There's a reason why Sarah Hyland doesn't remember filming certain episodes of ABC's Modern Family.
The answer? She was asleep for them. On co-star Julie Bowen's Quitters podcast, with co-host Chad Sanders, Hyland—who played Haley on the comedy series' 11 season run—discussed her second kidney transplant and how her kidney dysplasia caused her to forget filming episodes because she was so tired.
"There are some episodes of Modern Family where I do not remember filming because I was asleep," Hyland said. "Dead a–– asleep. The episode where Haley asked [Luke for] money and he's like, ‘Don't worry, I've got it on ice.' It's in the freezer or something. The entire episode I was asleep."
She explained that a person must be "a certain level of sick in order to receive a transplant," and that she "was reaching that certain level" before her first transplant.
"I was not able to be awake for eight hours at a time," she continued. "I was so exhausted."
Not only was she exhausted, Bowen recalled that Hyland was also in pain.
"I will never forget ‘What's The Plan, Phil?' Griffith Park," Bowen said. "It was cold. Wearing a Haley special—like a Vegas skirt. She's a small girl to begin with and she had kidney issues."
They had almost finished filming the scene and needed one last take, and Bowen went to see if Hyland could handle another one. Hyland then got up "like a robot" to shoot the scene.
"She [was] in a lot of pain," Bowen said. "But you'd always turn it on when you needed to take care of business."
"I never really said no," Hyland added.
Bowen continued, "You never really said no until you were in the hospital."
Hyland also recalled the dark days following her first kidney donor.
Her body had rejected the first transplant in 2012, and she was on dialysis three times a week.
"What do I do?' That's where I felt suicidal," she said. "I would avoid going into [organ] rejection and being on dialysis at all costs. Just energetically I was like, ‘This is just hard for me to do anymore. And it would just be easier for everyone else too.'"
Thankfully now—after a successful second transplant in 2017—she is "well," telling Bowen that "everything's stable."
"I haven't left the house in a very long time right now," she said "But everything is stable as of now."