"It was really hard at first time"

Jennifer Laferriere appears to be a healthy, happy person. She raised two daughters - now teenagers - has a little entourage of beloved pets and as of late has been trying her hand at extreme couponing.

Nothing about the 41-year-old indicates she has kidney disease or that she's been needing dialysis for the past 15 years. It was a routine urine test that led to a diagnosis of a rare kidney disease when she was only 15. Up until that point, she had not felt sick.

"Of course you don't really take anything seriously at that age," she says remembering when the diagnosis came. Kidney specialists monitored Laferriere's health, prescribing medications when necessary. She lived a fairly normal life despite the slow loss of kidney function. Despite the inevitable toll pregnancy would take on her health, Laferriere went on to have two children.

Jennifer is just like you. Except she lives with kidney disease.
Read her story.