Dysautonomia, Gastroparesis & Gulf War Syndrome

On today’s show, we are speaking with Army veteran and patient advocate Tonya Henry.  Tonya is joining us today to talk about gastroparesis.  Tonya is a disabled veteran who has many illnesses. She was diagnosed with Autonomic Dysfunction secondary to Gulf War Illness. Autonomic Dysfunction causes issues with things such as temperature dysregulation, hypotension, hypoglycemia, orthostatic intolerance, and tachycardia and Gastroparesis. She has some other diseases that impact her life as well, but today we are focusing on Gastroparesis. This is Gastroparesis Awareness Month. She received the Gastroparesis Awareness Month Proclamation from the Mayor of Killeen, TX on August 9, 2022. She volunteers as an Oley Ambassador, which is someone who advocates and helps those with Gastroparesis or other GI illnesses that require a feeding tube, TPN (iv nutrition}, or an ostomy bag. She has had a jejunal feeding tube, a gj tube and currently a g tube to vent/drain only. She relies on TPN now for all of her nutrition and gets that through a port. She also has a gastric stimulator and a cardiac monitor implanted. She is also active in the migraine community as well. She writes and moderates for migraine.com. You can find her Oley Ambassador information on the site:

https://oley.org/page/ambassadorshpen

Her gastroparesis story was featured by a local news station back in 2019. Here is the link to that