Companion Magazine for IBD Volume 1 | Page 23

Pettiford & Arthel Neville. Brooke is a single mother of a young son, Jax Honeycutt, and they currently reside in Los Angeles. Brooke is the creator and blogger for The Crazy Creole Mommy Chronicles, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America Lifestyle Ambassador, the Event Manager for Club MomMe Los Angeles, and the LA Happy Mama rep for Happy Family Brands. Brooke has also written for The Right Start blog owned by popular baby store The Right Start, and she has been featured in The Phoenix Ostomy Magazine & on CCFA.org. www.crazycreolemommy.com Follow Us On Twitter: @crzycreolemommy Follow Us On Instagram: @crazycreolemama RASHEED CLARK AUTHOR OF: THREE TABLETS TWICE DAILY a book of short stories about life with ulcerative colitis “I had my first collision with colitis in 2007, as I was in the midst of training for a half-marathon. It really blindsided me because I felt as though I was in very good condition, both mentally and physically. A combination of medications put the disease into remission, and I wasn’t formally diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. That official declaration came in 2008 after another, more prolonged flare-up. In January 2009, I began taking prednisone and 5-ASA medications, and they worked wonderfully. I stayed in remission from early 2009 until December 2010, and that’s when things went awry. From that point I went through a number of treatments – Azathioprine, probiotics, restrictive diets, naturopathic remedies, Infliximab – all of which failed. I decided to opt for a J-pouch, and had my first surgery in May 2013. That operation came with a number of complications. I still have a loop ileostomy and I hope to have the take down surgery in December 2013 or January 2014. While I was in my third year at the University of Toronto, studying communications and writing, I took a course called Science and Writing. That’s where I began to research UC 22