My Story

Hello and welcome to my blog!

My name is Christie Chaump and I am a Reno, Nevada native. I graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in December 2019 with a degree in International Business, a concentration in Marketing, and a minor in Spanish Language and Society. I completed my MBA at UNR in December 2022, where I also work as the Graduate Programs Coordinator in the College of Business. I have also taught several courses including Introduction to Business, Business Communications, and Personal Branding.

In January 2019 at the age of 21, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC) after a few months of showing symptoms on and off. When I was diagnosed I felt a sense of relief knowing I could blame my symptoms on something, but also a sense of grief that I had lost the young adult life I pictured myself living. I had to make many lifestyle changes which meant reevaluating what I was eating, drinking, how much rest I was getting, my stress levels, etc.

I have been in and out of remission over the years, but I am lucky to be in remission now with the help of Skyrizi. Yes, it’s the one you see all the commercials for! Having a chronic illness requires a lot of sacrifice and trusting the process, but I know that with the tools I’ve learned I can manage this disease to the best of my ability and hopefully share that with others going through the same thing.

With that being said, my purpose with this blog is to inform, educate, inspire, and raise awareness of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) through my own experiences. I hope you will choose to follow me along this tough, but rewarding journey!