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Jeana Keough’s daughter Kara Bosworth is detailing her mom’s private health battle.
The Real Housewives of Orange County alum was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue, her daughter shared, after noticing intense pain in her mouth.
After the reality TV star—who appeared on the Bravo show from 2006 to 2010—visited her daughter in Florida a few months back, “my mom mentioned a painful spot on her tongue,” Bosworth wrote on a GoFundMe page for her mom. “She assumed a tooth had been rubbing against it and had even gone to the dentist multiple times to have the tooth filed down.”
But it wasn’t until Keough dug deeper into her symptoms that she was given a diagnosis.
“I asked her how long the sore had been there,” Bosworth added. “She paused, thought about it, and realized it had been nearly a year. A biopsy confirmed our worst fear: squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue.”
Though her family was hoping for Keough—also mom the Shane and Colton with ex-husband Matt Keough—to make a speedy recovery following her first surgery to “remove the cancer,” they learned that a much longer road lay ahead.
“When doctors recommended a second surgery to remove lymph nodes, they discovered the cancer had spread,” Bosworth explained. “What we thought would be a one-time surgery became a full cancer battle.”
And as the 37-year-old noted, it hasn’t been easy.
Instagram/Kara Bosworth
“Jeana is now in her fifth week of chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy,” she added. “The treatments are relentless. She is exhausted, struggling to stay awake, and becoming malnourished because the pain in her tongue and throat makes swallowing even the smallest bites or sips incredibly difficult. Every day is a battle just to get enough nutrition and hydration to continue treatment.”
And the financial burden of Keough’s cancer treatment has been just as significant as the physical one.
“On top of the physical toll, she has been unable to work,” Bosworth wrote. “Because her job is commission-based, the loss of income has created an enormous financial burden at the very time she needs to focus all of her energy on healing.”
But as Keough continues to navigate her health battle, Bosworth remains in awe of her mother’s strength.
“Everyone who knows her knows this: she’s almost impossibly optimistic in the face of terrifying things—wildfires, cancer, uncertainty,” Bosworth wrote in a July 19 Instagram post. “Yet somehow she’s always been afraid of the simplest thing: being vulnerable enough to ask for help.”
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