Teddi Mellencamp’s Cancer Battle: ‘I’m Fighting for My Life’
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00:00I would say I'm fighting for my life but also for my family's life and all the people I love's life.
00:04I can't imagine going, I can't imagine, does it sound, now I sound like a narcissist,
00:12I can't imagine any of them living without me.
00:21I'm not a huge complainer to people in my life, I just kind of push through
00:26and I had the person that probably hurt it the most was my daughter Slate because we
00:31ride together and I'd be like gosh I have a headache and then probably about three weeks
00:38before we ended up finding out what was going on I had I had self-diagnosed myself that I was
00:44having migraines so I went to one of my best friends at the horse show and I'm like Akul
00:49please help me I know you have migraine medication and I took it and it actually didn't help and I
00:55was like shaking and feeling crazy and so then kind of the next step was then I went to work
01:03for a brand at the Super Bowl and afterwards Tamra's like you want to go out I'm like I don't
01:11think I can like I really don't feel that like I have really bad headaches so I made it through
01:17that weekend got home did the podcast on Monday and then Tuesday I probably have never called
01:24and sick to the pod to two teas in a pod and on Tuesday I called and I'm like guys I don't think
01:30I can do the pod today like something is really wrong and at that point it was pretty dark in my
01:39head like I could not see so I'm like laying like on my couch my kids are already at school and I'm
01:47like I can't see I don't know what to do and I called Edwin and I'm like at this point we weren't
01:53living together we were nesting so I'm like I'm so sorry can you come pick me up I need to go to
01:58the hospital and he's like why I haven't heard one thing about you need I'm like I can't see
02:05and something is going on and then he came and took me to the emergency room in Tarzana
02:14yeah so that was that portion and then you know you you wait a little while in the emergency room
02:20and I have to say thank you so much to Edwin because at this point I was so edgy because the
02:26pain had become something I had never felt before and in the emergency room is where they diagnosed
02:35me with multiple brain tumors cut to we call Kyle and we're like how we get into Cedars
02:45and she called around and found a way for us to get in she's like but you need to get there by
02:50nine o'clock and I'm like it's 8 22 and we're in Tarzana so I had to just check myself right out
02:58at the Tarzana hospital and I tell the doctor I'm like I'm so appreciative to you but my friend got
03:02me and he's like but I couldn't get you in yet are you sure you can get in I'm like yes I just
03:06have to be there by nine so not only did I really realize that my brain tumors were a big deal
03:13or that I was having brain surgery I didn't really realize it was happening the next day
03:19because it happened quick and I also didn't know that they had been there
03:23for six months to a year and we had no idea like my little headaches just kept getting worse and
03:29worse and worse but I thought oh they're just headaches I work a lot or I didn't drink enough
03:33water or whatever it may be it was once my body started like almost falling down is when I knew
03:39like that's not me like I may be clumsy but I don't fall down so because they were only able to
03:46surgically remove four of the tumors I still have two tumors in my brain that were not in a place
03:54that they were able to remove surgically and I have one in each lung so very I'm very lucky that
04:04we have doctors that the doctor here is one of the ones that like came up with the immunotherapy
04:11so with immunotherapy you get it every three weeks because it hits you hard so I've had my
04:17first treatment of immunotherapy and then today I think was my sixth treatment of radiation so
04:24the radiation goes for my brain and then the immunotherapy kind of goes for everything but
04:30I only have to do seven or eight days total of radiation and the immunotherapy is every three
04:36weeks. I find out for sure June 1st exactly where we kind of stand and if you need to do another
04:46round if there's any other kind of surgery if it's the end you know like it's a hard pill to
04:54swallow but I find out June 1st. I would say this is definitely the hardest thing but now it feels
05:02less hard when I was in the ICU was incredibly difficult because I had no memory and I didn't
05:08know what was happening to me and I remember I couldn't remember the dates any day and then
05:16but one day I did realize because one of my friends had helped me she'd written down the date
05:20and she's like when Claire comes in here it is I was like great but then I realized as I was
05:26looking at it was my daughter's birthday and I like couldn't be there for it and it was really
05:32sad and still right now it's sad when I can't be there for my kids the way I would always normally
05:38be. I'm so over it already but because they had to put these you know the little
05:46drains and I had these holes in my hair and so that's why we ended up shaving it but it then
05:52became news to me as post radiation you lose chunks of your hair anyway so I'm gonna have to
05:57do a second shave but Cruz made it a little better because he's like mom we can get all the same hair
06:04cuts and I'm like that's so great for you it's terrible news for me great news for you buddy.
06:10I don't think when Vanessa shaved my head I cared that much
06:15but something that hit me really hard was the first time when I went to go work out
06:20and like I'm sitting there bald and my entire like body and everything looks completely different
06:25because the steroids really affect you and I tried to run and I couldn't and that's when everything
06:32was like oh my gosh Teddy you are no longer where you were you couldn't you can't just jump
06:39right back into this you have to slowly work your way up and that was pretty devastating me I was
06:44you know at Barry's boot camp like crying and the poor guy's like looking at me like you good I'm
06:49like no. It actually happened between Edwin and my dad not me I was already in a place to not have
06:57that conversation and to be perfectly honest I was not expecting my entire family to be out here
07:02within like 24 hours so like by the time I was out of my brain surgery where they removed the
07:13four tumors like all my brothers and sisters and my dad and like everybody was there
07:21allegedly I saw the photos don't remember but I'm just so grateful that they made the effort and
07:30like my dad hates LA so the fact that he was out here for 18 days like that's a lot I think my dad
07:37has always known who I am like no matter what things have gone down in my life because we've
07:43had a lot of good and bad things in the press and whatnot but I think he's proud because he gets to
07:52see some of himself and me knowing that like he really did teach me to fight to always no matter
08:00what it is to like fight to be my best fight for myself fight for the people I love and um I mean
08:09he calls every day to check on me some days I'm like I'm not in the mood I don't want a pep talk
08:15I'll talk to you tomorrow I'll be more pep talk ready um but I love you the wild thing is my dad
08:22had a heart attack when he was 36 years old and he had three years where he couldn't like he wasn't
08:29in the business anymore he went to painting and I remember his life completely changing at that time
08:35and it's something he shared and some of the moments I felt really scared and I was like hold
08:40on no no I'm not changing everything about my life I'm getting I want more jobs I want more
08:45things like I want to keep building but he's he's like there are moments where you emotionally
08:51won't be able to control how you're feeling because of a certain medication or a certain
08:55whatever and you have to give yourself some grace and know that like this isn't you sometimes
09:03and that's okay uh I would say the first thing is just the regular stuff back to normal
09:10um I would say the second thing is complacency to me kind of kills my joy so I want to like try
09:20new things do new things travel more with the kids keep building a life and just doing you
09:27know the best that we can and have fun together I think that's my goal my only you know advice is
09:35nobody else can tell you how to feel only you can do that so if you are feeling like you can do
09:43something trust yourself go do it if you're feeling like you can't don't but not anytime
09:50I've listened to somebody completely try to dictate what is the right thing to do is when I feel the
09:56worst.