 What's going on you guys right after Ozzie here and today I just want to do a quick little update video I'm gonna try my best to keep it short There's a lot of stuff that I want to cover But I just want to update you guys on all the things that are going on that have happened and that are in the works behind the scenes So first of all, I want to start out by apologizing for the fact that there is no HIV cure research lab video out. It did happen. It did get recorded. It was amazing I loved it. I spent hours and hours editing it It's uploaded to YouTube. It's ready to go and I was told that I cannot release it. Oh What a disappointment it got punched really It turns out that there was some protocol and some compliance issues with it without going into all the details It was nothing that I had any control or power over it Just things didn't happen the way that they should have Outside of my control and therefore I'm not able to post it at all Oh, I'm so sorry you guys. It's so disappointing. I'm sure if you're looking forward to it. It's a disappointment. Trust me I'm right there with you. I spent a lot of time and energy and effort on trying to get that out to you guys With that said this year our annual hope cab meeting will be in Out just outside of San Francisco, but instead of being near the Gladstone Institute It's gonna be held at the Buck Institute for research on aging So a lot of their research is focused on aging and they do HIV cure research as well And so it'll be interesting to know how that research is Related to aging for the HIV community That's something that as time goes on as more people are living more people are thriving with HIV We need to know what are the implications as we age as we get older with HIV on our body On our health on our mental health everything So that will be happening It's the Buck Institute for research on aging is located in Novato, California It's just north of San Francisco right by like wine country So I think it's gonna be a really cool area to go to and I'll be sure to get footage there Well plenty of time before September to coordinate with people make sure all the proper rules are being followed Protocols things like that so that hopefully at the very least we can get maybe some interview going on or maybe Hopefully fingers crossed we can get a look inside one of their labs Maybe some experiments that they're doing research stuff like that because I really want to get you inside I think that's so important for the community for folks at home to be able to see what's going on behind the scene So it's not just like this You know all these scientists in these like secret buildings and we don't know what's going on and there's lots of conspiracy theories and What have you we need to pull down that barrier so that we have this transparency and dialogue That's what I'm trying to do and then our national meeting will be held in October in Bethesda, Maryland at the NIH the National Institutes of Health So that's really cool to NIH is the one that's funding all of our collaboratories to the Hope Cab Based on San Francisco. That's one of ten. There's ten around the country and the NIH funds them all we're all coming together in October to meet at the NIH and So hopefully we can do some coordination there. I'm really gonna push for I'm really gunning to coordinate with them to get again interviews talks Inside look at some of their labs and whatever would have you so you can see behind the curtain Okay, well with that said some of you have reached out to me via comments or DMs saying when are you gonna have your next HIV doctors visit? When do we get to see Dr. J. Glaston again? It's so informative. It's so helpful I love it and the reality is that I can't anymore and I'm not seeing Glaston anymore and the reason is Last year I stopped qualifying for government subsidized health insurance. I was on Blue Shield and Glaston was in network for Blue Shield so I had to switch to my employer health care, which is Kaiser and Glaston is no longer in network Not that that matters because when I went to go see my general doctor She said Kaiser has is very strict about Recording and all that in the medical setting and no can do. It was a flat-out. No There's no possibility the end and I was really disappointed and kind of upset about that because as a health care company Kaiser should be working with community advocates to Especially for the HIV community to be helping to disseminate information to educate to reduce stigma things like that It shouldn't be this like really closed-door type of policy, especially it's like It's not like I'm going into someone else's doctor's appointment to talk about their health There's the concerns about HIPAA about your private medical information like I'm the patient I'm the one living with HIV. I just want to document my Experience and it's like my choice to share that anyway soapbox a Couple weeks ago. I met with an infectious disease doctor who would presumably be my primary care physician and she was she's used to working with patients who have HIV and I Told her my situation. She was much more empathetic and much more willing to you know kind of talk to me on a more personal level and she said that there are some HIV specialists in the Kaiser Network who are More geared toward advocacy and being in the media and stuff like that And so she would reach out to the PR team for Kaiser to see if there's anything we can do Is it legally possible? Possibly connect me with the team so that I can talk to them directly Possibly link me with those HIV doctors who would be able to advocate on my behalf So I'm gonna keep pushing I'm gonna keep gunning for it, but I made it very clear to her this is a make or break for me like What I do is so important and there's so much value in it that if Kaiser is just gonna Really say no to me. I'm gonna keep pushing But if they at the end of the day continue to just say no, they're not willing to work with me at all That's a deal-breaker for me. And so I'm considering Paying for my own health insurance completely 100% out of pocket no help from employment or anything like that And that's a lot of money We're talking hundreds of dollars every month to be able to get health insurance where Gladstein would be in network So that I can meet with him again. We could have these valuable conversations recorded for you all Anyway, so that's in the works. I apologize that I haven't been able to get that to you in a long time But I'm working on it. Trust me. I'm fighting for that and fighting for you guys at home By the way, side tangent while I was there my doctor said that I needed to get my shingles vaccine and There are two doses to the vaccine It used to be that only people 50 and older were approved to