Coping as a Family Video Transcript

Participants

, Elizabeth &Lizzie& Luckman , Ryan Luckman , Brooke Shealy , Eva Szigethy MD, PhD

Summary

A childhood psychiatrist helps explore the affect of Crohns and ulcerative colitis, types of inflammatory bowel disease children and their families.

Webcast Transcript

BROOKE SHEALY: Hello, I'm Brooke SHEALY. Welcome to this webcast on children and inflammatory bowel disease. This program is being sponsored by the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. In this part of our webcast, we'll explore how families cope when a child has IBD. Joining me is the Luckman family from Long Island, not far from New York City.

Lizzie Luckman is eleven years old and was diagnosed two and a half years ago with IBD. With us also are Lizzie's parents, Alan and Allison Luckman. And since IBD affects siblings too, we've also asked Lizzie's younger brother, Ryan, to be with us today.

Joining us as well is Dr. Eva Szigethy, a psychiatrist at Children's Hospital in Boston, who specializes in treating children with IBD.

Lizzie is an avid figure skater. She's been on skates for eight years and she's been skating competitively since she was six. Lizzie, I'm going to start with you. Has IBD ever affected your skating?

LIZZIE LUCKMAN: Well, I have had joint pains and, and I've gotten out of breath after my routines. And being in the hospital sometimes would affect me missing practices and like advancing to a higher level.

BROOKE SHEALY: Alan, what was your first reaction when Lizzie was first diagnosed?

ALAN LUCKMAN: Well, I was obviously shocked. I mean every parent never expects their kids to be hurt let alone be sick. I was actually on a business trip on the West Coast and as soon as my wife got in contact with me, I was on the next plane home. Just to make sure everybody -- I'm kind of the soother of the family -- make sure everybody was all right. How my wife was responding to it, how my son was responding to it. We've actually all grown up with the disease; my wife has colitis and my mother-in-law has Crohn's disease. We kind of knew what to expect and I just wanted to get home and make sure that everybody was OK and to see everybody as well.

BROOKE SHEALY: Allison, when Lizzie was first diagnosed what were your initial concerns?

ALLISON LUCKMAN: I was with her the night that she really had a very bad episode. She had been having stomach pains for awhile. And we were out in a restaurant, and he was out of town, and she just couldn't sit up, couldn't function. I thought it was her appendix. It never dawned on me that it was going to be colitis. And I sent Ryan home with the other woman that we were out to dinner with, just so I could be alone with her because she was really in pain. And I didn't know if we were going to the hospital and I didn't know what we were doing.

And we wound up going home and she spent most of the night having horrible spasm and being in the bathroom. And then about, I would say ten hours into these horrible spasms, and really the two of us spending the night in the bathroom, she began to bleed. And I knew what I was looking at and I called the pediatrician.

On the inside, I was really nervous for her. It wasn't fun. She was in a lot of pain. And I was alone. But on the outside, I just, I made jokes. I was very strong. I was her mother. It was my job to make sure that she was treated and saw who she was supposed to see as soon as she was supposed to see them.

BROOKE SHEALY: Thank you, Allison. Dr. Szigethy, what are the biggest issues that families face when a child is diagnosed with IBD?

EVA SZIGETHY, MD, PhD: Well, having your child diagnosed with IBD really causes families to be faced with an unexpected challenge. How families cope with it really depends on a variety of factors, but most families go through some kind of transition or grieving process.