(upbeat pop music)
Please welcome Abby Lee Miller.
(crowd cheers)
Abby...
(kisses cheeks) (crowd cheers)
So good to see you.
You look beautiful.
Yes Oh thank you, thank you.
All right Abby...
And thank you for being so very kind-
during my stay-cation Abby!
Abby I hear we're big in prison.
Oh.
You're it.
(Wendy Laughs)
You are it, yes. (crowd claps)
Hello convicts.
Yes
It's good to see you back on Dance Moms.
Thank you, it's good to be back.
(crowd cheers)
When you were in, I was saying
there is no show without you.
I think that had other people hosting it,
Nicole- (mumbles) Yeah.
I like her. Look I like the other people,
but there's nothing like Abby,
for that show. (crowd cheers)
Are you happy to be back on the show?
Yes, I'm happy to be back on the show.
I'm happy that I'm working.
I'm in my zone
and I had to prove it to myself
that I could still do it. Yeah
Yeah. And you're meaner than ever.
But- Not, not really.
Not really. Well you know what-
No. Well, you know what, I take that back.
You are as consistent as ever. Yes, yes.
You know you have not slowed down,
No. because a lot of people would think
that prison might've humbled you,
or your current situation, (crowd laughs)
and we'll talk about that in a moment,
might've humbled you. But-
Well, I don't think it- people don't really change,
your genetic makeup is with you at birth.
That's what I said.
Situations change or locations change
but you don't really change
and I think that, you know, going to prison
it doesn't soften you it hardens you.
Are you kidding?
Well... okay. (crowd laughs quietly)
Look, look, look.
Do you know how many guards said
where is that Dance Mom lady at?
And I was like, "you don't need the preposition
at the end of the question." Wait, you got a harder time-
you had a tougher time
with the guards than with the fellow inmates?
Oh, absolutely.
The other women were wonderful.
I heard that they didn't let you wear lashes.
They tried to rip my extensions off.
My extensiones de pestañas, off.
Hello.
Yes.
Now, why was that- why didn't you just say
they're growing from your skull?
Like, why-?
I did! I said, "ouch, stop!"
Yes.
Yes. And my piece of paper - you're allowed
to go in with one eight and a half by eleven
sheet of paper with all of your contacts on it.
And, you know, emails, phone numbers...
Yes, yes, yes.
Mine went missing in five minutes.
(crowd groans)
Wow, so the actual prison system was mean to you.
They were ready for me.
I had heard from other women
that for three months prior to my arrival,
that it was the buzz.
And so while- right before you went in
you got the gastric sleeve.
I did.
And I was monitoring you- like,
I talked about you when you were in.
I know, and I appreciate that.
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you so much. (crowd claps)
Yeah. So, so then you lost a bunch of weight...
I lost 127 pounds
Good for you.
(crowd cheers enthusiastically)
You should've had me on then,
because I looked really good then.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And, I read 150 books...
Really? (crowd oohs)
I laid in the sun...
And then eight months
and then you get out?
Well it should've been four months.
Okay.
Then it was two more months,
then two more months,
and during that time they took me off-
the prison doctor took my off all of my medication
for my thyroid, for Metformin for diabetes.
Cold turkey, everything. Wait, you have to take
a thyroid pill everyday to maintain.
I have got thyroid disease.
You do but, because I lost the weight,
"Oh you don't need it anymore.
Oh you're not diabetic anymore. You're done."
But in actuality, you were still
being affected by those two things.
Absolutely, and-
So are you suing?
Well, I've never sued anyone in my life. Ever.
They left three sponges in my dad
during an esophageal surgery,
Yeah.
And I regret that,
because, you know, maybe had I done that
I would've never gone bankrupt,
I would've never...
Had all those mistakes happen during that time,
and I never would've gone to prison.
Yeah.
So, I don't know.
I think I need to do what's right for me
and I'm still discussing that,
I have a few more months to figure it out.
Mom and Dad have now passed on,
Yes.
And you have no children of your own,
Correct.
And no siblings.
No.
So, Abby, it's us and her against the world.
(crowd claps)
Me and you, me and you against the world.
Yeah.
Abby, explain what kind of cancer you had
because when I heard about it I said,
"Is this woman ever going to get a break?"
You know? And it's a very rare cancer.
Go ahead Abby.
Yes it's called Burkitt lymphoma
and it's commonly found in little boys
under the age of 10 in Africa.
And it grows very rapidly,
from three weeks to eight weeks.
