Sarah Hyland Was in "a Lot of Pain" With Kidney Disease on Modern Family Set

USMagazine, Monday, May 14, 2012, 2:30pm (PDT)

Sarah Hyland is a very good actress.

The Modern Family star opened up in an interview with Good Morning America Monday about her new confession in Seventeen magazine that she's been suffering from kidney dysplasia. The 21-year-old actress had to hide the pain of her disease on the hit ABC show before receiving a kidney transplant last month.

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"I would be in a lot of pain a lot of the time. If I didn't get, like 12 hours of sleep -- It felt, like, none at all," Hyland explained to GMA of her battle with the disease.

"I try and make it so that Haley is always sitting down," she said of her character Haley Dunphy on the show. "If you notice, she's always sitting down a lot…or leaning and texting." Hyland added, "When Haley walks up the stairs that's like my work out for the week."

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But she's been coping with the pain since she was diagnosed with kidney dysplasia at the age of nine. "You know, if you're sick, you still go to work," she said. "And in between takes, you sit down, or you lay your head down or something."

Still, Hyland's pain was getting worse and fortunately her father, actor Edward James Hyland, was a perfect match for an organ donor. The actress underwent transplant surgery last month and is now recovering.

"It's weird," she said of her father giving her his kidney, "because it's like, 'I have your kidney in me now.' "

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Hyland told Seventeen magazine that her boyfriend, actor Matt Prokop, has been a big help with her recovery.

"He helps me with my medication and takes me to doctor appointments and all the stuff that I need to do to take care of myself."

 

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Sarah Hyland Was in "a Lot of Pain" With Kidney Disease on Modern Family Set