I'm so genuinely stoked for you. I have a very similar list of symptoms. I'm so over it but daring to hope I can get treatment and reclaim my life 🤞

It's a whole body thing but the non-GI stuff is less researched/focused on by specialists. I went to a public gynaecologist a while ago who told me that he couldn't help me because he only deals with internal stuff 💀. It's been SUCH a process. 12 years and counting... 😬

I concur (from experience)

My doctor initially thought I had LS but dermatologist disagreed (although he wasn't very helpful so who knows). I'm in the process of trying to confirm or rule out vulvar crohns disease at the moment-an even rarer unfortunate afflcition. Will likely need a hodgepodge of specialists eventually 🥲

Who was the gynae dermatologist if you don't mind me asking?

Second this. And if the doctor is wierd about it or dismissive (which a lot of them sadly are tbh) rebook with another one. Delays once you're in the sytem are bad enough, you don't need self-imposed delays on top of them.

Sometimes our bodies really kick us when we're down 🥲

like, what job do nz media reporters even do these days? because it mostly seems to be "refuse to look at the evidence" and "reprint anything ACT or NZF says verbatim and without challenge"

you should teach your kids to evade, if not kill the elf on the shelf.

I would love to see a longread on universities paying huge sums to consultancies for work their own faculty could easily do at far lower costs

These fees drive up the cost of tuition, reduce internal resources for research funding, and honestly are demoralizing to the bright minds employed by unis

Actually not far off accurate as far as comedic works of fiction go. That there were only six episodes is criminal 😭

www.dailymotion.com/video/x6mo3cz

"The Minister was always about to come to lunch and lots of money was about to arrive. It was often bullshit. But sometimes the Minister actually did come to lunch, and sometimes money did arrive – and sometimes even from legitimate sources." Moe mai rā Gary 💉

However he spoke the language of the people he wanted to reach-people like him-and boldly voiced their concerns during a time when it took great courage to do so. There's no denying it got results. I'll end with Bill again: "You never quite knew what was true and what was make believe with Gary."

It can be difficult to capture figures like Gary within academic histories but it's important to tell the stories those with a "different style" regardless. Gary could be confronting and this no doubt put him offside with some of the more respectable figures in AIDS history.

"Being able to speak for those who can’t and those that won’t (for whatever reason) I feel I am able to lead a positive existence, by letting people observe me in my situation for the benefit of all.”

Gary's rawness and complex personality ignited and fuelled his activism which, in turn, gave purpose to his suffering. He wrote in 1986: “Fortunately, I am able to channel my very existence into positiveness. I am fighting for my life, I need no reminders of that!"

Friend and AIDS activist Bill Logan stressed his huge impact during a 2015 oral history. “He played a huge role. Might as an individual have had as much impact as most of the people we’ve talked about, except perhaps Bruce [Burnett], but his different style is not likely to be remembered.”

Today few know about the important role Gary played in NZ history. He has a file with a few scant letters in the Kawe Mahara Queer Archive (formerly LGANZ), unfortunately a filing cabinet of his papers he had intended to be donated was unknowingly disposed of.