get the vaccine by the past one or two years a new shingles vaccine came out called shingrix and It is approved for those of us who are immunocompromised So if you hadn't had a shingles vaccine And if you're in the US talk to your doctor, it might be something that they will want to get you hooked up with with that said She said it's gonna be painful and I was like, yay, great. Let's do it Kind of like a tetanus shot and so she's like, but it's so I said, okay Well, then maybe I just won't I won't work out for a few days and she's like, oh, no, no Just take a ton. Oh, you'll be fine. I was like, okay, great. Cool. I can handle that little pain in the shoulder Nothing I haven't experienced before by that night I Felt like I had been hit by a truck and Then I went to sleep. I was exhausted woke up and I felt like I had a full-blown flu Like fever symptoms chills hot and cold Clammy my whole body was aching so bad. I had a huge headache. I felt So terrible. I was already really sore from working out now that I'm back in the gym I've been pushing myself really hard and it like multiplied how Aggravated and extreme the muscle soreness was to the point where like I at one point I was lying in bed and I just had like a single tear rolling down my face because I was like I Did not sign up for this. I was not mentally prepared. It was so so much. I It really knocked me down for like two or three days and I've been hearing that the shingles vaccine has been does that to people So be aware. I had no I didn't know why did I had no idea and I got it in the middle of the week So it totally f-ed up my work situation, but be aware get the vaccine if you haven't had it. It's important I've had shingles. It's nope. No bueno and then you can have serious complications with that Especially as you get older, so it's it's good to do it, but just be prepared Okay Onto the next topic this video is already too long. I know just know it. Okay onto the next topic So just to wait your appetite. I said a lot of exciting things coming down the pipeline with the hope cab we created a short animation to Explain hopefully simply the modality that the Scientists that we're working with are using to get to an HIV cure It's called block lock excise and I touch on it a little bit in the previous video Where I'm talking with the HIV scientists as well But it's a cool little explainer animation video and I do the VO for it. So it's exciting you to hear my voice I know I don't even love hearing my voice So check it out. I'm gonna post it Shortly here whenever I get the release date and then and then that'll be that cool so Also, I did a recent video on the HIV prep medication called aptitude now There is a extended to release injectable medication that is an ARV for those of us living with HIV called cabinuva I'm gonna be talking about that next and then after that I will also be talking about the other one that Gilead did called Sun Lanka. That's also been approved very cool HIV medication is moving really fast. We're making so much progress in such short little time It's exciting, but it's kind of like it's hard to keep track and hard to wrap your head around all these new medications That are popping up everywhere. So I'm gonna do my best to keep you updated with all the new medications as they come out And for the first time ever on my channel, I can't believe I've had a channel for this long And I have never been organized enough to have consistent interviews I have a schedule and I'm currently Scheduling people that I'm gonna be interviewing on my channel to talk about various topics like aging with HIV to talk about The fact that we all have chronic inflammation that impacts our health in certain ways that I Didn't know about and like what can we do about it? How can we address those concerns to talk about plus life media to talk about prep in the history of prep Where it came from who was working on it in the early days To talk about HIV language the type of language that's used in community and also in in healthcare settings and also in science and research settings and those of us in the collaboratories we've developed created this document that Discusses helpful language to be used in related and in relation to the HIV community and words and topics and statements to stay away from because they could potentially only add to stigma and things like that So that's it. I'm gonna stop there because I know I'm already over time And I just wanted to say thank you to you guys for sticking it out with me. I know oh Let's talk about this wall this wall of gray boringness. It's actually a white wall, but it always looks gray on my videos Because um, I just haven't done anything with it since I moved it used to have those Cool kind of like RuPaul's drag race looking wall tiles that I took down and never put back up because I was like I want to do something different didn't happen. I couldn't make up my mind me and my ADD All over the place. I thought I was gonna put up some wallpaper. I had a couple ideas never really Felt good about it never really found one that I want to stick with so it didn't happen So I'm like, okay Raif if you can't decide on a wallpaper put the goddamn tiles up because right now It's boring af and you need to do something Also, this thing peppermint got this for me so long ago. It's just sitting on my printer It it it's wall mounting. It's so easy Put it up, right? Just mounted to the dang wall already In addition to that, I want like shelving. I want to make it make me interesting. It's so boring Anyway, side tangent Thanks guys for sticking it out with me. I know there was a huge lull in content on my channel Especially during covet. I was dealing with so many things between work and stress anxiety and mental health issues And stuff like that. It just kind of fell apart and I I really feel like I'm at a point now where I can get back into the mode into the game Focused consistent So I really appreciate all the comments. You guys are so loving and supportive whenever I post something You're so quick to um share the love the appreciation and the support And it really doesn't mean a lot to me and it really does Like help me and keep me motivated and keep me in the game when I'm kind of having a rough time So thank you so so much Please like this video if you like it subscribe if you haven't already these two ways are The the best way that you can help support me on this channel to help support What I do as I'm going to be looking for more people More organizations and companies to help sponsor me so that I can Dedicate more of my time and energy To growing my channel and getting more awesome content out to you all So that's it for now. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you soon. Cheers. Peace