Home » Weekly Gastroparesis Seminar

Free weekly online seminar · Tuesdays 6–7pm ET

Understand your disease before you decide anything

A free one-hour seminar for anyone with gastroparesis. Not a consultation, not telehealth, not a sales pitch. Open to anyone, anywhere.

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Why This Exists?

Patients kept arriving at the office having been given incomplete or inaccurate information. They had a diagnosis but didn’t understand the disease — what was actually happening in their stomach, why they felt the way they did, or what could realistically be done about it.

Covering all of that inside a clinic visit was overwhelming. So about three years ago Dr. Hughes started teaching it as a weekly seminar instead.

“Patients often didn’t really understand their disease. So we try to explain to them gastroparesis, why it makes them miserable, and how we can make them better. If they do not understand why they feel bad, they cannot understand how we can make them better. We want them to have a good idea which management strategy is best for them before they come in to clinic.”

You do not have to become a patient

The seminar is free, and attending commits you to nothing. It is not a consultation, not telehealth, and not a sales pitch. You do not need to live in Kentucky or Indiana — because it isn’t telehealth, there’s no state restriction.

If you’re weighing whether to travel to Louisville, this is how you find out what you’d be traveling for. Attend, listen, decide afterward. If you want to go further, you call the office.

What gets covered

  • How a normal stomach actually works — and what the pylorus does
  • What gastroparesis damages, and why “paralysis” isn’t quite the right word
  • Why your stomach is under pressure — and why that, not slow emptying, causes most of what you feel
  • The five symptoms, and why pain is so often dismissed
  • How the diagnosis is made with endoscopy and gastric emptying study
  • Dietary modification — and why patients often gain weight rather than lose it
  • Medical management: prokinetics, antiemetics, antacids, and why medications stop working over time
  • Pyloroplasty and gastric stimulation — what each does, who each suits, and how the decision gets made
  • Recovery, risks, and honest numbers
  • What happens next, if you want to go further

The other reason people come back

Dr. Hughes expected the seminar to help patients understand the disease. It did. But something else turned out to matter as much.

“By interacting with other people with gastroparesis who are on the session, they can hear that they’re not the only people really suffering from gastroparesis — which ends up being very valuable too.”

Gastroparesis is isolating. Patients are told it’s anxiety, or an eating disorder, or that they must be non-compliant because they’ve gained weight. Being in a room — even a virtual one — with people describing the same experience is worth something no explanation provides.

Who should attend

  • Newly diagnosed and trying to understand what you have
  • Diagnosed years ago and never had it properly explained
  • Medications have stopped working
  • Considering surgery and want to understand the options first
  • Out of state, weighing whether to travel to Louisville
  • A family member trying to understand what someone you love is dealing with
  • A referring provider who’d like to see how these patients get managed

Also available

Monthly gastroparesis town hall — a separate open Q&A session, less structured than the seminar. Bring questions. First Monday of every month, 6:00–7:00 pm ET. A separate, less structured open Q&A — bring questions.

Start with the seminar. Decide afterwards.

One hour, online, free, and it commits you to nothing. You do not need to live in Kentucky or Indiana.

Questions? Call (502) 912-8300, Monday–Friday 8:00 am – 4:00 pm ET.