Teddi Mellencamp reveals graphic picture of her surgery scar in honor of World Cancer Day
Reality TV star Teddi Mellencamp shared a close-up image of her surgical scar from her battle with melanoma, in honor of World Cancer Day,
“I’d like to remind you to get your skin checks scheduled,” Mellencamp, 43, wrote on Instagram next to the zoomed-in picture of the zig-zag incision on her back.
“If this is your first time seeing this, I recently shared my full melanoma journey on @tscpodcast. Give it a listen when you have a chance,” her caption continued. “If it’s not your first time, I hope it’s a good reminder. Who’s making their appointment today? #melanomaawareness #curemelanoma.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star personality first opened up about her melanoma diagnosis in March 2022 after she had a mole removed from her back.
At the time, Mellencamp candidly confessed she’d avoided getting her skin checked by the dermatologist “for a very long time” due to her “anxiety.” However, her friend and co-star, Kyle Richards, ultimately convinced her to consult with a doctor when she noticed the concerning mole.
“When @kylerichards18 saw my back and it had changed colors again, she immediately took me to the doc who within minutes said it looks like melanoma and did a big removal,” Mellencamp explained.
According to the Mayo Clinic, melanoma is a type of skin cancer caused by sun and ultraviolet exposure. Signs that a mole may be a melanoma include asymmetrical shape, color change, size change, itchiness, bleeding, and “notched or calloped borders.”
Initially, Mellencamp believed she’d contained the cancer cells in the area of her mole. Yet, three months later, she was diagnosed with stage II melanoma.
“Melanoma awareness update. Despite my anxiety, I listened to the doctors and went in for my 3-month skin check last week since my previous melanoma,” she wrote in an October 2022 Instagram post. “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.
“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.
Later in October 2022, the Two Ts In A Pod host said two more moles had been removed from her back and that her doctors suggested she undergo a PET scan and schedule appointments with a hematologist and a surgical oncologist.
Once the results of her PET scan came in, doctors told her they believed she was “predisposed to melanomas,” meaning she would have to undergo future removal surgeries and a sentinel lymphoid biopsy to ensure the melanomas haven’t spread to her lymph nodes.
By January 2023, doctors had found additional white and brown melanomas on her skin and discovered an unknown bump in her neck that needed to be either biopsied or cut out entirely.
After a five-week regimen of applying immunotherapy cream to her back failed, Mellencamp went in for a “wide excision melanoma” procedure.
On Instagram, she shared an image of the original surgical marking (the same seen in her February 2025 post) and wrote: “I specifically went through a ‘wide excision melanoma, soft tissue defect reconstruction with adjacent tissue rearrangement.’
“Basically they cut out the area of my shoulder and replaced it with a flap of skin from below on my back (swipe to see the area before surgery),” she explained. “But the pain and discomfort are all worth it.”
