Ashley Lavallee

Seventeen years ago, when Ashley was 1 year old, her kidneys failed.

Abnormally healthy otherwise, her immune system mysteriously attacked her kidneys and it took doctors a month to figure out what had happened. During that time, she became increasingly puffy (she still remembers the last potato chip she was allowed to eat!) and she was falling out of bed with night seizures without even knowing what they were. She began dialysis and because she grew to love her nurses so much, she was reluctant to go on the transplant list. She did however get bumped up the list because after 2 years, the dialysis was not working as well as it should have. In 2005 she received her new kidney.

She has since had two daughters, and once again the mystery deepens. After her first daughter her kidney function dropped but then recovered. Her second daughter is 8 months old, and again her kidney function is lower. She hopes it will recover but says perhaps this is her new normal.