Send us Fan Mail This week we met Kishore Pardasani! Kishore was diagnosed with UC when he was in college and struggled to find the right treatment for his disease. Eventually he decided to manage his disease through a permanent ostomy. As he was learning to navigate life with an ostomy he was underwhelmed by the tool available to help him track his supplies, measure his output, and manage his ost...

Send us Fan Mail This week Alicia had a guest host! She was joined by friend of the show and past guest- Lauren Erbach Barnfield and they spoke to Dr. Abdul Aziz Elkadri! Dr. Elkadri is an Assistant Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin where he specializes in pediatric IBD. We talked to Dr. Elkadri about his personal connecting to IBD, how he inadvertently chose GI as his specialty and wh...

Send us Fan Mail This week we spoke to Sharan K.! Sharan lives in the UK and is the creator of the Crohn's Babble Instagram account as well as the Director of Digital Engagement at the South Asian IBD Alliance! We spoke to her about getting diagnosed and navigating her Crohn's in the UK's healthcare system. We talked to her about how challenging the system could be at times being of...

Send us Fan Mail This week we spoke to Barbara Cramer! Barbara has 2 children living with Crohn's disease. You met her daughter Hannah in episode 13 and this week you'll get to hear Barbara's side of some of Hannah's stories and experiences. Barbara's children were diagnosed at different ages- one as a teen and one has an adult- and have vastly different styles in how they...

Send us Fan Mail This week we talk to Dr. Brad Pasternak ! Dr. Pasternak is the Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program at Phoenix Children's Hospital. We talked to him about how his UC influenced his choice to go into pediatric gastroenterology and how he's coped with his disease. We talked to him about his medical training in Israel and the differences between the Israeli an...

Send us Fan Mail This week we had an entertaining conversation with Mara Shapiro! Mara was diagnosed with Crohn's disease fairly recently but has struggled with GI symptoms for quite some time. Her Crohn's was diagnosed after she was dealing with debilitating iron insufficiency. We talked to her about receiving iron infusions and how she's learned to read her labs to better know wha...

Send us Fan Mail This week we had quite the conversation with Beth Meals. Beth was diagnosed with UC but also with Endometriosis and POTS. We talked to her about struggling with all of these medical conditions when she was younger and growing up and about how her family dismissed and minimized her health conditions. We also talked about her trying to find the right healthcare providers who would e...

Send us Fan Mail This week we brought back Dr. Bincy Abraham - Distinguished Professor and Director of the Underwood Center- Fondren IBD Program at Houston Methodist and Dr. Jami Kinnucan - Senior Associate Consultant in the Section on Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic in Florida. We talked to them about their recent trip to the Digestive Disease Week conference. They mentioned the th...

Send us Fan Mail This week we spoke to Ken Carpenter! Ken is the producer and host of Athlete 1 podcast and was diagnosed with UC when he was 46 years old. Since he's been diagnosed he has had a pretty wild ride finding the right treatment and the right provider but has been so fortunate to have his wife be his partner in this process. We discussed all of the health conditions that he's...

Send us Fan Mail This week we spoke to Amanda Dinkelman! Amanda is living with Crohn's disease but she doesn't let that stop her from being active and keeping fit. She credits getting out and moving her body with helping her  cope with her disease and has even taken on a new challenge of powerlifting! We talk to her about training after a bowel resection and being very ill, how to trust...

Send us Fan Mail This week we had so much fun getting to know Natalie Hayden! You probably know her from her very popular blog- Lights, Camera, Crohn's: An Unobstructed View - and her Instagram account ! Natalie is a journalist and worked as an on-air reporter for 3 different TV stations and was also the host of Wakeup Wisconsin all while coping with Crohn's disease. We talked to her abo...

Send us Fan Mail *** Warning- This episode discusses sexuality and contains sexual content and may not be suitable for all audiences.**** This week we had a really fun conversation with Dr. Neil Nandi ! Dr. Nandi is an Associate Professor and Gastroenterologist with the University of Pennsylvania. We discussed his personal connection to IBD and how that shaped his career. We also talked about his...

Send us Fan Mail This week we had the absolute pleasure to get to know Madhura Balasubramaniam ! Madhura is a Ph. D. student in Chennai, India and she is also the Director of Patient Outreach and Advocacy for the South Asian IBD Alliance (SAIA)! She was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2019 after struggling with her health for many years. She and her doctor decided to utilize a feeding tube...

Send us Fan Mail This week we talked to Robin's long-time friend, Abbe Feitelberg! Abbe is an attorney who is living with Crohn's disease. When she isn’t working, she is usually traveling, cycling, or finding time for fun no matter what that looks like. Abbe has lived with Crohn’s since the age of 17, getting through college and law school without a proper diagnosis and many difficult da...