A person’s sick body reflects what humanity is like spiritually.
In my book, Alagille Girl, I dedicated a chapter listing all my medical conditions – past and present. Today, I want to give an updated and brief list of my chronic illnesses and disabilities.
Past Conditions
Liver cirrhosis: This led to a life-saving liver transplant at 13 years old in March 2006.
Rickets: A childhood bone condition that came with my Alagille Syndrome.
Endometrial Hyperplasia (A pre-cancer condition): I was first diagnosed with this in 2020. It returned in 2024 and in 2025, the results showed that it cleared again. Hopefully, it won’t return again.
Past & Present
Alagille Syndrome: I was born with this rare genetic disorder and for me, it affects my liver, heart, bones, vision, hearing, learning pace and physical development.
Pulmonary Stenosis: I have multiple stents in my artery due to the narrowing of my artery.
Cone Rod Dystrophy: This affects my vision.
Keratosis Obturans: An ear condition involving recurring build up in the ear canal.
Slow learning pace or learning disability: I’m 4x slower than my peers when it comes to learning, studying, etc.
Diabetes (drug-induced): I was given oral and IV steroids in 2008 to treat my first liver rejection episode and for a couple of years I had diabetes. Then, in 2023, I was given oral and IV steroids again to treat my second liver rejection episode, which brought back my diabetes.
Present Conditions
Blindness: For the first time in my life, I heard the words “legally blind” from an ophthalmologist. In December 2021, I found out that my right eye is legally blind and my left eye will probably progress too.
Slight hearing loss: I wear hearing aids in classroom or group settings (I’ve had my hearing aids for a couple of years now).
Osteonecrosis or Avascular Necrosis (AVN): I was first diagnosed with AVN on my hips in 2009. In 2021, I underwent a right hip replacement surgery. In 2022, I was placed on the waitlist for a left hip replacement surgery (still waiting). And in 2023, during my second liver rejection episode, I found out my knees have been affected too (“Bone Infarct,” says the orthopaedic doctor when she came to see me in the liver ward).
Bone Infarct: A term used to refer to AVN.
High blood pressure: I was placed on high blood pressure medicine in January and last month, I was placed on a higher dose than before.
Chiari Malformation with syringomyelia: I was diagnosed with this in 2024 after having severe pain that would come and go since December 2022 (interestingly this year the pain has been mild to moderate).
Cirrhosis: January, this year, I found out that there’s cirrhosis in my liver. Despite this news, my last 3 liver function tests wasn’t too bad.
A Reflection
As you have just read, I have a lot of physical conditions. Many people who meet me don’t realise how much my body is going through underneath the surface. I am physically sick and disabled. This is not just a feeling. It is a medical reality confirmed by years of tests, surgeries and hospital stays. But here’s what strikes me most: My body reflects what humanity is like spiritually. Just as a body riddled with illness reveals hidden suffering, so too does our spiritual condition often go unseen yet deeply broken.
A person’s sick body reflects what humanity is like spiritually. You, me, we, are all spiritually sick.
Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who needs a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:31-32 (NIV)
Jesus came to rescue us. He didn’t tell us how to save ourselves. Instead, He came to save us.
I know what it means to be saved in a physical sense – a liver transplant saved my life. But that points to something even greater: Jesus saving our souls. Just as I needed a new liver to live, we all need new hearts. Hearts softened by grace, healed by mercy, and transformed by Christ.
I hope that by sharing the realities of my physical sickness and disabilities, I also remind you of our shared need for the Great Physician.