Teddi Mellencamp Shares Candid Photos Ahead of Her SIXTEENTH Surgery, Issues Stern Warning to Fans
In a recent Instagram post, Teddi Mellencamp cautioned her followers to take good care of her skin. The post included obscenely explicit images of the wounds from her multiple surgeries to remove melanomas.
The 43-year-old former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star included some glitzy black-and-white pictures of herself that had been taken when she was a spokesperson for the #GetNaked campaign of the Melanoma Research Center in 2023.
In March, the star encouraged her fans to have their skin checked again after her doctors found another irregular spot on her body.
However, the images also brought attention to the rows of jagged scars that Teddi’s back and shoulders bore, marking the locations of multiple skin cancer excisions over the previous few years.
Two gruesome post-surgery photographs that she posted with a trigger warning were included in her post.
I am very grateful for all of the love and support I’ve received. In response to your primary query, she stated, “August 19th is my next surgery.” I believe this to be number sixteen, and I’m continuing to fight it to feel better than I did a week ago.
She added that although surgery was “the easy part,” what really bothered her and many of her followers were “the ups and downs of not being able to control what’s going on inside my own body.”
Trying to maintain her optimistic attitude despite undergoing almost twelve procedures, she concluded her caption.
August 19th will arrive quickly; in the meanwhile, I plan to spend time with my children, see some beautiful horse events, watch my dad perform live with a group of friends, and podcast with some incredible ladies. John Mellencamp’s daughter wrote, “I am blessed.”
She advised her followers not to swipe through the last two images in her post unless they were seeking ‘a reality check on how vital skin checks are.’ The next two shots show the gory aftermath of her physicians’ recent attempts to remove her melanomas.
Teddi had a deep, fresh burgundy incision on the upper-right portion of her back in the first photo, which showed her back after it had been patched up.
It zigzagged across her upper back, slightly below her neck, then dipped along her shoulder and toward her arm. It then revered down and inward toward the middle of her back, before reversing downward toward her side once more, ending in what appeared to be a blood-red drainage tube.
In the last picture, which was taken in the middle of the procedure while Teddi was lying face down with most of her body and head covered from the neck up and only the appropriate section of her upper back visible, she added another “trigger warning.”
An almond-shaped patch of skin on her back and shoulder, roughly the size of an adult’s hand, was totally removed in the graphic picture, exposing the tissue beneath.
Former co-star and close friend of Teddi, Kyle Richards, posted in the comments, saying, “I love you Ted,” along with a red heart emoji. Teddi responded, “I love you Keeks.”
A number of additional admirers related their personal experiences with melanoma and skin cancer in general.
One person was perplexed as to how, with such an intensive surgery, Teddi could still require additional procedures.
I apologize for my ignorance on this subject, but how are there additional malignant spots in that part if all of that skin was removed? Or have they moved?’ the user enquired.
“The most recent one to pop up is right outside of where the last removal was,” Teddi clarified.
I am extremely appreciative that they noticed this one, which is why they have me checked every ninety-two days. I never would have thought that little patch was anything.
Teddi appears to have had her final major operation late in 2023, following an immunotherapy procedure intended to assist reduce or stop the growth of her melanomas.
Before her procedures late last year, she posted on Instagram to summarize her experience: “Long story short: The immunotherapy treatment did not work on my melanomas.” Last week, I underwent a wide excision surgery to check if my most recent melanoma had spread, but unhappily it had not.
After considering a few other possibilities, my doctors and I have determined that the best course of action is to have surgery on December 26 to remove a larger section of the troublesome area.
“I don’t like going under, and my anxiety is getting out of control, but I have faith that everything will work out and that this is all happening to me because I can spread awareness.” [sic],’ she acknowledged.
At the moment, she was able to bring some humor to the otherwise serious topic when one of her fans noticed something strange about the shape of her enormous scar.
“I received a message recently that said my scar resembles a whale suckling bubbles.” I laughed when I read that,’ she wrote at the time.
Teddi appeared as a guest on the popular reality series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for the previous three seasons, but she was not a part of the main cast from 2017 to 2020.
