Welcome to the second episode in a 3-podcast series we're doing in collaboration with the ICN SWAP group (SWAP stands for Social Workers & Psychologists). In this episode, you'll hear me (Ryleigh) and my fellow PAC member Avery talking with Lauren Potthoff, PhD - an IBD psychologist at Lurie Children's in Chicago - about mental health during IBD flares.

It happens in a series of moments. Sleepless nights. Weight loss. Pain that gets worse with every day. Seeing test results of climbing inflammation numbers. I describe it distilled into one single moment: waking up from my first colonoscopy and hearing the words “ulcerative colitis.”

June is Pride Month - a time for the LGBTQIA+ community to join together and celebrate their freedom to be exactly who they are. In honor of Pride Month, members of the Patient Advisory Council have recorded a special episode of the imPACt podcast to help bring awareness to the ways that queerness and chronic illness intersect.