Hi I'm Rachel & live in NY, known on the chat as Radiant Rachel or "the wise chatterbox"

I am 16 years old so for the most part, I'm a student. In my spare time I love to read, play the piano, generally hang out all lazy, aimlessly surf online & chat on messenger or the kidney support chatroom, and avoid getting hurt

I love to eat junk food if i can and am a diet pepsi addict.
I have type 1 diabetes since I was 8, and my kidneys failed out of the blue abt 3 years ago. It was later determined I had obstructions and stones & what not, which caused backup, and then infections/scarring which eventually caused my kidneys to fail. I had numerous surgeries attempting to repair the damage, some successful, some not & was also on hemodialysis - which began 3 days after my diagnosis. 1/2 year after my initial diagnosis, they discovered a tumor in my kidney (which they earlier on wrote off as "scar tissue", had a partial nephrectomy, then various other complications all set in & decided to hit me at once.. Some were serious, others not as serious, but for the most part I was pretty hard hit for a while. I got 'em all dealt with, and finally May 18 2003 I recieved Krystyl, my new kidney. Should have legally changed my name to Lucky Rachel.
Anyway, we're both doing well, and I look foward to lots of good times ahead.
I don't think abt the future so much, I try to concentrate on living today (Rachel's Rule #38) but I do think in the future my job/career would involve children/teens and medicine. Maybe a social worker, or maybe a dialysis nurse. I want to make a difference in the lives of ill children.
So in a nutshell, that is me

Stay tuned for further updates... and feel free to holler with any questions or what not.
~Rachel