Teddi Mellencamp’s Fight Against Cancer: The Body Is Destroyed by Drugs
“I haven’t been feeling well for a few days,” says the well-being coach. “I thought I had the flu. And then one day I woke up and my whole body was covered in this horrible rash. You can’t even tell it’s a rash because there are almost sores all over my body.”
“And [the sores] hurt and burned,” she continued.
“And so I went to the emergency room first, hoping that they would say, ‘Oh, you’re having an allergic reaction.’ And the emergency doctor immediately said, ‘No, you need to go to the ER now.'”
Doctors discovered she was allergic to a drug she had started taking that had caused the severe, painful blisters.
“It went in my mouth,” Teddi said. ‘A bit around my eyes. It was just everywhere. And then I couldn’t swallow anymore.’
At the hospital she was given steroids and antibiotics and within a few days she started feeling better.
But adding to her pain was the worry that she wouldn’t get out of the hospital in time to celebrate her daughter Dove’s sixth birthday.
She had missed her birthday last year when she was also in hospital, so this year she was especially keen to attend.
Luckily, she was released in time to attend the party – she posted on Instagram: “So grateful and emotional to be celebrating six with her.”
The Two T’s in a Pod podcaster shared Dove and daughter Slate, 12, and son Cruz, 11, with ex Edwin Arroyave.
The couple married in 2011 but separated in late 2024.
Teddi was diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma in March 2022, only to report in April 2025 that it had progressed to stage 4 and spread to her brain and lungs.
