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"Why didn’t somebody listen to me?" Dance Moms' Abby Lee Miller on her cancer treatment.

 

Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller has shared a rare photograph of herself one year after undergoing emergency spinal surgery that uncovered a cancer diagnosis.

The controversial reality TV star best known for teaching Sia’s dance prodigy Maddie Ziegler at the Abby Lee Dance Company on her own reality series Dance Moms posted a raw image of her spinal surgery scar on Instagram on Thursday with an emotional caption outlining how doctors misdiagnosed her Burkitt Lymphoma.

The 52-year-old, who served eight months in jail after being found guilty of bankruptcy fraud, said she wishes doctors had believed her when she presented with symptoms twice.

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

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“One year ago today ~ I underwent emergency surgery for an infection in my spine,” Miller wrote.

“This mass/tumor choking my spinal cord turned out to be Burkitt Lymphoma. I endured ten rounds of chemotherapy (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?”

Miller also went on to thank her team of “top notch medical professionals” who have continued to treat her after being released from prison in early 2018. The former dance instructor is currently wheelchair bound, telling Inside Edition in February, 2019 she believes poor medical care during her imprisonment is to blame for her paralysis.

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“I think taking my medicine away led to this entire issue and the reason I’m in a wheelchair and I’m handicapped,” she said.

In February, Miller spoke more about how her diagnosis and conviction changed her life in the trailer for the upcoming season 8 of Dance Moms.

“In an instant, your life changes completely. I was ready to go back to work and start my life over and now I can’t even walk.”

Dance Moms season 8 is set to premiere in June.