- In a new, emotional Instagram post, Abby Lee Miller shows her spinal surgery scar.
- One year ago, Abby underwent emergency spinal surgery which later told her she had cancer.
- Abby’s specific type of cancer, Burkitt lymphoma, is a rare type of cancer that affects white blood cells.
One year ago, Abby Lee Miller underwent emergency surgery for what she thought was a spinal infection that later turned out to be cancer. Now, in an emotional Instagram post, the Dance Moms star is opening up about everything she’s been through in the last year.
“One year ago today I underwent emergency surgery for an infection in my spine,” she wrote accompanying a photo that shows her topless with her back facing the camera. In the photo, Abby’s hair is shaved down tight to her head, and the scar from her spinal surgery is visible on her back.
“This mass/tumor choking my spinal cord turned out to be Burkitt Lymphoma.” (In case you’re not familiar with it, Burkitt lymphoma is an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects white blood cells, according to the American Cancer Society.)
One year ago today ~ I underwent emergency surgery for an infection in my spine. This mass/tumor choking my spinal cord turned out to be Burkitt Lymphoma. I endured ten rounds of chemo therapy (each lasting 6 days with 4/ 24hr bags pumping poison into my body ending with a spinal tap in 3 spots, plus another shot of Chemo into my tailbone area up the spinal cord around my brain cavity) Ten times! Another spine surgery was needed & I have one more still to go. I struggled thru months of physical therapy to learn to sit up again, to crawl and maybe with a miracle someday I’ll walk. Why didn’t the ER Doctors on duty do their jobs? I came in twice with the same symptoms? Why didn’t somebody listen to me, the patient? I finally found the right team that’s why I lived to tell my story, I have a lot to say! Thank you to all wonderful top notch professionals who continue to help me heal. For those who missed it, misdiagnosed me, and the so called Federal “Doctor” who took me off medication cold turkey and the other ER “Doctor Hollywood” who told me to go home and take it easy for 10 days – STOP practicing! Please 🙏🏻
A post shared by Abby Lee Miller (@therealabbylee) on
Abby says she went through 10 rounds of chemotherapy—and described what one of those rounds looks like in detail: “Each lasting 6 days with 4/ 24hr bags pumping poison into my body ending with a spinal tap in 3 spots, plus another shot of Chemo into my tailbone area up the spinal cord around my brain cavity,” she wrote.
But that’s not all: Abby said she also underwent another emergency surgery and says she has “one more still to go.” She also recounts the physical therapy part of her treatment, which also wasn’t easy. “I struggled thru months of physical therapy to learn to sit up again, to crawl and maybe with a miracle someday I’ll walk,” she wrote.
But then Abby revealed something new: She feels like doctors didn’t initially do enough for her. ” Why didn’t the ER Doctors on duty do their jobs?” she wrote. “I came in twice with the same symptoms? Why didn’t somebody listen to me, the patient?”
Luckily, Abby says she finally found a team of doctors who she felt comfortable with: “I finally found the right team that’s why I lived to tell my story,” she wrote. “I have a lot to say! Thank you to all wonderful top notch professionals who continue to help me heal.”
But Abby also didn’t miss an opportunity to call out the other doctors who either “misssed” her diagnosis or totally “misdiagnosed” her, asking them to stop practicing medicine altogether: “For those who missed it, misdiagnosed me, and the so called Federal ‘Doctor’ who took me off medication cold turkey and the other ER ‘Doctor Hollywood’ who told me to go home and take it easy for 10 days – STOP practicing! Please.”
Clearly, Abby’s story is inspiring—and also an important reminder to be an advocate for your own health. I can’t wait to see her back on TV soon in her new season of Dance Moms, hopefully feeling better than she has in a long time.
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