Written by Brian Hess, AAKP Board Member If someone other than myself, Brian, is reading this out loud to others, it means I am finally Home! First off, my hope and my best guess is that this letter won’t be read in front of people for many more years to come. It’s 2014 as I write this now.

By Jennifer Jones, USMC, AAKP Board Member and Ambassador If you are ending this year with a certain degree of stress, it's okay. There is nothing wrong with you. Calling this year overwhelming would be an understatement. Those of us with chronic kidney disease may be accustomed to uncertainty.

My original diagnosis with stage 3 Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) was years ago, in 2009, where I was left with kidney damage from prescribed Ibuprofen use, an adverse event from another prescribed combination of medications, and the onset of multiple kidney stones.

Payal Shah was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD) at the age of 15 after her bloodwork revealed her kidneys had failed. She was rushed to the hospital to start dialysis. She was on hemodialysis for 6 months and peritoneal dialysis for another 6 months before receiving her kidney transplant from a living donor.