Abby Lee Miller is being "held together" by stitches.
Abby Lee Miller (c) Instagram
The former 'Dance Moms' star - who is currently battling Burkitt Lymphoma, a rare form of cancer - is "on the mend" after undergoing spinal surgery but wishes she could get better more quickly.
She shared a photo of her stitched spine on Instagram and wrote "After the 2nd surgery, My back is finally on the mend. I just wish the top section & bottom would hurry along too! I had 52 staples perfectly aligned and now a bunch of crazy stitches are holding my neck & lumbar region together! #abbyleemiller #abbylee #dancemoms @hoomanmelamedmd #aldc #aldcla #spjne #disc (sic)"
Despite her medical ordeal, Abby has been able to poke fun at her situation.
A week ago, she showed off a special wrist band bearing the words 'Fall Risk' and wrote on Instagram: "If I Could FALL, I Would CRAWL To The MALL! #spinesurgery (sic)"
The 51-year-old star also doesn't seem too upset at the prospect of losing her locks to chemotherapy.
In an Instagram post with her hand to her face, she quipped: "HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW...
#abbyleemiller #dancemoms #aldc #aldcla #chemo (sic)"
Abby first underwent underwent emergency surgery in April after complaining of "excruciating neck pain".
She went under the knife for a laminectomy, an operation to remove the back of one or more vertebrae and her doctor, Dr. Hooman M. Melamed, previously admitted the dance instructor would have died if she had not gone in for the procedure.
He said at the time: "She's made some recovery in 24 hours, which is better than no recovery.
"Nobody wants to end up thinking they're going to be paralysed for the rest of their life. That's a reality that's facing all of these patients going into it. All you can do is pray and, as a surgeon, you maximize everything you can for the spinal cord to recover itself. I am hopeful.
"There's a chance this can spread to any part of the body ... this is probably coming from somewhere else.
"We don't know where the source is. Any tumour that spreads anywhere is automatically Stage 4, but we have not determined the stage yet."