IBD & Grad School

I have UC, but I decided to post on the CD forum b/c it seems like those with graduate degrees on the UC forum got UC afterwards.


I'm starting grad school in the fall...

How do you guys handle IBD with all the workload? Do you tell your advisors about it? Do you register with the school's Disability Services? Do you also panic about loans + medical bills? Any input would be appreciated!

Part time PhD student here. I take it very part time and they have really worked with me. But I think it depends on your program...

ps. I think it depends, too, what your support network is like. If you're still living at home, or at least in the same town as your family, you might have a better chance of making it. If you're by yourself in a new town / state / city, you'll find it much harder to stay at uni, sick, than you would otherwise.

I was diagnosed later in my PhD studies, by that time I was only working in the lab and no longer taking classes. I recently completed my PhD "on-time" relative to the other students in my group. My adviser was aware of it and was OK when I needed to take time for doctors appointments. However, his expectations did not change.

Definitely contact disability services. You should be eligible for benefits vis-a-vis coursework and testing. I did not do that because I was not taking classes any more.

While you are in grad school, any undergrad loans can be deferred. So you do not have to worry about those. Not sure about other loans.

If student insurance is available, look at it carefully. In my case the annual out of pocket was only $1800. In the year I was diagnosed my bills were probably $50K+ and I only paid $1800. Only caveat to that is you may not have drug coverage. I did not and paid dearly for Entocort when I was on it for a few months... Again, read carefully. We also had a student health center where some drugs were free and I could have blood work done for no charge.

When the workload was tough and I was stressed out, I relied heavily on meal replacement drinks (Ensure, Nutren, or Peptamen) which kept me feeling OK and did not aggravate my system. Obviously they are also a lot faster than cooking. Definitely do not fall into the trap of eating out often, it'll mess with the IBD in my experience. You may be able to get access to campus food if you don't want to cook and sometimes they will subsidize the cost partially or totally if you only work a few hours in the kitchen.

I did all of law school w/ crohns. I will post more about it later. It can be done!

I earned two masters degrees and a Ph.D. while suffering from Crohns and even had an ileal-anal anastomosis while doing my research for the dissertation. As both a former grad student and current faculty at a major research university, the best advice I can give is this:

1. Plan your schedule according to your daily rhythms - I always needed extra time in the morning b/c of the disease, but was able to get T.A. assignments for afternoons. Make sure that you schedule your study times as well and keep up with them to the best of your ability. At one point, I placed a TV snack table in the bathroom just so I could keep up w/ my work. If you don't make keeping up w/ the work, hell or high water, a top priority, you'll likely lose momentum and not finish. It happens to many without IBD, it can happen more easily to you.

2. Definitely talk w/ your advisor. You don't need to explain to too many other people unless you're going to be working closely with them (such as if you are an R.A. or T.A.).

3. If you are going to change meds or anything else where you are making yourself vulnerable to increased disease activity, plan it around school breaks.

4. I can't speak too much re: disability services from a student perspective as I went through school before the ADA. However, I think it very much depends on the nature of your program and your relationship with your faculty. If you have a program where you have some flexibility built in - and a good relationship w/ faculty - there's little need for disability services as you should be able to work out proper arrangements w/ the faculty directly that better serve your needs. As a faculty member, I can tell you that most will be sympathetic if you come in with a plan that includes keeping you (mostly) on track. Disability services tends to come up w/ cookie cutter plans that stipulate some largely arbitrary accommodation (twice the time on exams, for instance) that is easily implemented, but often beside the point. Moreover, their plans tend to be largely about accommodating the disease, rather than thinking on alternative ways of reaching the goal. Be inventive about those alternatives - faculty can say "no" but it never hurts.

Hope all that is helpful. Best of luck.

Hey guys..funny how this post came up on the boards of all days today, you totally read my mind. I was accepted into a Master's program for social work last year and had to defer for a year because of the instability of my Crohns. I was in the hospital twice over the summer and was debating getting surgery so unfortunately I had to wait until this fall to start.

I eventually decided against surgery and now I am terrified that I won't be able to balance work and school. I am so fortunate that even with being sick on and off for the past four years my agency has been so understanding. If I didn't work for a non-profit I would probably be fired! I am currently on 6mp and just weaned off of prednisone. Today I am feeling such nausea, I threw up and I am so sleepy. I'm so scared that I am getting sick again. How do you guys do it?? I want to move forward in my life, I am actually planning on applying for a couple of scholarships, too. I am only 26 but want that degree so I can pursue more goals and make a greater impact! I'm not depressed but I am starting to feel really discouraged because there really hasn't been a time where I have been in a long state of remission since diagnosed in 2004. What's a girl to do? Thanks guys <3

It's totally doable. There are so many people out there with this disease that have gotten through school with little problem. I got through the first two years of medical school, had a flare that took me out for 8 months, but now I'm back in school and doing well. Of course I made a decision to be both on Remicade and organic SCD for extra security to get through school. So far it's working very well. I would recommend following a very strict diet because your education/employment is at stake here. Some people say these diets don't work, but it's worth a shot. If you highly control your intake, there's less variability and uncertainty in your disease course. I needed this confidence to continue with school. I needed that reassurance that I would not have a flare again, even though it may happen. But still, that belief that I am reversing the disease and am safe is very reassuring even if it may be a placebo effect (though I don't think it is).

Just out of curiousity, did you tell your classmates or friends about IBD? How do you do it? I usually just leave it at autoimmune disease b/c I don't trust people that easily and I don't want to gross anyone out. But the grad school I'm leaning toward at the moment is a bit far from home, so I feel like if I do make friends, I should tell them about it just in case something were to happen (and it'd be nice to spread some awareness).

Well, most of my friends were there while I was being diagnosed, so they knew something was up. As for classmates...we had really big classes, I think my physiology class was 500 people, so we really didn't get into conversations. I did let my coworkers know as I had to take a few weeks off work right before I was diagnosed. I told some of my professors, though. I also told some of my professors but not others...the not others being the ones that really wouldn't care.

On the other hand for all of my lab classes I had to announce that I have medical alllergies, just in case of a lab accident. It was embarrassing as hell.