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'Dancing With the Stars' saves Jennifer Grey's life. Literally.

jennifer-grey-isas-2010-large.jpgJennifer Grey says that even before she begins "Dancing With the Stars," it has been a life-saver for her. Literally.

Iconic as Patrick Swayze's swaying partner Baby (who "nobody puts in a corner") in the classic 1987 movie "Dirty Dancing," the actress will compete in the 11th season of the ABC contest starting Monday, Sept. 20. If it seems a no-brainer that she'd be invited onto the show, she says she was asked many times, but only last year did she really begin to consider it.

And she might not be here now if she hadn't.

"Last year, my neck was killing me," she tells Zap2it, "so I said to them, 'Let me have it checked out and see if I even could do this.' I went to this neurological spine surgeon who I heard was the best. I knew he had operated on Karina [Smirnoff, one of the 'Dancing' pros], and I figured I would tell him I wanted to do 'Dancing With the Stars' and ask him what I needed to get through it."

The reply was more than Grey had bargained for: "I'd had a really bad car accident years ago, and basically, the ligaments in the back of my neck were ripped and I'd never addressed that. It degenerated, and the surgeon said, 'Right now, your spinal cord is compressed. If you fell or got rear-ended, you'd be paralyzed.'"

And there was more, as Grey underwent the process of having her neck fused. She recalls, "He also said to me, 'What's that lump in your neck?' I said, 'Oh, it's just a benign nodule that I've been watching for four years.' I didn't want to have surgery for it, but he said, 'That has to go.' They took out half of it, and it turned out to be cancerous. Then they took the second half out on Christmas Eve."

Finally, the doctor recommended one more surgery "in the back of my neck, to clean out the nerves that were compressed," as Grey describes it. "Now, I've got a new neck. And I also have no cancer."

To say that Grey is now ready to go "Dancing With the Stars," then, is a major understatement. A wife and mother -- married to actor and screenwriter Clark Gregg, formerly of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" -- the daughter of award-winning talent Joel Grey ("Cabaret") considers "Dancing" to be "the catalyst for all of this.

"I was so frightened of the surgery, I didn't want to even consider that it would be successful. And it was so successful, I proceeded to do everything else on my 'to-do' list that I was afraid of, including doing this show. I figure that if I don't do it now, I'll be too old for it. My body is clearly giving out."

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Go, Jennifer!

Take that trophy home!

Jennifer..you are awesome!! We are rooting for you to win! :)

she was a dancer as a child and, she was in dirty dancing.. ( does anyone else even have a cange at winning dwts?

Hi Jennifer I need neck surgery too from a airplane baggage door falling on me, I am an airplane mech in Vegas. Would you be able to send me some info on your surgery. My Dr. says that if I have the surgery I might not be able to work any more because I won't be able to move my neck. I would appreciate if you could send the xray of your surgery so I could see if it would work for me. Thank you. I don't mean to bother you about it, but my Mom saw your story on GMA this morning. I already had plates and screws in my lower back from this accident and now it needs to be done in my neck. Chris

Mrs. Jennifer Gregg aka Jennifer Gray. Thank you for giving people such as I the oportunity to enjoy you and your tallent. I especially enjoyed your work in Red Dawn and Dirty Dancing. Your part as "Baby" give Mr.Swayze a boost in his acting career. He was a great actor and is surely missed. As far as your last surgery, please take my advise and treat yourself as being fragil, a bad jolt could be very serious. I know from experience. All the Best to You in your future !

To Chris. Take it for what its worth from an old man who had neck surgery. Go and get at least three neurosergeons to diagnose your problem. Good Luck !

Mrs. Jennifer Gregg aka Jennifer Grey. Thank you for giving people such as I the oportunity to enjoy you and your tallent. I especially enjoyed your work in Red Dawn and Dirty Dancing. Your part as "Baby" give Mr.Swayze a boost in his acting career. He was a great actor and is surely missed. As far as your last surgery, please take my advise and treat yourself as being fragil, a bad jolt could be very serious. I know from experience. All the Best to You in your future !

To Chris. Take it for what its worth from an old man who had neck surgery. Go and get at least three neurosergeons to diagnose your problem. Good Luck !

The story doesn't add up. If her neck was a real emergency with potentially paralysis problems she would have ended up in my position.

Which is called in an Emergency Room having two discs fused due to spinal compression which caused my right arm and shoulder to partially paralyse.

Someone got an ache in there neck that lasted years "went to a sugeon{" for options and is making this a publicity stunt.

Her issue was hardly an EMERGENCY. And she irresponsibly did people who are handicapped from spinal cord compressions and nerve damage an enormouse injustice. Shut up Jennifer you over exaggerated you neck problem and it was not an emergency or you would have gone through an ER with an emergency surgery to have it fused like some of us have at 3AM in the morning. Not a planned surgery to releive an ache pain.

I'm so disgusted with this. Albeit I pray her cancer stays away but she did alot of people such as myself an incredible dishonor of what a real spinal cord issue and what PAIN really is. And until you get rushed to an ER over that her issue was obviously NOT an emergency and a big overaxaggeration. And there's no such thing as "CLEANNING NERVES OUT". This made me want to throw up.

I also had a spinal fusion... almost 8 months ago. Same scar as Jennifer Grey maybe same fusion? Perhaps it wasn't an emergency but it was highly recommended that this be done ASAP as if I was rear ended, had a simple fall or even moved wrong I could have become paralyzed. This was a REAL SPINAL CORD matter.. It is unfortunate that Travis ended up in the Emerg room but because of the pain that I had endured for many years I had it checked and went from there. I have now literally climbed mountains and progressively am getting stronger. I still have pain but this is now manageable. The fact that Ms Grey is dancing and has a super tough schedule is a true inspirations and it is actually quite amazing. You ROCK Baby!!

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