The Real Housewives of Orange County alum Jeana Keough’s daughter, Kara Keough, is offering an update on her mom’s ongoing tongue cancer battle.
“Mom’s struggling. 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,” Kara, 37, told Page Six on Wednesday, October 21, noting she recently visited Jeana, 71, in California. “I think she just wishes she didn’t do any treatment.”
She continued, “[It’s been] very hard. She still is sleeping a lot and having a lot of coughing fits that cause her to vomit.”
Kara announced in July that Jeana had been diagnosed with cancer.
“She is kind to everyone — even to people who have nothing to offer her in return. She is generous to a fault,” Kara wrote via Instagram, urging followers to donate to a GoFundMe campaign to help cover Jeana’s growing medical expenses. “She gives people the benefit of the doubt, even when they’ve proven, over and over again, that they don’t deserve her grace.”
She continued at the time, “Everyone who knows her knows this: she’s almost impossibly optimistic in the face of terrifying things — wildfires, cancer, uncertainty. Yet somehow she’s always been afraid of the simplest thing: being vulnerable enough to ask for help. So, I’m asking for her.”
Jeana, who subsequently underwent chemotherapy and radiation following her diagnosis, has had the support of Kara and sons Shane and Colton throughout her health battle. (Jeana shared her three children with her late ex-husband, Matt Keough.)
“She’s strong through this. She’s got a good support network down there,” Shane, 40, exclusively told Us in July. “Colton, our younger brother, is there, so she’s on the right path. But you know, it’s tough for everybody, and we’re just trying to make sure she stays on her program so she’s strong when this is done.”
For Kara, she told Us at the time that the siblings were optimistic about their mom’s prognosis.
“I think she’ll get cancer to bend to her will, like she does with everything else in life,” Kara quipped. “We’re choosing to stay in that mindset. … She refuses to acknowledge that she’s sick, and I think that the cancer will believe her and follow suit.”
Jeana ultimately completed her radiation treatment in August.
“Jeana finished her last radiation treatment yesterday, and we were informed that these next two weeks will be the roughest on her physically — as the chemo and radiation are compounding and her body will be at its weakest point,” Kara wrote in an update shared via GoFundMe. “The radiation burns have now made it to the outer skin on her neck, and even putting medicated cream on the area with the gentlest of touches causes her wincing pain.”
