Rachel, case in point. We can't even agree on what the words composing the name mean. Most people aren't nurses like you (I'm just a bean counter) so that makes it harder to have to explain what the name means. It depends on the context of what the person you are talking to already knows. THis is one of the main reasons I hate the name of this disease and believe the name is misleading. For example, the diagnoses code ICD-10 K58.0 is IBS and contains back references to "colitis" as included in icd-10 k58.0(IBS). Although icd10 k52 is used specifically for Ulcerative Colitis.
So the word Colitis used by itself does refer to IBS. So we can't even shorten the name, we have to always add the gruesome word ulcerative. Then laymen think stomach ulcer and I have to explain it's not that. I'm not a medical professional and I don't want to explain the difference between ulcers and such. Regardless of how descriptive our disease name may be, why can't it have a name and leave the descriptions for people to go look up themselves.
Most Nouns are actual names, not descriptions and even worse a description that sounds like something more commonly different to the layman. I don't want to have to become a scholarly healthcare professional every time I want to say the name of my disease. Most descriptive nouns (like my play on words of my own profession above) are used to make a joke or make fun of a proper noun.
It just needs a real name. When you order a soda, you say you want a soda or pop. You don't say I want a cryo brown colored sugary fluid. Crohns's disease is not a description. It is perfectly just a name. I think life would be easier if our disease had a name not a lousy (debatably accurate) description.