photo by: LMH Health
Skyelar Maloney, a nurse navigator who works with IBD patients
Crohn’s disease. Ulcerative colitis.
You may have heard these names during the commercial breaks of your favorite show. If so, you’ve heard of the most common forms of a group of medical conditions known as inflammatory bowel disease. But what are they?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IBD is a lifelong disease that affects up to 3.1 million adults in the United States. This disease occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the healthy cells in your intestines, causing inflammation and damage to the lining of your intestines that doesn’t go away on its own.
Skyelar Maloney is a nurse navigator who works with the IBD patients seen by the team at Lawrence GI Consultants at LMH Health. She said that diagnosing IBD is complex and can take time, and it all starts by talking with your health care team when symptoms begin.
“Our providers will go through your complete medical history, your current symptoms and perform a physical exam,” she said. “Part of the initial work up will also include lab work and/or stool testing.”
Maloney said that your provider will also have you undergo additional diagnostic testing to get to the root cause of the problem. This can include an upper endoscopy or EGD, a colonoscopy or other testing.
“There could also be further imaging studies needed to diagnose your condition,” she said. “We may use MRE — magnetic resonance enterography — to take a closer look at your small and large intestines.”
Obtaining an IBD diagnosis is just the first step to finding relief. IBD is a chronic condition, meaning it is something you will have for the rest of your life. Patients who have IBD have a higher chance of developing colorectal cancer.
Symptoms may not just be associated with your bowels, either. Patients can experience physical manifestations with joint pain, skin or eye changes, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, changes in bone health, or develop skin cancer.
As a nurse navigator, Maloney works closely with patients and other specialists to co-manage IBD symptoms so they can find the right combination of medication therapy and lifestyle changes to prevent future flare ups.
“I’m here to help guide you through this process and figure it all out. If you’ve got joint pain or fatigue, I can help you get into you rheumatologist,” she said. “If you’ve got another disease process or condition, I’ll help put you in contact with the team that can help. Whether it’s rheumatology, neurology or another specialty, it’s important that we work together.”
Is it the same as IBS?
Maloney knows that it can be easy to confuse IBD with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but they’re different conditions.
“IBS is typically a group of symptoms that doesn’t have a disease process causing it,” she said. “If you have IBS, you may have symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating, constipation or diarrhea.”
The CDC estimates that IBS affects between 25 and 45 million people in the United States. If you’re struggling with GI symptoms and don’t know what to do, Maloney suggests that you start by talking with your primary care provider.
“Primary care does a wonderful job caring for patients and providing solutions, and the right answer might be a referral to a GI clinic. Some patients may have IBS and others will have another diagnosis. There are all kinds of things that can cause GI symptoms,” she said.
No matter your symptoms or diagnosis, the goal at Lawrence GI Consultants is to find a solution that gets you feeling your best.
“Our team is very hands on and works to get you answers, solutions and next steps as soon as we can. We have physicians performing procedures, advanced practice providers seeing patients day in and day out, an in-house pharmacist and great nursing staff,” Maloney said. “We’re on top of your care and want you to know there’s always hope.”
— Autumn Bishop is the marketing manager and content strategist at LMH Health, which is a sponsor of the Lawrence Journal-World health section.
