… years, she battled various symptoms that doctors either ignored or did not properly diagnose. She finally was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Her symptoms and IBD continued to worsen until she weighed just 99 pounds and had to undergo a life-saving emergency surgery in 2012 with a 30% chance of survival. The odds were stacked against her, given her frail condition at the time of the surgery. The procedure itself was a three-step process, each with its own set of challenges and risks. The first step involved the removal of her colon and the insertion of an ostomy. …