Tiffany Rivera turns heads when she lowers her welding helmet.

First, they stare at her tiny frame - 4-foot-9.Then they gawk at her welds, expert work for someone so young, her instructors say. What they don't see are Tiffany's daily struggles with the lifelong effects of a rare and often crippling disease: the 32 surgeries, the catheter tucked behind her jeans pocket, the diagnosis that her bowels and bladder will never function properly.

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