Teddi Mellencamp warned her fans to take care of her skin in a new Instagram post that featured disturbingly graphic photos of the aftermath of her numerous surgeries to cut out melanomas.
The 43-year-old former Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star — who urged her fans to get their skin checkedback in March after her doctors discovered another irregular spot on her body — included some glamorous black-and-white photos of herself that had been shot when she was a spokesperson in 2023 for the #GetNaked campaign of the Melanoma Research Center.
But the photos also highlighted the lines of jagged scars littering Teddi's back and shoulders where she had had numerous spots of skin cancer removed in recent years.
Included in her post were a pair of graphic post-surgery photos that she included with a trigger warning.
'Thank you to everyone for all the love and support. To answer your main question: My next surgery is August 19th,' she announced. This is #16, I think, and I keep fighting it so I am feeling more positive than a week ago.'
Teddi Mellencamp, 43, warned her fans to take care of her skin in an Instagram post from Tuesday that featured disturbingly graphic photos of the aftermath of her numerous surgeries to cut out melanomas; pictured in December 2023 in Inglewood, Calif.
Contrary to what many of her followers might have expected, she said surgery was 'the easy part,' but it was 'the ups and downs of not being able to control what’s going on inside my own body' that she found most distressing.
She ended her caption by trying to stay positive in the face of more than a dozen surgeries.
'August 19th will be here in no time; in the meantime I will be loving on my kids, getting to see my dad in concert with a bunch of friends, going to some incredible horse shows, and podcasting with some amazing women. I am blessed,' wrote the daughter of John Mellencamp.
The final two photos of her post include graphic views of the aftermath of her doctors' recent efforts to remove her melanomas, and she warned her followers to only swipe to see the final image if they wanted 'a reality check on how important skin checks are.'
In the first picture, which showed her back after it had been stitched up, a section on the upper-right portion of Teddi's back had a deep burgundy incision that was still fresh.
It zigzagged across the top of her back, just below her neck, before dipping down along her shoulder toward her arm, then revering down and inward toward the center of her back, before reversing again downward toward her side, where it terminated in what looked like a drainage tube that was crimson with blood.
She included another 'trigger warning' on the final photo, which was shot mid-surgery as Teddi was lying face down, with of her body and her head from the neck up covered, with only the relevant portion of the top of her back exposed.
The gory photo showed an almond-shaped section of skin on her back and shoulder — which appeared to be approximately the size of an adult's hand — completely excised, revealing the tissue below.
She revealed that her sixteenth surgery to remove melanomas was scheduled for August 19, and she shared some disturbing photos, including one of her bloody scares post surgery (pictured)
An even more brutal photo showed her on the operating table mid-surgery with the massive almond-shaped, hand-sized wound where her skin had been removed to get rid of the cancer
Teddi, who included some lovely black-and-white photos highlighting her scares from the Melanoma Research Foundation's 2023 #GetNaked campaign, urged her fans to get their skin checked regularly
In the comments, Teddi's former costar and good friend Kyle Richards wrote, 'Love you Ted,' along with a red heart emoji,to which she replied, 'love you Keeks.'
Several other fans shared their own history with melanoma and skin cancer in general.
One person was confused as to how Teddi could still need more surgeries after having such an invasive surgery.
'I’m sorry for being uneducated in this topic but if they cut all that skin off how are their more cancerous spots in that section? Or are they in a diff place?' the user asked.
Teddi explained: 'the most recent one to pop up is right outside of where the last removal was. This is why they have me get checked every 90 days and so grateful they saw this one. I would have never assumed that tiny spot was anything.'
Teddi appeared to have had her last major surgery late in 2023, after she had undergone a form of immunotherapy in hopes that it would help shrink her melanomas or stop their growth.
'Long story short: The immunotherapy treatment did not work on my melanomas,' she explained on Instagram prior to her surgeries late last year. 'I had a wide excision removal on my most recent melanoma last week to see if it did and sadly it did not.
'I have been presented with a couple new options and I have decided with my doctors that the best next course of action is have surgery on December 26th to remove a larger portion of problematic area.
Teddi's good friend — and former RHOBH costar — Kyle Richards shared her love, and she returned the gesture
One fan wondered how Teddi's doctors could still find more skin cancer after having removed such an enormous portion of her skin, but Teddi explained that the latest patch appeared just outside of that area, though she was grateful doctors found it early
She has updated fans along her skin cancer journey, which included a stint on immunotherapy drugs that was ultimately unsuccessful
'I don't like going under and my anxiety is popping off but I have faith all will be ok and that the reason this is happening to me is because I am able to raise awareness. [sic],' she admitted.
At the time, she managed to find some levity from the otherwise somber subject after a fan had an unusual epiphany about the shape of her massive scar.
'Someone just messaged me that my scar looks like a whale swallowing bubbles. It made me laugh,' she wrote at the time.'
Teddi was a main cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for three seasons from 2017 to 2020, before she was let go, though she was still a guest on the popular reality series over the past three seasons.
