Her body tried to betray her. There was no pain, no sickness, no extreme fatigue, nothing to suggest she was dangerously close building up enough toxins in her body that could have forced a lifetime of dialysis or death. 

“There were no symptoms of me having it,” the Middleburg High senior said. “One day I was at the doctor, they did a test and it came back Stage Five kidney failure.” 

That’s five out of five. 

“I was put on medication to help out, and then a couple months later I had surgery for a PD (peritoneal dialysis) catheter and then they put me on the wait list for a kidney transplant,” Zi’Keyia said. “I was on the catheter for 11 months. then I got my kidney on August 17th of 2023.” 

She was forced to complete her schoolwork online. When she returned to class, she quickly returned to the hospital because she developed diabetes from the transplant. Her blood sugar spiked, and doctors struggled to get it under control. 

One of her problems was that she was enjoying her return to school activities; she didn’t notice her blood sugar levels. School had become a rare sense of normalcy in her otherwise world of sterile hospitals, beeping monitors and the endless vials of blood draws. 

Eventually, she got back to class and hasn’t looked back. She’s replaced the memories of 4 a.m. temperature and blood pressure checks with leisurely afternoons of painting with classmates, drawing and baking. She’s alive again, and she’s not going to look back. 

Even when she missed a week of school, her teachers made sure she stayed caught up by sending her work home or keeping in touch with calls or emails. 

“I was able to catch up,” she said. “They let me work on it at home, and then I just brought it in to turn in. They always checked in on me and asked what they could do to help, especially [Counselor Amy] Bucci.” 

Zi'Keyia will graduate with her classmates on May 22, nearly three years after her kidney tried to rob her of her youth and her future. She defied all the challenges her condition presented. She was lucky because she caught it early, and she was young and strong. 

And she was determined. 

“Sometimes you feel like you’re fighting this by yourself, but I always had my mom and my family,” Zi’Keyia said. “My mom was with me every step of the way. I always had her to fall back on if it became too much for me.” 

After high school graduation, she said she may take a break before deciding on her next step. She may go to college to study cardiovascular sonography. Or she may take a completely different route and go to culinary school. 

Whichever route, it will be at full speed and without looking back.