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Help Ruby's fight against Gastroparesis.

$37,800 donated

Given by 283 generous donors in 19 days

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This page is to help Ruby get treatment in her fight against Gastroparesis

Northland

In September of 2015, 19 yr old Ruby Hill was only weeks away from achieving her dream of becoming a licensed pilot, but instead, from surgery to remove her appendix, a medical misadventure completely altered her life. As a result Ruby has a rare, little known about, incurable disease called idiopathic Gastroparesis. It means her stomach does not empty food or fluid, resulting in extreme vomiting causing severe malnutrition and dehydration. She was not diagnosed until 9 months later and even after diagnosis and testing has faced many battles with some medical professionals treating her as though her symptoms were all in her head, which has directly limited her having optimal treatment.

Over the last 3 years Ruby has suffered many options for tube and intravenous feeding , but unfortunately all have failed and the time has come to ask for help. She is not funded by ACC.

2018 saw her in hospital every week...a total of over 30 admissions for the year.

For the past 5 months Ruby has been bounded to hospital trialing new feeding options that would keep her alive, but her body has rejected all of them. Ruby and her amazing mother Jo have been up early in the mornings, every day, for the last 70+ days heading into hospital, working with the medical teams, sharing knowledge with doctors, spending every last dollar, exhausting every ounce of energy all to save our much loved Ruby. Her strength and determination to get up each day and fight another battle is amazing.

The last and only treatment Rubys body accepts is cannabis, with the slightest glimmer of hope coming from cannabis, Ruby plans to travel to Canada to take full advantage of this option as this is her last one. She recently started on prescribed medicinal cannabis now available in NZ and is wanting to engage with a clinic in Canada to source CBD which will assist her to gain much needed nutrition and weight.

Ed Hazlett's involvement (page creator)

Ruby's a great friend. We went to school/flatmates and started our flying together.

Use of funds

Funds will be used for flights and medical costs to get treatment in Canada. Ruby and Jo will have a week or more in Vancouver attending a Cannabis Clinic. (details to be confirmed).

Any surplus funds will go towards Gastroparesis research.

Latest update

CANADA! WE MADE IT 💚 28 January 2019

Hey Team

Sorry I haven’t posted as I said I would it’s just been far busier and with more crazy amazing stuff going on than I imagined. I haven’t had a lot of energy and lots of brain fog - sorry for leaving you out of the loop!! I love you all ❤️

Firstly, I’m here in Canada!!!

We’ve made it through our first week!!

THANK YOU ALL so much for believing in me and the journey I am making.

Mum and I arrived in Vancouver on Monday and we are continuing to experience goodwill and the incredible sequence of events that started happening after my discharge from hospital. It’s so meant to be. And I wouldn’t be here without you ❤️

Vancouver has certainly delivered. My first day was meeting with a couple CEO of cannabis companies. These amazing guys shared knowledge and product with me. I’ll update more when I can on the experience with them.

There’s no stigma around cannabis use. Yah!! No fighting for the right to use Cannabis. It’s valued for its medicinal use. It shocks people here that some of our NZ experts preferred 10 mg , the highest allowable dose of ketamine on me to using cannabis! It’s a horse tranquilliser lol.

This week I’ve been fortunate enough to get appointments, due to cancellations, with a Cannabis Clinic that specialises in dosages etc and a naturopath who specialises in Gastroparesis. Really excited. I’ve always tried to include natural therapies in my treatment, and to find someone who specialises in GP is gold.

Thanks to being able to access the specific strains for nausea / pain/ sleep/ vomiting/ energy, I have been getting relief and finding what works for me. So good to sleep for than 2 hours!

I have a prescription for Tilray 100 mg 25 ml bottle at home which costs $500. It’s $70 here. A conversation is hopefully happening with Tilray 😉

So much more to say but I’m still operating in a malnourished body and need to rest. Still hooking up daily for IV fluids and vitamins. No luck as yet for nutrition.. still working on that! Fingers crossed as these bones need coverage.

Love you all ❤️ talk soon

Rubz and mumma Bear xxxx

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