Freshman Alana Miller is a Riley Champion. Being diagnosed with chronic kidney disease at the age of six, her story is full of challenges and struggles.
“I got diagnosed when I was six, and at the time, I also had a heart leak on top of that, so I missed almost all of my kindergarten year because I was at the hospital so much,” Miller said.
She faced a lot of challenges on her journey, always feeling out of place in school, and struggling to live a normal life as a child.
“The main [challenge] was eating,” Miller said. “I was always hungry and crying because I couldn’t have any more food. I had this point system they came up with, similar to how adults diet. I also had to drink about 120 ounces of water a day, and I would get tired. Usually half way through the day, I would have to go to the nurse’s office, rest on a cot and take a nap just to literally make it through the school day. I was never allowed to do sports, never allowed to do PE, always had to sit out. People always knew stuff was up with me, but I never really told anyone because I didn’t want to be known as the ‘sick kid’.”
However, in third grade, Miller was given an opportunity that changed her life forever.
“When I was eight, they said I could start looking for kidney donors for a transplant, but you have to be under a 20% function line to get one, and I was hovering on that line for about a year. But it started rapidly decreasing when I was 9,” Miller said. “All my family took tests, but no one was a match–we literally couldn’t find anyone.”
Running out of time, Miller and her family turned to their local church, praying that God would provide an answer.
“After we had told my church, one of my pastors just felt a calling from God and wanted to get tested, and it was a perfect match,” Miller said. “Everyone started freaking out. Ever since then we’ve been really close.”
The Millers were finally relieved. Just a few short weeks later, Alana went in for her transplant.
“I was out for about two days, and even after my transplant, I was in the hospital for a while, and after what felt like forever, they let me leave,” Miller said.
Just when life for Miller felt like it could return to normal, complications arose again.
“After I was out for about two weeks, my body started going through rejection, which is basically where your organs shut out the new one because they don’t like it, so I had to go back in for a biopsy and stayed [in the hospital] for a while,” Miller said.
Even through all her struggles, she had a support group behind her.
“My mom was definitely my number one supporter; she was always there for me,” Miller said. “Every time I was in the hospital she was there with me. She would take time off work to come with me. My dad definitely was too, but he’s a pilot, so he usually couldn’t show up a lot. There was also this child-life specialist, and every time I was in the hospital, she always found me and we would play Harry Potter CLUE together, or whenever my IVs would fail she would be in the room with me, holding my hand, making sure I was okay.”
Around this time, the local news ended up picking the story up, interviewing her and her doctors on the whole process.
”A ton [of news] ended up here to ask about it,” Miller said. “Usually the surgeon has to move lots of stuff around, but apparently the kidney fit perfectly, so everyone started calling this a miracle from God.”
Fast forward to today, and Alana has now been honored as a Riley Champion and an ambassador for the hospital, allowing her to share her story with others.
“I get to go to fun events,” Miller said. “I went to a gala, and a dance event this weekend. They give us chances to go to these events and raise money and tell our stories. They even gave me Taylor Swift tickets.”
Miller says she has learned a lot from her health struggles.
“I learned to not shut everyone out,” Miller said. “Listen to what other people say, let them help you, and don’t always think you know everything about yourself and are fine.”
