Teddi Mellencamp Undergoes Painful Surgery to Remove Melanoma

Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave is updating fans after undergoing a painful surgery on Tuesday to remove her 13th melanoma.

The reality star posted on Instagram, “Surgery went well!”

Mellencamp included a photo of her back pre-surgery 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.”

She added, “But the pain and discomfort are all worth it.”

Teddi said the outpouring of love she received “left me speechless (which is tough)” and insisted, “Please get your skin checked. I promise you do not want to go through this.”

The post included a video of the 42-year-old after surgery saying it was “very painful, but I’m so grateful they did such a good job.”

Teddi added, “Whew, that back skin is tight… struggle bus, but I’m hoping they got it all.”

She also shared her journey on Instagram Stories as she made her way to a nursing facility to recover. She wrote, “Transport time to nursing facility. 1 drain and a lot of damn pain, but worth it.”

“Extra’s” Billy Bush spoke with Teddi about her health back in October after she was diagnosed with her 13th melanoma.

She explained, “This is crazy… Every time I think I get through it, I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m done.’”

Mellencamp went on, “This most recent one, when they checked it, they did a little biopsy. It came back. I had the wide excision surgery again and then the margins weren’t clear.”

Does she get scared about the future? Teddi answered, “I would say the biggest shock for me was when I got turned down for life insurance. Like, that was a big wakeup call. And then that’s when I kind of had the conversation with my family. Like, I need to like, do a last will and testament. Like I need to actually face these things and get it done because there are things you don’t necessarily go through at 42 years of age.”

At the time, Teddi was undergoing a new immunotherapy cream treatment, but on December 19, she told Instagram followers that the method did not work.

“Long story short: The immunotherapy treatment did not work on my melanomas. I had a wide excision removal on my most recent melanoma last week to see if it did and sadly it did not,” she said.