About IBD

Patient Leader

I’ve been writing about inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other health conditions since 2000. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at 16, at a time when there wasn’t much information, there were few treatment options, and the Internet was still far off. At 26 I had a colectomy with the creation of a j-pouch. I have two children, who were born after I had my j-pouch surgery. I'm a writer, advocate, and patient educator and besides writing the IBD topic area at Verywell.com, I have my own site at AboutIBD.com, the About IBD Podcast on iTunes, and travel several times a year to educate people with IBD and learn more about these diseases from physician experts in clinical care.