North Texas dancer won't let a rare nerve disorder hold her back
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A college student from Dallas suffers from a rare medical condition that at times had her questioning whether she wanted to go on living.
She's among the 200,000 people in the U.S. diagnosed with a crippling syndrome.
When she was a little kid, Miller Kerr played just about every sport you could name.
"My family is very competitive, so I love to compete I like to win," says Kerr.
It was during a basketball game, when at the age of 10, her life changed.
She was hit in the thigh by another player's knee.
"I kind of stumbled back and I kind of went to the ground end and I was like what's happening that hurt really badly, I tried really hard to hold back some tears," says Kerr.
Unlike most common sports injuries, it didn't heal and the pain didn't go away.
"They told me nothing was wrong, it's probably just a deep bruise you'll be fine in a couple of weeks," says Kerr.
It led to hospitals trips, all across the country, desperate for a diagnosis that remained a mystery.
"I quickly lost the ability to walk," says Kerr.
It was determined that Kerr had Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, or CRPS, a rare nerve disorder that causes debilitating pain to linger indefinitely.
"Pretty much my brain is sending signals to my legs that saying that I'm in pain when I'm not in pain," says Kerr.
Months of therapy and treatments at a clinic in Cleveland finally allowed Kerr to improve her mobility and manage the pain that never really goes away.
That's why it's sometimes referred to as suicide disease.
"It's still is hard to understand why this is happening to me or even to acknowledge that this is going to be for the rest of my life," says Kerr, "it's pretty hard to come to terms with that."
"Those low days you don't wanna live anymore, you do think of life without pain is anything is better than life with pain," says Kerr.
Dancing became a way for Kerr not only to strengthen her body but also a way to cope and heal her mind.
"I needed something to keep my body moving," says Kerr.
9 years after her diagnosis, this 19-year-old isn't just dancing, she's a captain of the world famous Kilgore Rangerettes drill team.
"If you work hard if you fight this horrible pain you can end up somewhere great," says Kerr.
When the Rangerettes show off their signature high kicks during next week's Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade as well as the Cotton Bowl parade later this year, Miller will be there showing the world just how far she's come.
"Those days it's all worth it, it's all worth the pain, everything that I fought for those days it's all worth it," she says.
From that little girl who had to learn how to walk again, to an inspiring young woman teaching us all, how to reach for the sky.
