Area of Teddi Mellencamp's Skin Cancer Is Too 'Broad' for More Biopsies
Teddi Mellencamp. Ella Hovsepian/Getty ImagesSince being diagnosed with skin cancer, Teddi Mellencamp has used her platform to remind fans to take care of their skin. Mellencamp revealed in March 2022 that she had a mole removed on her back. “This is a reminder to please go get your yearly skin checks,” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum wrote in an Instagram statement at the time, confessing that she avoided her own skin checks “for a very long time” because of “anxiety.” Fellow Bravo star Kyle Richards was the one who encouraged Mellencamp to consult a dermatologist. “When @kylerichards18 saw my back and it had changed colors again, she immediately took me to the doc who within minutes said it looks like melanoma and did a big removal,” Mellencamp wrote. “Please let this be a reminder to take action on your own skin.” Later that month, Mellencamp shared the good news that her melanoma was “in situ, which means the cancer cells were contained in that area of my skin and have no
Since being diagnosed with skin cancer, Teddi Mellencamp has used her platform to remind fans to take care of their skin.
Mellencamp revealed in March 2022 that she had a mole removed on her back. “This is a reminder to please go get your yearly skin checks,” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum wrote in an Instagram statement at the time, confessing that she avoided her own skin checks “for a very long time” because of “anxiety.”
Fellow Bravo star Kyle Richards was the one who encouraged Mellencamp to consult a dermatologist. “When @kylerichards18 saw my back and it had changed colors again, she immediately took me to the doc who within minutes said it looks like melanoma and did a big removal,” Mellencamp wrote. “Please let this be a reminder to take action on your own skin.”
Later that month, Mellencamp shared the good news that her melanoma was “in situ, which means the cancer cells were contained in that area of my skin and have not spread any deeper.”
She continued: “I really hope that in sharing all of this, I can encourage all of you to get your skin checked annually— if I hadn’t gone in, I don’t want to think about how it could have gone differently.”
Scroll down to follow Mellencamp’s skin cancer journey after her initial diagnosis:
October 2022
Mellencamp revealed that she had been diagnosed with stage II melanoma months after her initial consultation. “Melanoma awareness update. Despite my anxiety, I listened to the doctors and went in for my 3-month skin check last week since my previous melanoma,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “They said I had another abnormal spot near my last one so they did a biopsy. I got the call this morning: Stage 2 melanoma.”
She told fans to take doctors’ orders seriously, writing, “Moral of this story: if a doctor says, ‘come in every 3 months’ please go in every 3 months. I so badly wanted to blow this off. ‘What could happen in 3 months?’ I thought. Apparently a lot.”
Mellencamp noted that she used to put baby oil and iodine on her skin as a teen to get tan and didn’t start wearing sunscreen or getting her moles checked until she was 40. “This has been such a wakeup call for me, and I hope to all of you, to love and protect the skin you’re in,” she concluded.
Mellencamp revealed in another Instagram post that she had two more moles removed that also came back as melanoma. “Due to so many melanoma’s [sic] in one are, they are worried to cut in there and try to remove because they aren’t sure what they would be cutting into,” she wrote, before detailing her new treatment plan, which involved undergoing a PET scan and seeing a hematology specialist and a surgical oncologist.
October 2022
Mellencamp shared the results of her PET scan via Instagram, including snaps of where her melanomas were removed. “They think I’m predisposed to melanomas,” she noted. “I will need wide encision [sic] surgery removal and nodal mapping. During the surgery they will also do a sentinel lymphoid biopsy. Because with a PET scan they can’t see if it’s spread to lymph nodes.”
She got candid about her post-op recovery in another social media update days later. “I don’t share this for sympathy- I am sharing because one of the things that keeps me going through all of this is your messages telling me you are getting tested,” Mellencamp wrote. “I am grateful to my family, friends and husband who welcomed my pain and anxiety with open arms. I 
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