For her first time since undergoing brain tumor surgery, Teddi Mellencamp returned to iHeartRadio’s Two Ts In A Pod podcast to discuss her battle against cancer.
Tamra Judge welcomed her friend/podcast partner back to the pod for the first time since February.
Teddi’s symptoms:
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum began, “I can say I’ve had some of my darkest, saddest days since this happened.”
Teddi’s migraines caused her “such extreme pain” that she “could barely walk.” Tamra begged her to seek treatment. Sobbing, Teddi said she needed to go to the hospital.
“I think I’m dying. I can’t see, I can’t walk, I can’t even get out of bed,” so she called her estranged husband, Edwin Arroyave, for help.
The former RHOBH personality admitted that her head had been hurting for six months, but she “didn’t want to face any of it.” Keep in mind this was the “ first time in three years that I didn’t have any skin melanoma.”
The diagnosis:
After undergoing a CT scan at the hospital, Teddi learned she had “over seven tumors.”
Tamra explained that Teddi said, “You all thought I was mental, but I’m on my death bed.” Tamra texted Teddi back, “No, you’re not. If you’re on yours, then I’m on mine because I can’t live without you.” Teddi felt like that was “it.”
Teddi’s surgery:
She explained that she had a craniotomy with tumor resection, where they removed four tumors from her brain. “The hardest part is that nobody wanted to tell me what was really happening. They were scared, so I didn’t know what was happening.”
Emotionally, she continued, “I thought I was fine. I thought I could go home the next day. And, once the tumors [were] out, I thought I would be done. I can’t even tell you guys, like, I really didn’t understand anything and it was such a bummer.”
There was a “big hole” from one of her surgeries that Teddi kept trying to touch. She was given hand restraints.
“I know that I make everything seem pretty good and peachy. But, it was a bad 17 days for everyone in my life,” she said. “My dad helped me and that he’s still helping me. It has really been a game changer.”
The surgery didn’t remove all of the tumors:
There were two tumors in Teddi’s lungs and three more in her brain that were “too risky to remove” during surgery. So, she underwent immunotherapy, which made her feel “absolutely terrible.”
“Something a lot of people have been confused by when they hear like brain tumors or lung tumors or anything like that, is they’re thinking it’s something other than melanoma. But, what can actually happens, is melanoma can metastasize to your other organs. That’s what happened to me. So, all of my tumors and whatnot are melanoma.”
Teddi explained that she’s feeling “really positive” and is starting radiation on Monday, March 17, “for a week.” Then, she will continue “immunotherapy every three weeks.”
Taking inventory and moving on:
Teddi realized “the second that I felt those headaches … I wish the second that I started not feeling like myself, I would have gone to the doctor and gotten checked.”
“If I had waited any longer, God knows what would have happened.”
Teddi is doing “significantly better” mentally. “When I didn’t have like my wits about me, and I felt lost, I felt so alone and so sad, and like I had moments of being like, ‘I don’t know that anyone’s like given me like a real hug. I was really really sad.”
“But, I feel like right now I’m starting to see the light and I’m starting to think about the future, and I feel like for the first time, I’m able to like set goals”
Teddi noted that this “wake-up call” reunited many of her friends and made her more “grateful” for her husband/children’s father, Edwin Arroyave.
