One week after Teddi Mellencamp announced her stage 2 melanoma diagnosis, the former star of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" is sharing an update on her treatment plan.
Mellencamp posted two photos on Oct. 18 of moles on her back, and shared she had a positron emission tomography (PET) scan done. She said that based on the scan, her medical team believes she is predisposed to melanomas.
"I will need wide excision surgery removal and nodal mapping. During the surgery they will also do a sentinel lymph node biopsy," Mellencamp said. "Because with a PET scan they can’t see if it’s spread to lymph nodes, I am getting 2 more biopsies of new locations today and surgery is on Tuesday. Spots 3 & 4 in the pic near my shoulder are the ones they are concerned could go to lymph nodes and will be a large connected removal. Then I will meet with a geneticist to see if I could possibly have the BRCA2 mutation."
The 41-year-old concluded her caption with urging her followers to get checked for skin cancer, as she has over the past few months while sharing her experience, which she has described as a "wakeup call."
The update comes one day after she said in another Instagram post that she had additional moles biopsied, which came back as melanomas, as well.
"Due to so many melanomas in one area they are worried to cut in there and try to remove because they aren’t sure what they would be cutting into," Mellencamp said.
She added that once she had the PET scan done, she would be working on a treatment plan with her team of doctors.
Mellencamp had a suspected melanoma removed from her back in earlier this year, and received a separate diagnosis of stage 2 melanoma last week at a routine follow-up appointment.
“Despite my anxiety, I listened to the doctors and went in for my 3-month skin check last week since my previous melanoma. 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 said in an Instagram post on Oct. 11.
"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," she continued. "I continue to share this journey because I was a 90s teen, putting baby oil and iodine on my skin to tan it. Never wearing sunscreen or getting my moles checked until I was 40 years old."
Mellencamp has said she avoided her annual skin checks due to anxiety, but now feels determined to raise awareness about sun protection and early detection.
