From the Desk of Diggy: GSSI Is Back — Listen to Our First Podcast
Hi, friends. I’m Diggy, and welcome to From the Desk of Diggy.
In this first episode, Diggy explains what GSSI is and why you’re hearing from us again: GSSI provides non-medical support while you’re being treated for gastroparesis — including hotel stays, food and grocery cards, local rides, and gift bags when funding is available. GSSI does not provide medical treatment itself.
The episode also covers GSSI’s quiet stretch after its 2017 founding, the fall 2026 relaunch of the website and blog, and Jennifer’s GP House — our long-term goal, a house where gastroparesis patients and families could stay while receiving care. It doesn’t exist yet, and we’re not pretending otherwise.
If you’re traveling for care, visit our hotel guides and our Request Assistance page at https://gpsupportservices.com/request-assistance/. You can also follow us on Facebook at Gastroparesis Support Services.
Full transcript
Hi, friends. I am Diggy, and welcome to From the Desk of Diggy. If you are new here, I am the sloth who hangs around Gastroparesis Support Services, which we call GSSI. I take things slow, and honestly, that fits this work pretty well.
Today I want to tell you who GSSI is, what we do, and why you are hearing from us again after a long, quiet stretch. Because GSSI is coming back to life, and we want you to know exactly what that means.
First, the mission, in plain words. GSSI provides non-medical needs while you are being treated. We do not provide medical treatment ourselves, and we are not a clinic. What we do is help with the practical stuff that piles up around care, so you can focus on getting through treatment, not on how you will get there, where you will stay, or what you will eat.
When funding is available, that support can include hotel stays, food and grocery cards, local rides, and gift bags. Those are small things on paper, but if you have ever traveled far from home for a test or a procedure, you know they are not small at all. A safe place to sleep, a ride to your appointment, and food in the fridge can be the difference between making it to care and having to cancel.
GSSI is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and a lot of people travel here for gastroparesis care. Some come to the University of Louisville GI Motility Clinic. Others come to Vanguard Surgical. Either way, the trip itself can be expensive and exhausting, especially when you are already dealing with nausea, pain, and fatigue. That is the gap GSSI tries to fill.
So, why did we go quiet? The honest answer is that GSSI was dormant for a while. The organization was founded back in twenty seventeen, and the heart of it never went away, but the website, the posts, and the day-to-day presence did. For a time, if you looked us up, you mostly found an old site and not much else. That is changing now.
This fall, we have been rebuilding, piece by piece. The website at gpsupportservices dot com is live again, with information about Jennifer’s GP House, which is our long-term dream, plus hotel guides for patients traveling to Louisville, and a blog where we share news and explainers in plain language. We call that blog From the Desk of Diggy, and yes, that desk is mine. I may be a sloth, but I keep the desk tidy.
Jennifer’s GP House deserves a moment of its own. It is our long-term goal, a house where gastroparesis patients and families could stay while receiving care, like a home away from home, close to treatment. It does not exist yet, and we are not pretending otherwise. Until that house exists, GSSI helps one patient at a time, with hotels, food, groceries, and rides, when funding allows.
I want to be clear about what coming back does not mean. It does not mean we can promise to pay for any one person’s stay, or that we have unlimited funds. It means we are here again, we are organized again, and we are building toward helping more people, carefully and honestly.
If you are a patient, a caregiver, or a friend of someone with gastroparesis, here is how you can connect with us. Visit our website, read the blog, and if you are traveling for care, look at our hotel guides and our Request Assistance page. If you want to follow along, find us on Facebook at Gastroparesis Support Services. We post check-ins, encouragement, and little games, because rest counts, and community counts too.
And if you are listening because someone you love has gastroparesis, thank you for showing up. Listening, believing someone, and asking what would help are real forms of support. You do not have to fix everything to be helpful.
So that is GSSI, in a nutshell. We are a nonprofit in Louisville, here for the non-medical needs that come with being treated for gastroparesis. We went quiet, we are back, and we are building slowly, the sloth way, one patient, one trip, one small comfort at a time.
Thanks for spending a few minutes with me. I will be back at my desk soon. Until then, take it slow, rest when you need to, and know that you do not have to face gastroparesis alone.
Source: GSSI — Gastroparesis Support Services, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Louisville, Kentucky.
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