Teddi Mellencamp appeared on her and Tamra Judge’s “Two Ts in a Pod” podcast for the first time since undergoing brain tumor surgery in February.
Mellencamp, 43, made her return during the Thursday, March 13, episode of the iHeart Radio podcast. “I can say I’ve had some of my darkest, saddest days since … when this happened,” she said. “But leading up to it, it’s so wild what kind of transpired to kind of get us here.”
Mellencamp recalled being at a horse show and telling her friend that she was having “the worst migraine” of her life, after she had recorded a podcast with Judge and couldn’t “remember how to say certain words.” Mellencamp went on to consume migraine medication from her friend and was “shaking really bad” and didn’t know where she was at the horse race.
The next day, Mellencamp went to New Orleans and had an argument with Judge. Mellencamp recalled being in “such extreme pain” to the point where she “could barely walk” — which led Judge to think that something wasn’t “right.”
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Days after New Orleans, Mellencamp began crying during a podcast recording and Judge encouraged her to go to a hospital. Mellencamp recalled calling a friend and begging her to take her.
“I started, like, sobbing to her and I’m like, ‘I need you to take me to the hospital right now. I think I’m dying. I can’t see, I can’t walk, I can’t even get out of bed,’” Mellencamp said, adding that the friend wasn’t able to take her so she called estranged husband Edwin Arroyave.
Mellencamp admitted that her head had been hurting for six months, but she “didn’t want to face any of it” and wanted to move forward. Mellencamp had recently gone for her check-up, so she didn’t think anything was medically wrong. “It was the first time in three years that I didn’t have any skin melanoma,” Mellencamp said.
After undergoing a CT scan at the hospital, Mellencamp was told she had “over seven tumors” and texted her friends — including Judge.
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“You said to me, ‘You all thought I was mental, but actually I’m on my death bed.’ I texted you back and, said, ‘No you’re not because if you’re on yours, then I’m on mine, because I can’t live without you,’” Judge recalled, while Mellencamp said she felt like that was “it.”
Mellencamp 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 because they were scared, and so I didn’t know what was happening,” Mellencamp said through tears. “I thought I was fine, Like, I thought I could go home the next day, and, like, once the tumors are 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.”
After Mellencamp’s surgery, Judge recalled hearing a story from her pal’s sister who asked, “Can you see me?” to which Mellencamp opened her eyes and replied, “Unfortunately.” Mellencamp, for her part, recalled telling everyone that Heath Ledger was “stalking” her. While recalling her recovery, Mellencamp said the only date she remembered was daughter Dove’s birthday. (Mellencamp later noted that where the tumors are in her brain can temporarily lead to a lack of memory.)
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Mellencamp recalled there being a “big hole” from one of her surgeries, which she kept trying to touch — but 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. “And the fact that my my dad helped me and that he’s still helping me, yeah, has really been a game changer.”
Mellencamp explained that she was told she had two tumors in her lungs and three more in her brain that were “too risky to remove” so she underwent immunotherapy — which she said 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,” she said. “But what can actually happen is melanoma can metastasize and the organs to your other organs, and that’s what happened to me. So all of my tumors and whatnot are melanoma.”
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Mellencamp explained that she’s feeling “really positive” and is starting radiation on Monday, March 17, for a week and will continue immunotherapy every three weeks.
“I wish 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,” she said. “If I had waited any longer, God knows what would have happened.”
Mellencamp said that she’s 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,” adding that her health battle has been a “wake-up call” and that she’s “grateful” for Arroyave.
On February 12, Mellencamp revealed via Instagram that she was hospitalized after “dealing with severe and debilitating headaches” for several weeks, which culminated in “unbearable” pain the previous day.
“After a CT scan and MRI, doctors found multiple tumors on my brain, which they believe have been growing for at least six months,” she wrote at the time. “Two of the tumors will be surgically removed today — the remaining smaller tumors will be dealt with via radiation at a later date.”
Two weeks later, Mellencamp spoke out about her progress since the operation.
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“I am so grateful for the incredible surgeons, doctor and nurses who made my surgery a success and my recovery process comfortable,” she shared via Instagram on February 26. “In full transparency, more tumors were removed than expected: four in total. This fight is not over, but that round has been won.”
She continued: “The laughter, support and patience of my kids, my family and my closest friends is one gift with which words cannot properly express my gratitude. As I move on to the next steps in my treatment, I just wanted to say thank you to everybody for the outpouring of love and prayers. I see them, and they’re definitely helping me stay strong.”
Earlier this month, Mellencamp — who shares Slate, 12, Cruz, 10, and Dove, 5, with estranged husband Arroyave — revealed more information about her diagnosis.
“Update from my scans today: I have multiple tumors in my brain that weren’t able to be removed via surgery. I also have two tumors in my lungs. These are all metastases of my melanoma,” she captioned a Thursday, March 6, Instagram post, referring to the stage II melanoma cancer diagnosis she announced in October 2022.
“The doctors are hopeful that immunotherapy will effectively treat them. I am feeling positive — that I will win this battle, that I got this wig (I like the short hair, just not the bald spots) and that I can remember all of [Angelina Jolie’s] kids’ names,” she continued. “Now, as [Andy Cohen] would say: with all due… f— off, cancer!”
