[whimsical music] This is an RNZ podcast.

I think I'm the only one that I know of at the moment who didn't have anyone who thought this is factitious or psychosomatic.

I feel really blessed to have been believed the whole way through.

I think that's a shocking thing to say, [laughs] to that not be normal.

Doctors remove her feeding tube, cut her pain relief, and ban most visitors.

The new treatment plan was basically that I was ...

I just had to eat and drink, and it didn't matter, um, ho- how, how many times I vomited.

Eventually, or how much pain I was in, eventually my brain would start to accept the food.

POTS is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that affects heart rate and blood flow commonly found in EDS patients

But better managed and then living with EDS.

I feel like I'm back to a more normal teenage space.

You know, got new friends and going to a church and baking and driving.

So yeah, better [laughs]

And then Sailor says something that has stayed with me

I think I'm the only one that I know of at the moment who didn't have anyone who thought, "Yeah, nah, this is factitious or psychosomatic." So I, I feel really blessed to have been believed the whole way through.

But I think that's a shocking thing to say, to that not be normal