For junior Kailey Cripps, sharp stabbing pains in her stomach are perfectly normal. When she was 14, Cripps found out that she had kidney stones, a hard mass formed in the kidneys. Since then, she has been painfully aware of her disease.

“The first time, I was in eighth grade,” Cripps said. “I kept having a lot of weird pains, so I went to the hospital. They told me that one of my kidneys was the size of a grapefruit and the other was a tennis ball.”

After being diagnosed, it became normal for Cripps to miss days of school and hours of class time, time spent in the nurse’s office and in the hospital. The hardest part for her was changing her diet.

“I’m supposed to be taking in two liters of water a day, which is a lot,” Cripps said. “I’m always filling up my water bottle during class. I also had to cut back on salt a lot and I have to take this citrus medicine to help break the kidney stones down.”

Though Cripps tends to be more closed off about her disease and not talk about it too much, some of her close friends know about it and how it affects her. Junior Riley Witherbee is one of those close friends.

“I think it makes her stronger,” Witherbee said. “She has to power through dealing with school, home life and then this on top of everything.”

While these things can be a struggle, Cripps has decided that she will keep a positive attitude throughout the whole process, regardless of missing out on things or having surgeries.

“You just have to take on the world,” Cripps said. “One kidney stone at a time.”