Teddi Mellencamp, daughter of singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, has revealed that her skin cancer has reached Stage 4 after doctors found four new tumours on her lungs and brain.
“I’m fighting for my life,” Mellencamp told Us Weekly in an interview published on April 2. “But also for my family’s life and all the people I love.”
In February, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple brain tumours. Mellencamp said she underwent brain surgery to remove some masses and began radiation and immunotherapy to shrink other tumours.
“I find out for sure exactly where we stand on June 1,” the 43-year-old reality star told the outlet. “If you need to do another round, if there’s any other surgery, if it’s the end. It’s a hard pill to swallow.”
The Two T’s in a Pod podcast host admitted she no longer says “moms always come back” to her children whenever she goes to the hospital.
“I have not said that line to them since I’ve been back [from the hospital],” she said. “They all know that I’m fighting the hardest I possibly can, but I haven’t said [it] because I don’t want to lie to them. And I don’t know.”
Mellencamp said her children, Slate, 12, Cruz, 10, and five-year-old Dove, are receiving therapy to help them through the hard time.
“I’m not equipped to fully handle this,” she said. “It is helping because they ask me questions that I probably wouldn’t have thought to give them answers to.”
“They realize when I’m in pain and how massive the surgery was. I don’t know that they know the rest. I think they’re a bit scared. I’m going to fight really hard,” she added. “I can’t imagine my life without them, so I’m going to do everything I possibly can, no matter how mean it makes me. I can’t imagine — does this sound like a narcissist? — I can’t imagine any of them living without me.”
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Mellencamp said that since her diagnosis, her famous father calls to check in on her daily and that they have gotten closer during this time.
“I was not expecting my entire family to be out here within 24 hours, but by the time I was out of surgery, everybody was there,” she said. “My dad hates L.A., so the fact that he was out here for 18 days — wow. That says a lot.”
She also said her father, who survived a heart attack when he was 36 years old, gave her some life advice.
“I remember his life completely changing,” Mellencamp said. “And some of the moments [when] I felt really scared, I was like, ‘Hold on. I’m not changing everything about my life. I want more things. I want to keep building.’”
“But he’s like, ‘There are moments where you emotionally won’t be able to control how you’re feeling because of a certain medication or a certain whatever. And you have to give yourself some grace and know this isn’t you sometimes. And that’s OK.’”
Mellencamp also opened up about how she is coping.
“Everybody wants me to be super positive all the time. One of my coping mechanisms is being sarcastic. I’d rather joke about it and have the best possible outcome than be completely in denial and have my heart broken,” Mellencamp said.
“A little PSA: Get life insurance early and do your will,” she added. “Doing all of those things once you’ve already been diagnosed with cancer isn’t a dream. That’s really hard. Hopefully you never get sick, but do it before you get sick.”
Mellencamp told the publication she was looking forward to being able to “get back to normal.”
“I want to try new things, travel more with the kids, keep building a life and doing the best that we can, and have fun together. That’s my goal,” she said.
In a recent episode of her podcast, Mellencamp told co-host Tamra Judge, “Some of my darkest, saddest days, I think I’m dying.”
“I can’t see. I can’t walk. I can’t even get out of bed. There was four really large tumours,” she said.
Judge recalled Mellencamp saying, “‘You all thought I was mental, but actually I’m on my death bed.’”
“I remember feeling like this is actually it,” Mellencamp said in response to Judge.
“You’re the only person I know that had brain surgery and three weeks later is doing hot yoga,” the Real Housewives of Orange County star said to Mellencamp.
In 2022, Mellencamp revealed on social media that she was diagnosed with melanoma — the most dangerous form of skin cancer.
“I got the call this morning: Stage 2 melanoma. Now, next Wednesday I go to an oncologist to have it cut out and come up with a game plan on next steps. Of course, this is all pending some additional testing and biopsies of other spots nearby that were taken today. Moral of this story: if a doctor says, ‘come in every 3 months’ please go in every 3 months,” she wrote.
Melanoma is a serious form of skin cancer. It is a cancer of melanocytes, which are cells that produce melanin, the pigment that is primarily responsible for giving skin its colour, according to Melanoma Canada’s website.
According to the World Health Organization, 85 per cent of melanomas among Canadian men and women aged 30 and over are attributed to UV radiation exposure from the sun or artificial sources like tanning beds.
Melanoma is one of the fastest-growing cancers worldwide. In Canada, incidences of melanoma have more than tripled in the last 30 years, the organization says.
The website also notes that more than 1,300 Canadians will die from melanoma each year, but survival rates are high if melanoma is detected early.
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