Charlotte was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis as a teen and had a total colectomy and j-pouch created shortly after diagnosis. The j-pouch did its job well, but a few years later in routine surveillance testing, Charlotte was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. This disease was controlled with medications, and Charlotte became a nurse, got married, and had 2 children. In 2015, however her j-pouch failed, and surgery required the creation of a new and permanent ostomy. Her Crohn’s is currently in remission and she is enjoying all the things that life with an ostomy allows her to do. She continues to work full time as a pediatric nurse practitioner in Michigan, and in her spare time she enjoys baking, re-finishing furniture, and all things artistic.
One of the things that I love about medicine is the amount of critical thinking it takes to assess, diagnosis, and treat my patients. I enjoy hearing about their life and situation, which helps me to create a short list of what could be going on with a patient, and ultimately, how to treat them. There are times, when the things that are supposed to help don’t, and while this is sometimes very interesting to treat as a provider… I have had the misfortune to also be on the patient side of the exam table when things like this have happened. I have been prescribed medications that were supposed to fix everything, I have had surgeries that were guaranteed to be successful, and I have had providers who were supposed to be the best of the best have the worst bedside manner. One of my favorite things to talk about it how I use my experiences as a patient to improve the care I provide, and how I use my experience as a provider to be the healthiest patient I can be.
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