Reality star Jeana Keough’s daughter gives sad update on her tongue cancer fight
Former Real Housewives of Orange County star Jeana Keough’s daughter has shared a heartbreaking update on her battle with tongue cancer.
The 71-year-old is in an excruciating fight with the disease and Kara Bosworth, 37, shared new details about her health struggles.
Jeana Keough’s treatment and pain has left her currently unable to talk. Instagram/@karakeoughboz
Bosworth spoke to Page Six and explained that she had just spent a week with her mum, who is really struggling right now.
“She’s still not getting nutrition orally except maybe a few bites, and then she gets frustrated with the effort and the lack of taste,” she explained.
Bosworth added that a feeding tube remains her mum’s “primary source of nutrition.”
She explained that her mum is really starting to regret going through treatment, and believes that her mum now wishes she didn’t opt for such an invasive option.
“I think she just wishes she didn’t do any treatment. [It’s been] very hard. She still is sleeping a lot and having a lot of coughing fits that cause her to vomit,” Bosworth said.
Keough is going through twice-weekly speech therapy and swallow therapy, but her daughter explained there’s still a long way to go.
The former reality star shared her tongue cancer diagnosis in mid-July.
Jeana was first diagnosed with tongue cancer in July, after almost a year of a persistent sore that kept coming back on her tongue. Instagram/@karakeoughboz
Since the news of her cancer, she’s undergone a tongue dissection, surgery to insert the feeding tube, a neck dissection to remove dozens of nodes, radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
Keough also wound up in the hospital for malnourishment and dehydration.
But her treatment was put on hold when doctors found a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) clot in her leg and an infection at the same time.
It is expected that she will have to use a feeding tube for two to six months, and she has been given a 40 to 60 per cent cure rate within the next five years.
Kara Bosworth has been sharing updates on her mum’s excruciating cancer fight. Instagram/@karakeoughboz
Keough first suspected something was wrong when she noticed a painful sore on her tongue.
At the time she raised her concerns with her dentist, who insisted it was just the result of a sharp tooth that needed to be filed down.
The sore kept coming back and Keough got a referral for an ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist who did a biopsy which confirmed the worst – it was cancer, a squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue.
