A curvy road to diagnosis
LeeAnn Hujanen went through a dramatic turn of events that led to her PKD diagnosis on April 11, 2013. Adopted as a child, LeeAnn was unsure of her biological medical history, and didn't know PKD ran in her biological family....
Read MoreLumps and bumps: One family’s remarkable transplant journey
[caption id="attachment_1085" align="alignright" width="500"] Jean Bost's successful transplant was just the beginning of her family's journey.[/caption] By Stephanie Bost My family's transplant journey began 15 years ago with my grandmother Jean, who was just days away from beginning dialysis to...
Read MoreNever lose hope
[caption id="attachment_1088" align="alignright" width="240"] Carol received a kidney transplant through a paired kidney donation.[/caption] Never lose hope. That's Carol Mainolfi's advice to anyone who is waiting for a kidney transplant. She would know – she received one after three years...
Read MoreA mother’s love
[caption id="attachment_1098" align="alignright" width="250"] Sara is an accomplished musician, songwriter and Broadway performer.[/caption] Sara Mann is no stranger to the center stage. As an accomplished musician, songwriter and Broadway performer, she has taken her rightful place in that arena on...
Read MoreSharing a kidney and a lifetime of love
[caption id="attachment_1095" align="alignright" width="215"] Aside from sharing many of the things that husbands and wives share, Larry and Jan share something very special in common: a kidney.[/caption] My husband is the best. He took those marriage vows to heart, in...
Read MoreShar Carlyle
I have been a PKD Foundation Chapter member for 14 years. I have been to Washington D.C. three times representing kidney patients from California on a number of fronts, both with the PKD Foundation and with NKF. But I'm getting...
Read MoreFelipe Saint-Martin
I am PKD, this is my relationship with the disease. It's written on my genes as much as everything. By the time I was eight years old, I figured it out that my mother had the same thing that my...
Read MoreHeather Gillis
When a child passes away, there are no words that can take away the pain of a parent's loss. It is unimaginable to think of a child dying, but in many people's lives this is their reality, especially in those...
Read MoreScott Peppet
My mother died from PKD complications at 61, after having two kidney transplants. Her kidneys failed around age 50, and she had a very rough decade after that. She was constantly in and out of the hospital. I was in...
Read MoreRachel Kunstadt
[caption id="attachment_1137" align="alignright" width="250"] Dana Aber performs at Broadway Sings for PKD.[/caption] My father has PKD, and in the summer of 2012, he was dying from complications of PKD. My dad had been on dialysis since 1999 and it took...
Read MoreSean Kenny
My son Patrick has ARPKD, he was diagnosed at 20 weeks during a sonogram. I didn't know what PKD was at the time. Like most people, you don't know about it until it happens to you or a loved one....
Read MoreCyrilla Haverkamp
[caption id="attachment_1135" align="alignright" width="350"] Cyrilla decided to hike the Camino de Santiago or "The Way of Saint James" as a way to honor her grandmother and other family members who have died from PKD.[/caption] My grandmother died in 1961 at...
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