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After well over a year of surguries, painful treatments, and intense physical therapy, Abby Lee Miller was able to walk again this month.

Those few steps were a major accomplishment, and only now is Miller revealing how bad things truly got.

Before her emergency surgery, she wasn’t just at risk of death — she was dying.

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Abby Lee Miller spoke to HollywoodLife at the Creative Arts Emmys.

"I lived," she begins, really setting the tone for how dire her situation was.

Before surgery, Miller reveals, "the doctor said ‘we have 10 minutes or we are going to lose her.’"

"And that is how close to death I was," she grimly explains.

Burkitt Lymphoma may have a high survival rate, but only among those who catch it in time.

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With Miller, it was a very close call for what doctors initially assumed was a mere infection.

"This spinal cord injury, choking my spinal cord and all of that," Miller says, came close to claiming her life.

Even once she was out of the proverbial woods in that respect, she reveals, she remained paralyzed.

"I can take just a few steps with the walker," Miller detailed.

Famously, she took a few steps on stage on The Doctors. We have included that video in this post.

Photo via ABC

"I yell at friends all the time when I get frustrated and upset," Miller admits.

She explains: "I am like ‘why did you not just let me die? Dying’s easy, you just lay there, you know this is hard, it’s tough.’"

Miller has expressed how her cancer battle made her want to die in the past.

"And," she continues. "They said ‘he did not give us a choice, he just said I am going in and we said oh, okay.’"

Unless you have a DNR, that’s just how it goes.

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"I guess I have some more dreams to fulfill," Miller reflects.

"I have other things that I want to do," she expresses.

"And," Miller reveals. "Doing other shows I am creating."

"And you know there is always a kid who needs to straighten their legs and point their feet," Miller reasons.

There’s the Miller we know and … know. Finding purpose in life through terrorizing children into dancing properly.

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"I was at the California Rehabilitation Institute. It’s amazing," she says of her intense therapy to walk again.

Miller shares: "It’s fabulous and you have therapy four times a day, four hours a day, every day, Saturday, and Sunday included."

“Now once they release you and your insurance says ‘that’s it’, then you’re an out patient and you go for an hour, three times a week," she adds.

"So you spend an hour getting there, you do it for an hour, and then you leave for an hour," Miller admits. "And it’s really not the same intensity."

Even famous people have to deal with our absurd and nightmarish healthcare system.

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But through hard work, a refusal to give up, and expert care, Miller is alive and making improvements in her mobility.

Her doctors have admitted that she has missed some screenings, but say that she is cancer-free.

That is good news.

Whatever we may think of her as a human being, no one deserves cancer.