I had it maybe, five or six weeks,
but from three to eight weeks
if you get to eight weeks you're dead.
Okay, so how did you discover this?
Well, I went to six different doctors in ten days.
But why were you going to the doctors?
Were you in pain, were you-
Yes. It started, with, I thought I had a sinus headache,
so I needed a Z-Pak,
then my jaw was numb so I went to a dentist
who did a nice, cute test on every tooth,
Which I had never had before.
And then I was...
admitted to the hospital,
and...
I was there for three days,
they said they found nothing.
They didn't do any testing, it was crazy.
I went back the next day to the emergency room,
Okay
With the same symptoms.
By now, I have a severe pain
in the back of my neck, my upper back.
My arms are like flailing around
like your crazy person,
I can't sit down- I can't sit,
can't go to the Ladies room.
I can't lay in the bed.
I can't stand in the shower.
I constantly have to be moving,
I was in pain- it was starting to blind me, the pain.
Okay, and then you were diagnosed with this-
No. Then I went to another doctor, spine surgeon,
who's wonderful, Hooman Melamed.
I went to him, he put my in the hospital to have...
Yeah...
Yeah.
I was skinny.
So...
He put me in the hospital to have an MRI,
to be sedated.
And even tough I was in the machine
and I was sedated, my arms and legs were still moving
so they had to take me out.
So, it was inconclusive-
So you got the final diagnosis and-
Well, well I ended up- let's just say
in 24 hours I was in intensive care,
paralyzed from the neck down in the fetal position.
You had a lot of chemo.
10 rounds, 24 hour day bags, six days straight.
And then a spinal tap with a needle this long,
in your spine, shooting it up around your brain
and ten times.
Ten!
Okay, Abby. Are you cancer free now?
I am cancer free.
(crowd cheers happily)
Good for you.
So now...
But, let me just say,
I was cancer-free after the third round.
Okay, then why did they keep doing it? - You tell me.
Just to be sure.
You didn't have a medical proxy,
nobody who was looking-
I did. I had a wonderful oncologist
that came on board, he is Dr. Lawrence Piro.
He is- he was Farrah Fawcett's doctor,
he's Shannen Doherty's doctor,
and he's a genius- he's wonderful.
So now, you're in a wheelchair
and this is as a result of the spinal part?
This is the result of the cancer
or the lymphoma choking my spinal cord.
Will you be able to walk again, Abby?
Well, I can move...
Good.
All right, so yes. (crowd claps)
Good.
Now, that picture right there that we're looking at,
you know you're being held up by braces
and things like that.
Do you exercise on a regular basis
to try to be able to walk, or...
Yes, flexibility is key- to stay flexible.
Yes.
Think about putting your own shoes on.
Oh we know flexibility around here.
It's crazy. Yes! (Abby laughs)
Okay.
And also, strength.
You know when you're laying in a hospital bed
for that long, you just become lethargic.
Your muscles atrophy
and so you lose all your strength.
And I have a really bad right knee,
I needed knee replacement 10 years ago
and I kept putting it off with the show,
"oh thirteen more episodes, another season."
Well I must tell you,
under the circumstances she looks really-
you look really fantastic.
(crowd claps enthusiastically)
I always ask you this because,
I feel like- (mumbles)
do you have love in your life now?
Do you have a boyfriend?
No.
Are you shopping?
No.
(crowd laughs quietly)
I think I need to take care of myself
Get into Abby...
Before I can take care of somebody else.
Yeah. (crowd claps)
Well I have to tell you something,
it's really wonderful to see you back on the show.
And you know, now I watch the show,
I'm a fan, I don't care about dancing
but I like Abby screaming at the kids and stuff.
(Abby chuckles) (crowd cheers)
Look, look, look,
and what I get from the show,
only because we know Abby,
Abby is a- you're a lovable person.
And I bet you, the girls that you teach
love the heck out of you.
Well...
They do... until they're you know...
Look at that picture, that's gorgeous.
(crowd claps) Thank you, isn't it?
And I bet you the Moms are a bigger headache
than the girls.
Well I think there's a-
the problem comes in when the children get too close to me
and it's, "Abby said this," or "Abby said that,"
or "we have to do this because Abby said."
I think the mother kind of starts to resent me
and the relationship that we have.
Yes. Yeah, yeah.
Well we love you here.
Thank you so much for being here.
(crowd cheers loudly)
Feel well. Good luck.
Dance Moms, everybody,
airs Tuesday night at nine on Lifetime.
(upbeat funky music)