Abby Lee Miller, former star of Dance Moms, gave her fans another update on her condition on Instagram this weekend. In a post published on Saturday, Miller, who was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in April, shared a video from a hospital facility.
"Sixth and 🙏🏻hopefully the final Lumbar Injection (spinal tap) in this Chemo treatment!" Miller wrote in the caption, following up with the hashtags "#abbyleemiller, #dancemoms, #abbylee, #aldcm," and "#aldcla."
"This is my final—I hope to god—my final lumbar injection,” she says in the video. "This is the table they’re gonna flip me on my stomach, and then my arms are underneath me, and I can’t move, and then they twist it on a diagonal so that your spinal fluid goes down into your spinal cord."
She then switches gears to talk about the color of the room. "It's a great shade of blue, isn't it?" Miller asks. "OK, gotta go, wish me luck!"
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As SELF wrote previously, Miller was rushed into emergency surgery in April after experiencing severe neck pain and paralysis. Her doctors performed surgery to relieve some of the pressure on her spine and gave her a preliminary diagnosis of Burkitt lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
We obviously don't know the specifics of Miller's treatment, but here's the general rundown of how a lumbar injection works: After a local anesthetic is applied, a lumbar injection is performed by inserting a hollow, thin needle in between two of your lower vertebrae all the way into the spinal canal. Once the needle is where it needs to be, a small amount of spinal fluid is removed for further examination and, if necessary, a drug may be administered. Then the needle is carefully removed and the puncture site is covered with a bandage. In all, the Mayo Clinic says the procedure usually takes around 45 minutes.
In general, the procedure is pretty safe, but it can come with some unpleasant side effects. For instance, the Mayo Clinic says that up to 25 percent of people who undergo a lumbar injection may experience a headache due to fluid leaking into surrounding tissues.
So, although Miller's is undoubtedly necessary, we totally understand why she would want this one to be her last.
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