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At the 1996 Summer Olympics, Shannon Miller won more medals than any other gymnast in U.S. history had. She had hit the peak of her career, earning two golds in 1996, on top of the five she had already won in 1992.
Barely 20 years later, in December 2010, Miller was busy launching a new healthy living company, taking care of her one-year-old son Rocco, and handling general holiday activities. She had her yearly OB/GYN appointment scheduled, and was debating whether or not she wanted to skip it “because [she] was really busy with the holidays.”
Guilt kicked ultimately kicked in; Miller decided to practice what she preached at her work and attended her exam.
Miller had no idea how crucial this appointment would be. It was at this appointment that her gynecologist discovered something abnormal in her ovary.
For the entire month following, Miller completed many tests and was kept under close observation by her doctors. In January, she finally went through surgery to have her left ovary and fallopian tube removed and tested.
Her doctors diagnosed her with stage 1 ovarian cancer and began to schedule her for chemotherapy treatment sessions.
Ironically, it was after the surgery and receiving her diagnosis that Miller found a fresh sense of determination to combat the disease. “I wanted to know what I was dealing with,” she explained.
Miller had mentally prepared herself for the side effects of chemotherapy, but everything was just a bit worse than she had anticipated. She experienced intense nausea and couldn’t even drink water, much less eat.
Although she’d once won medals for her tumbling, Miller now felt like her “limbs each weigh[ed] a thousand pounds” and wasn’t sure if she could even get up by herself, without support.
A long year and a half later, in June 2011, Miller had finally fought off her disease.
The following year, she became pregnant with her second child – while only having one functioning ovary – and flew to London to be a commentator for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Miller is now using her unique position to partner with the Know Pelvic Mass campaign to inform other women about the subtle warning signs of ovarian cancer. “I didn’t know what the symptoms and signs were,” Miller admitted. She always “told [her] doctor, ‘I feel fine.’”
She explained, “I didn’t tell him about the stomachaches I’d been having, I didn’t tell him that I’d been feeling bloated, I didn’t tell him that I’d lost six pounds in a month. I just kind of blew these things off as part of being a woman.”
Miller now knows better and is advising all women, “Don’t brush off those nagging things. Make time to talk to your doctor.”
