LOOP

I stumbled upon ImproveCareNow (ICN) by chance. A predecessor to the network, the C3N Project, had been mentioned in passing during assigned reading for one of my university courses. Naturally, as someone with ulcerative colitis (UC) I was intrigued. Though at the time I was busy with essays, a dissertation and job applications so C3N fell to the back of my mind.  

My name is Steve Woolf and I come from a family of five in Fairfax, Virginia, including a daughter in college and two 17-year-old twins, one of whom is Becky. Becky was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at age seven, although we believe she was symptomatic before then.

It’s been a busy year for the Patient Advisory Council (PAC). Twenty-eighteen has seen the PAC evolve to be more dynamic and engaged than ever before. The progress and developments made in our group of 50+ patient members include substantial leadership changes and more toolkits than I can even remember. 

As co-chair of the Patient Advisory Council (PAC) Advocacy task force, I am excited to announce our new Accommodations Toolkit! Becky and I (with lots of support from the entire PAC and ICN social workers) developed this toolkit as a resource to help patients, parents and providers better understand and navigate the accommodations process.

LOOP is making an impression on the IBD community!

We enter December 2018 with 60 new posts, shared by 40 ImproveCareNow community members! And 27 people posted for the very first time in 2018. Posts covered topics like: IBD research, mental health, new PAC member intros, ICN event updates, what I wish you knew, and many honest accounts of life with IBD.

We are thankful for each and every one of these stories. Here are the top 10, most viewed, posts of 2018!

Next Tuesday is #givingtuesday - a movement to create an international day of giving as we enter the holiday season. This #givingtuesday we hope you'll keep ImproveCareNow in mind as you choose the organization(s) you plan to support. Why give to ImproveCareNow?

My name is Kathy Rygg, and I’m the parent partner at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha in Nebraska. My son, who is now 11, started having symptoms at two but wasn’t diagnosed with ulcerative colitis until age five. 

Thanks to the generosity of the ImproveCareNow community, and the hard work and dedication of our parent and patient partners, 30 members of the Parent Working Group and Patient Advisory Council joined us at the Fall 2018 Community Conference in Chicago. It’s been two months since we returned to our respective communities, and some parent and patient partners wanted to share their reflections on what they learned while at the conference and how they are using this at their local center to improve care.

Learning isn’t always fun but accepting that you live with a chronic disease can be downright terrifying. Whether we like it or not, we must do our best to become familiar with the ins and outs (no pun intended) of a life where IBD plays a huge role.

A few months ago, I graduated from the Umeå Institute of Design in Sweden, with a master in Advanced Product Design. For my thesis I attempted to translate my own Crohn’s disease experiences into something which could help others. I think I succeeded and would love to share the outcome of my master thesis – Pling – with everyone.

These three words (collaboration, connections, community) come to my mind when I think of ImproveCareNow (ICN). And they represent three reasons I love leading our Family Advisory Council and sharing ICN with the families of Dayton Children’s. These are my people. They understand my life. They, too, know what it’s like to parent a child with IBD.

It is for all of these reasons that I am thrilled to host Virtual Community Conference (VCC) Watch Parties – so we can collaborate, connect and feel like we’re part of a community.