Teddi Mellencamp shares ‘exciting' update following Stage 4 cancer diagnosis
Teddi Mellencamp, daughter of singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, shared an 'exciting' update after learning her skin cancer had reached Stage 4 earlier this month.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum shared the news on Instagram on Tuesday, saying it was 'one update I couldn't wait to share.'
'All tumors stage 4 (metastasized melanoma in my brain and lungs) shrunk or disappeared so I have 6ish more weeks of immunotherapy and doctors believe I will be healed if everything stays on course,' Mellencamp wrote. 'Thank you to everyone who has sent their love, prayers, and positivity.'
In the video Mellencamp shared, she said, 'I just finished with all of my scans and my tumours have significantly shrunk, which doctors believe means that this all will work and that I will be back to myself and feeling good.'
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The 43-year-old reality star said she has two more sessions of immunotherapy and then 'hopefully I am done and I will be cancer-free.'
'I'm gonna keep a positive outlook because that's the way that my doctor just spoke to me,' she added. 'He's like, 'You did this. You got this.''
Mellencamp's update comes after the Two T's in a Pod podcast host shared earlier this month that she was 'fighting for my life.'
In an interview published with Us Weekly on April 2, Mellencamp admitted she no longer says 'moms always come back' to her children whenever she goes to the hospital.
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'I have not said that line to them since I've been back (from the hospital),' she told the outlet. '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.
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'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.'
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.'
On an April 9 episode of her podcast, Mellencamp shared that her father called her numerous times in a row to let her know he had detailed plans for her burial amid her ongoing battle with cancer.
'Yesterday my dad calls 11 times in a row. Finally, I answer, I'm like, 'I'm in the bath. Let me live a little. Like let me enjoy,'' she recalled. 'He goes, 'I just want to make sure you're going to be in our group family mausoleum.''
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She asked her father if there would be any room in the mausoleum for her family.
'I said, 'I have kids, so where are they gonna go?' He's like, 'Well, there's gonna be the top five, and then we're gonna have little areas around it and then that's where everyone's gonna get buried,'' she shared. 'I go, 'Do I need to make this commitment right now?' And he goes, 'Well, you're doing your will right now, so you may as well put it in there.''
Mellencamp said she agreed to be buried in the mausoleum, located in Indiana, and joked that she wanted the message 'Hot girls never die' on her tombstone.
In February, Mellencamp revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple brain tumours and would be undergoing emergency surgery.
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She posted a statement to Instagram, revealing that she received the diagnosis after being hospitalized for 'severe and debilitating headaches' for several weeks.
'Yesterday the pain was unbearable and required hospitalization. After a CT scan and MRI, doctors found multiple tumors on my brain, which they believe have been growing for at least 6 months,' she wrote on Feb. 12.
'Two of the tumors will be surgically removed today – The remaining smaller tumors will be dealt with via radiation at a later date,' Mellencamp continued. 'I am blessed to be surrounded by my children, family, friends, doctors, nurses and surgeons who are doing everything possible to get me back into better health.'
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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 very 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.
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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, Melanoma Canada 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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