Abby Lee Miller's Cancer Battle: How Physical Therapy Can Help
- Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller is suing a hotel chain for millions of dollars because she claims a hotel door fell on top of her.
- In April 2018, Abby Lee Miller was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She has been wheelchair-bound since her first spinal cord surgery later that year.
- Following cancer surgery, many people may assume that avoiding exercise is the way to go. However, starting a physical therapy routine can actually offer a huge benefit when it comes to recovery.
Miller, 56, is suing Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton for $8.5 million in damages. She alleges that at the chain's location in Santa Monica, Calif., a more than 300-pound door fell "directly" on top of her and trapped her in her wheelchair for about six to 12 minutes.
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SurvivorNet has reached out to Miller for comment on the lawsuit, who provided the following statement:
"While we cannot comment about ongoing litigation, Abby Lee Miller is committed to using her public platform to bring attention to the multitude of indignities suffered by the failure of corporations to provide the same accessibility and services availed to the non-disabled community. It's 2022, these lawsuits should be a relic of the past. Architectural barriers against the disabled community is a humiliation that no one should suffer."
Abby Lee Miller's Cancer Battle
In April 2018, Abby Lee Miller was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Burkitt, which is rare (making up 1% to 2% of all lymphomas), typically starts in the abdomen, where it forms a large tumor. It can spread rapidly to the brain and spinal fluid. According to Lymphoma Research Foundation, this fast-growing form of cancer may affect the jaw, central nervous system, bowel, kidneys, ovaries, or other organs, and may spread to the central nervous system.
Miller, who was living in a halfway house in Long Beach, Calif., at the time, began experiencing pain. She had just been released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Victorville, Calif., where she served nearly a year-long sentence after pleading guilty to bankruptcy fraud in June 2016.
Experiencing pain she had never felt before, Miller went to a local urgent care clinic, tests were done, but she was sent home, undiagnosed. Because her jaw hurt, she went to a dentist who "did an ice cube check on every tooth and said there's nothing wrong with your teeth," she tells SurvivorNet. But the pain persisted.
Miller wound up at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where she was discharged after three days in "worse pain than I went in with." Her medical team suggested she go to a pain management clinic.
Several days later, Abby Lee Miller returned to the hospital, barely able to move her arms, legs or jaw, and underwent emergency surgery. Her doctor "went to my spinal cord and meticulously pulled a slime, a tar-like substance, away from the spinal cord," she says. It was complications she suffered during this surgery that have bound her to an electric wheelchair.
In May 2019, it was determined that Miller was cancer-free and began making good progress in her recovery. As of April 2021, she still has PET scans every three months to check for any recurrence.
She attends regular physical therapy sessions to build her strength back, but recently faced yet another obstacle as a result of a second spinal surgery she had in October 2020. The procedure caused two vertebrae fractures; she went through a third spinal surgery in November 2020 to rectify it.
Now, she says, "I can walk a couple steps with the walker, but I'm not where I was before September 30 (of 2020)."
How Physical Therapy Can Help Patients Recover After Cancer Surgery
Following cancer surgery, many people may assume that avoiding exercise is the way to go. However, starting a physical therapy routine, like Abby Lee Miller, can actually offer a huge benefit when it comes to recovery.
Dr. Angela Wicker-Ramos explains how a physical therapist can help patients recover after cancer treatment.
According to SurvivorNet experts, easing into exercise after surgery can improve your circulation; it improves your wound healing and the fluid movement through your body, helps soften any scar tissue that may be in the area (especially exercises that involve deep breathing or extending your chest and arms) and improves your endurance after surgery.
But it is important that people recognize their limits and do not strain their body too much, which is where a physical therapist comes in.
"Physical therapists can help with assessing any issues with range of motion, mobility, fatigue and balance, and then create a program that is very much a prescriptive program; so, a program that's based on what you are at the time of your treatments," Dr. Angela Wicker-Ramos, an oncology physical therapist for Cancer Rehab and Integrative Medicine in Austin, Texas, tells SurvivorNet.
Contributing: Ann Oldenburg
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