One moment Shelby Miller was a promising young swimmer with the Castlegar Aquanauts and the next she woke up in an Edmonton hospital after an emergency liver transplant.
Miller, a 麻豆社国产resident, has had an interesting journey with her three different livers and was recently chosen by the Canadian Liver Foundation (CLF) to design a bracelet to help support the organization. Her combination of jewelry creativity and firsthand experience with liver disease made her an obvious candidate.
"I got to know the regional director of the CLF and brought one of my bracelets to one of their events last November," said Miller, adding that she makes all the bracelets by hand. "They liked my work and wanted to use it nationally. After some tweaking we came up with the final product."
The finished product became a series of liver-inspired sterling silver links with a charm on the end. Both Miller and the CLF are thrilled with the final product.
But despite the positivity with the liver bracelet in her life now, it has been a lifelong battle to remain healthy for Miller who, through various circumstances, had to receive two separate liver transplants.
"When I was around 14 I was a competitive swimmer and trying to qualify for the regional championships in my town," she said. "But I remember being so weak and tired at the end of my regionals that I literally had to get pulled out of the pool."
Following the swim meet, Miller continued feeling weak and it only got worse as the days passed.
"I just felt weaker and weaker with every day," she said. "I really started going downhill six to nine days after and was going in and out of consciousness. I would forget things easily and it was really scary."
Thankfully, at her local hospital a doctor who had recently transferred from Toronto realized that what Miller was suffering was something far more serious than extreme fatigue.
"It ended up that I had a very, very rare form of liver disease known as fulminant hepatic failure," she said. "If it wasn't for that doctor diagnosing me properly I most likely would have died."
Lapsing in and out of consciousness, Miller woke up in Edmonton, where a liver was waiting for her.
"I remember I woke up and felt different but had no idea where I was," she said. "I was told I'd been very sick and that I'd just had a liver transplant and everything was going to be fine."
And everything was fine for Miller until 2007, when the symptoms she had felt years earlier seemed to return.
"I started getting sick again in November of 2007," she said. "And I learned that I had developed Hepatitis B from my new liver. I was told that I got on a shortlist for another liver and then went through a very tough interview process to qualify for another new liver."
Miller said she holds no bitter feelings about getting the disease from a previous transplant and said she will never forget the process she went through to get her newest liver.
"I remember walking into this room and seeing all the other people who were looking to get through the interview like me," she said. "Just looking around the room and realizing that a lot of these people weren't going to make it, it really affected me."
Miller qualified and received her new liver but said she still seeks regular treatment to deal with her Hepatitis B.
"It's a lot harder to recover from a second transplant and there's always the risk of infection," she said, adding that she thanks God for her recovery. "I get treatment every month and am taking experimental drugs to help keep the disease dormant. It's hard but you have to learn to live with the disease."
The connection with the CLF is a natural fit for Miller and she hopes to increase awareness about liver disease with her bracelet.
"I volunteer as much as I can with the CLF and I want this bracelet to be a success for all of those who are no longer allowed to fulfill their dreams and ambitions because of liver disease," she said. "There's so much awareness for cancer and heart disease but not so much for liver. I have something to give to help raise awareness so I'm going to try and do everything I can to do just that.
"I owe it to all the doctors who helped me along the way and the people in that room who were passed over for me. Everyone has their own story and I'm just so glad I'm here to tell mine."
Miller's bracelet will be officially launched at the What a Girl Wants fundraiser, put on by the CLF on May 19 at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver. The bracelet is also available online through Miller's website, which can be found at www.shelbymiller.ca.
For more information on the CLF, visit www.liver.ca.
