Abby Lee Miller Shows Off Scars, Removes Wig in Newly Revealed Photos From Cancer Battle

Credit: Marc Royce

Abby Lee Miller Shows Off Scars, Removes Wig in Newly Revealed Photos From Cancer Battle

Getting back to herself. Abby Lee Miller opened up about her cancer battle and recovery in an exclusive interview with Us Weekly. The Dance Moms star also gave Us a raw, real look at the aftermath of her health scare, including her scars. Miller, 52, underwent 10 rounds of chemotherapy after her diagnosis. “The cancer’s gone,” she revealed. “Burkitt lymphoma’s gone.” The reality star felt “fabulous” upon hearing the news, though she had extra treatments in hopes of ensuring the outcome. “I had a PET scan, and it was cleared. Not one cell of cancer after three rounds of chemo,” she told Us. “But I still had seven more just for safety, which was stupid. I should have just worked on therapy.” Her rehabilitation process includes learning how to walk again after an emergency spinal surgery. “If the ER doctor wouldn’t have said, ‘Oh, go home and take it easy for 10 days. You’ll be fine,’ then they would have actually tested me and done an MRI and looked further at the blood labs. Then they would have known there was something really dramatically wrong,” she noted. “They could have done something, and they would have started the chemo immediately and … the mass of the infection would have never gotten strong enough to choke my spinal cord, and I wouldn’t be in a wheelchair and I’d be walking.” Miller had the operation in April 2018. Us confirmed days later that she was diagnosed with cancer. The TV personality got real about facing death in the latest issue of Us. “You definitely feel alone. My three friends were there [at the hospital but] I’m an only child, my mom and dad are both deceased and I’m not married, I don’t have siblings to lean on,” she admitted. “That’s why, for me, if I died, it didn’t really matter. There were people who care about me, but there wasn’t anybody dependent upon me.” Scroll to see photos from Miller’s recovery, and for more on her health battle, pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now. Dance Moms premieres on Lifetime Tuesday, June 4, at 9 p.m. ET. With reporting by Brody Brown

Credit: Marc Royce

On the Mend

Miller hesitated to wonder if her cancer could return. “I haven’t asked that. I would be afraid to ask that, but I don’t think it’s that kind of a cancer,” she told Us. “It’s a lymphoma, but it’s not … It’s like this weird, strange, bizarre thing that happens, and it’s gone and we need to move on.”

Credit: Courtesy Abby Lee Miller

Better Tomorrow

“My spine surgeon, he wants me to be on a holistic diet,” she revealed. “Obviously he’s never shot a TV show for Lifetime. That’s not happening.”

Credit: Marc Royce

Working Woman

Miller is focused on reviving her career and staying healthy. “I feel OK. I want to go back to the weight I was when I got out of prison,” she explained. “I want to get back on track and get back to my life in Los Angeles. And I want to sell these TV shows.”

Credit: Courtesy Abby Lee Miller

Life After Illness

The dance instructor confessed that the one thing that kept her going was the potential to sue “the s--t out of the hospital.” She also noted that cancer could not take away her sense of humor.

Credit: Marc Royce

Next Step

Miller plans to undergo a knee replacement operation in June, which her physical therapist believes will help her walk again.

Credit: Marc Royce

Fighter

“I always thought I would die of cancer because my mom and my dad both died of cancer. My dad died of osteocancer, and my mom died of colon cancer,” she told Us. “But I just never thought it would happen this soon and this fast and this ugly.”