It's Dysautonomia Awareness Month

Ignoring the fact that I haven't updated here in quite some time...

I was recently diagnosed with a chronic illness.  Two of them, actually.  And, surprisingly, I hadn't heard of either of them before my own diagnosis.  And since October is Dysautonomia Awareness Month, I thought it might be a good idea to put some info out there for other people who, like me, might not have known what any of this was.  

So.  First things first.  Dysautonomia is kind of a blanket term for a group of disorders that are caused by problems with the autonomic nervous system (ANS).  This part of the nervous system controls the things that you don't normally have to think about, like your heartbeat, breathing, digestion, temperature regulation, etc.  When someone has dysautonomia the autonomic nervous system doesn't work like it should, which causes heart and blood pressure problems, breathing trouble, digestion issues, etc.  The two forms of dysautonomia that I was diagnosed with are Gastroparesis and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).  

PoTS is the most common form of dysautonomia, where Gastroparesis is considered a rare disease.  Neither of them are much fun, but PoTS impacts my life far more than the gastroparesis does.  I'll go into detail on both disorders in another post (or two), but for now here's your warning...more dysautonomia awareness is coming!