NEED TO KNOW
- Teddi Mellencamp has shared a positive update amid her ongoing battle with stage 4 cancer, saying that she’s seen “real change in my hair regrowth”
- The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum previously explained that due to radiation, large patches of her scalp weren’t regrowing hair
- Even though she’s still undergoing treatment to shrink the tumors, she shared “this little bit of hair growth … made me smile”
Teddi Mellencamp is finally seeing “real change” in her hair regrowth after undergoing multiple treatments, including surgery, for tumors in her brain.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum, who will turn 44 on July 1, shared back-to-back photographs on Instagram of her progress, explaining, “I noticed a real change in my hair regrowth.”
The reality star — who had been sharing her ongoing struggle with melanoma after undergoing 17 surgeries for the invasive skin cancer — confirmed in April that her cancer had progressed to stage 4, having metastasized to her brain and lungs. She needed immunotherapy, radiation and surgery to treat the tumors.
The treatments left her with patchy bald spots, leaving some of her followers to ask why she didn’t shave her “whole head.”
She explained on Instagram, “During radiation I lost big patches of hair; those spots aren’t growing hair yet. This is what it looks like when the other hair grows out. So I shave these parts that grow every couple of weeks. I can’t do it every day 🤣.”
As she shared in her new update, “Cancer comes with so many emotions: anger, sadness, loneliness. And while I feel grateful that immunotherapy is saving my life, I feel like I live in a fog, and I can’t help but beat myself up on all of the ways I am falling short. I just desperately want to be back to my usual self.”
She continued. “So this little bit of hair growth, this change from May 12th (second slide) to today, June 16th, made me smile. It’s amazing what my body can do.”
Mellencamp also shared an update from her doctors during a recent episode of Two T’s in a Pod, the podcast she co-hosts with fellow Real Housewife alum Tamra Judge: “I had gotten pretty nervous because I started getting headaches again, so I was like, ‘Oh, no, that was the sign of this happening in the first place. I hope it means that the tumors aren’t getting bigger again.’ “
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
But, she shared that following an MRI, doctors told her the “tumors have not grown at all, if anything they’re shrinking … but I am still stage 4 cancer.
“It’s stage 4 until it’s gone, until I’m in remission,” she explained, saying the plan is for her to stay on immunotherapy for two years.
“Hopefully by the end of that I’ll be in remission.”
Read the full article here
