As a mom of three, Andrea Miller always stays on the move — shuttling kids to sports and activities, volunteering and, recently, working with children who have learning needs before they enter school.
So when she woke up in severe pain one morning, she tried to brush it off.
“This excruciating pain was in my lower back, shooting down the back of my leg,” she says. “And I have a pretty high tolerance for pain.”
An MRI revealed a serious tumor in her spinal cord — so serious that she’d need surgery, and she was told she may never walk again.
But after a fateful moment that she believes was divine intervention, Miller found herself making an appointment with John E. O'Toole, MD, MS, a neurosurgeon at Rush who specializes in spinal surgery.
That moment led her exactly where she needed to be. Now she shares her story to inspire others who might feel hopeless. Here’s how it happened.
They said she may never walk again
As Miller’s pain worsened, she first saw a local orthopedist for an MRI. The follow-up call left her shaken.
“He said, ‘We think we see a spot on your spinal cord. It looks like a tumor,’” Miller says. “That completely caught me off guard. Suddenly I felt like I couldn’t do anything.”
Miller then visited a surgeon who wasn’t confident in performing the invasive surgery she needed, and he wasn’t sure she’d ever walk again after the procedure.
A second specialist felt too pushy — and he agreed that she may never walk again.
“I couldn’t even imagine having a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and never being able to walk,” Miller says.
After going home in tears, Miller turned to the internet. Advice from local social media groups urged her to go to Chicago for care.
Even though it meant a long drive from home near St. Charles, she started researching specialists in the city.
A lifechanging coincidence
While searching online for top spine tumor surgeons in Chicago, she clicked on one of the first results — just as a text message came to her phone.
“My friend texted me, ‘Hey, my husband went to college with a friend, and he studied with this doctor, John O’Toole,” Miller says.
When she looked back at her screen, she realized O’Toole’s profile was the exact web page she had just opened.
“I get chills just thinking about it,” Miller says. “I’m like, ‘This is just amazing. This is totally a God thing. How did this all happen? You and I are both looking at this doctor at the same time.’”
She called the next morning to schedule her visit. Within 24 hours, she was in O’Toole’s office.
“He walked in the room, and I just felt this confidence like I had never felt with any of the other doctors I had met,” she says. “I said, ‘I’m so scared.’ And he said, ‘You’re good. This is what I do.’ I thought, ‘OK, this is where I’m supposed to be.’”
What is myxopapillary ependymoma?
Miller’s tumor needed urgent treatment, so her surgery was scheduled for a week later.
“This type of tumor, a myxopapillary ependymoma, is technically a benign tumor,” O’Toole says. “But as it grows slowly, it can start to fill up the space where the nerves are in your lower back.”
As the tumor expands, it can press on the spinal cord. That can cause severe pain, as it did for Miller. It can also lead to numbness, tingling or weakness in the legs — and even problems with bladder and bowel control.
Even though this type of tumor isn't malignant, O’Toole notes, it can spread.
“Sometimes little cells break off and float around in the spinal fluid and lodge somewhere else,” he says. “That basically means from the brain all the way down to the sacrum — wherever the spinal fluid is circulating.”
How to remove a spine tumor
The procedure O’Toole recommended is called a laminectomy.
“It involves opening up the back part of the spine to access the spinal canal,” O’Toole says. “We have to open the coverings of the spinal fluid and nerves, called the dura.”
The surgery can be challenging. Nerves in the spine can wrap around or travel through the tumor. The surgeon needs to carefully remove as much of the tumor as possible without affecting normal nerve functions.
Miller’s surgery took about three hours.
“We were able to get the whole tumor out without any change in her neurological function,” O’Toole says.
"I was in the hospital for a few days, but I was walking the next day,” Miller says. “I was doing stairs, walking the halls.”
She went home to finish recovering with a few limitations. But within two months, she was fully clear to get back to all of her day-to-day activities.
“There was no pain afterward,” she says. “No side effects. Back to living my normal life.”
Same life, new gratitude — and new family doctor
Today, Miller is back to her busy routine as a mom.
“Being able to go back to working out, being able to ride bikes with my kids and go roller blading and do activities that we enjoy — it feels like nothing has changed,” she says.
But some things are a little different.
She’s now using her degrees and background in social work to help kids in early intervention programs transition to school.
“My oldest actually went through early intervention when he was younger for speech and occupational therapy, so it means a lot to me,” Miller says.
She’s also found ways to show gratitude to the surgeon who helped change her life — starting with her own family. Not long after surgery, her husband started having back problems of his own.
"And I said, ‘Well, you’re only going to see O’Toole, so let’s start there,'” she says. “Now he’s two for two with our family as far as successful surgeries.”
Miller says that both acquaintances and people online have reached out to her for advice after her experience.
"I have confidently been able to say, 'Go see John O’Toole. He is amazing. Before you waste your time on anyone else, he’s just wonderful,’” she says.
O’Toole also has advice for anyone having symptoms like Miller's.
“If it's not just back pain, but shooting pain down the legs, or you lose sensation or strength in a limb, or you're noticing significant change in your bladder or bowel function, these are red flags,” he says. “They suggest you should undergo advanced imaging like MRI to rule out anything concerning.”
He also advises seeing a surgeon who specializes in spinal tumors and will work with a team of experts from many fields on your case. That’s one benefit of going to a place like Rush.
Miller agrees that finding the right care can make all the difference.
“You might have to travel, but it’s so worth it. This is your body. You only have one,” she says. "That’s why if I see somebody say, ‘I’m willing to travel,’ I say, ‘Come to Chicago. Come see Dr. O’Toole,’ because he just means the world to my family.”
If you have concerning spine tumor symptoms or you’d like a second opinion on a spine tumor diagnosis, call Rush at (888) 352-7874. You can also learn more on our Spine Surgery Services page.
