“What a beautiful thing it is to be able to stand tall with all your scars and say, “I fell apart, and yet I still survived.”
Unknown
In August 2019 I was thirty-nine, living my best life, running my Pilates studio with a loving family, and thought I was incredibly healthy. I was wrong.
I began experiencing fatigue and nausea. I pushed through as these symptoms would go away at some point each day. After three weeks the fatigue increased so much that I could barely get through a Pilates workout. I went to the walk-in clinic at my doctor’s office. The doctor wasn’t concerned about my symptoms, and I left with a prescription for nausea. I returned four days later extremely fatigued, nauseous, and with yellow eyes. This led to my admission to the University of Kansas Hospital.
Test results confirmed that 40-50% of my liver had been damaged by Autoimmune Hepatitis. I was in acute liver failure end stage and would only survive with a deceased donor transplant. Without a transplant, I would likely survive no longer than 90 days. After additional tests with my cardiologist, dentist and gynecologist, I was placed at the top of the transplant list at the hospital.
My hopes were high, my spirits were up, but I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t scared. I was scared and sometimes numb. My family, friends, instructors, and clients were overwhelmingly amazing. The generous outpouring of love and kindness was remarkable, and I had a sense of peace from God that everything would work out.
On October 2, 2019, I received the call from my nurse coordinator that I had been matched to a donor liver, meaning the deceased donor had a compatible blood type which helps to prevent my body from rejecting the donor liver and similar size for my body.
My transplant surgery was scheduled for the following day, October 3, 2019. Almost immediately, there was a near-fatal complication during surgery when I developed a blood clot that went into my lung, resulting in a pulmonary embolism. The clot then moved to my heart and then to my brain, resulting in 4 minor strokes, after which the blood clot dissolved. The surgeon stopped the surgery, and I was taken to Radiology where they placed an inferior vena cava filter (IVC) to prevent more blood clots. I was sedated for 24 hours to make sure I was going to survive. By the grace of God, I woke up on October 4th and was fine, and then they completed the transplant surgery.
As soon as I was discharged and home I began walking on the treadmill and using light hand weights to strengthen my upper body to encourage my posture while my abdominals were healing.
As I became stronger, I rehabbed using the Pilates method. I found that I was also gaining a better understanding of my clients and their limitations. For instance, I couldn’t feel my mid abs, similar to my clients who had C-sections and couldn’t feel their lower abs. This gave me the opportunity to create exercises and modifications to help myself and others.
This experience revealed to me how the Pilates method is more than an exercise regimen, it’s a way of life and teaches you how to push through the pain mentally and physically. I used Pilates breathing while waiting for the call that there was a liver donor for me to help relax and after to rehabilitate my body back to symmetry and balance.
Sometimes we have to be brave enough to realize that certain things are out of our control and patient enough to trust God’s timing.
In June of 2020, eight months after the transplant surgery, I could feel my abdominal muscles burn again! It was such an amazing and joyful moment for me and what I had been striving to achieve. I still had a way to go but this helped me realize how important baby steps are in our daily lives. Baby steps soon become giant leaps, and a positive outlook in situations like mine, soon becomes a light shining bright for all to see.
This coming October will be 5 years since my transplant surgery, and I feel stronger than ever despite the numbness that remains below my incision. I have learned how to take better care of myself and not to push myself beyond my body’s capability. Living a transplant life can be discouraging at times because there is no guarantee on how long the donor organ will sustain. I was given a second chance at life because of someone’s loss. I owe it to my donor to take as good care of myself as possible. I take anti-rejection medication and a steroid daily, so my body does not reject the organ and to keep the Autoimmune Hepatitis at bay. Good nutrition, exercise, sleep and living a healthy lifestyle are paramount to survival.
I can wholeheartedly say the Pilates method helped me survive the surgery and made my recovery much faster. It confirmed my belief that the key to life is to keep moving, no matter what. This entire journey has been a huge challenge, and I am so grateful to Pilates. It prepared me, physically and mentally, along with my faith, to accept my diagnoses, do what I needed to get through it, and survive it!
Kahley Schiller founded Pilates by Kahley in Kansas City in 2005 with a mission of sharing her passion for Pilates to help others change their bodies and their lives. Her practice was instrumental in her recovery from liver transplant surgery, and she now specializes in Pilates for injury prevention and rehabilitation, working with clients from young athletes to breast cancer survivors to the Kansas City Chiefs. Certified in Pilates mat and equipment, she also trained with first generation Pilates teacher Lolita San Miguel, completing the Pilates Mentor Master Program to become an official second generation Pilates instructor.
