Janelle Brown, star of Sister Wives and the second of Kody Brown’s four wives, recently revealed a scary diagnosis to fans. Last week, Janelle, 50, posted on social media that she recently received a skin cancer diagnosis.
Janelle is the biological mother of six of the 18 Brown kids. She became a grandmother for the second time last August when her daughter Maddie Brusch gave birth to Evangalynn Kodi.
Maddie is also mom to Axel James, who will turn three this month.
Janelle put off seeing a doctor
Janelle noticed a mole right above her lip had been growing larger recently but assumed it was a scar for over a year.
“It came in the one spot my cold sores have occurred for decades,” she explained. “I’m so careful about sunscreen, because I’m so fair, it never occurred to me that it may be skin cancer.”
However, when various scar remedies didn’t do anything to minimize the appearance of the blemish, Janelle decided to make an appointment.
Her doctor canceled the original appointment due to the COVID-19 crisis, but Janelle was able to make a telemedicine appointment.
“In mid-April, they brought their telemedicine online and I saw my doctor via my phone,” she said in her post. “I had it biopsied a week later and removed yesterday.”
It’s a good thing Janelle followed up about the lesion; it turned out to be basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer that’s linked to fair skin and sun exposure.
Basal cell carcinoma is extremely common. In the US, up to 25 percent of white females are affected by it at some point in their lives. Fortunately, the prognosis for patients like Janelle is very good.
This form of cancer is usually very treatable and rarely metastasizes.
However, Janelle will have to stay vigilant, as patients with a history of basal cell carcinoma are at higher risk for more severe types of skin cancer.
Janelle’s lesion successfully removed
Basal cell carcinomas are usually removed surgically, and that was the case for Janelle. Although she was worried that the procedure would be painful, she was happily surprised by what she experienced.
She said there was “little discomfort considering that they had to take a dime size lesion off my upper lip.”
Although Janelle will need a bit of time to heal, her doctors expect that she will have only very minimal scarring left over. Fortunately, her prognosis is excellent, and she’s vowed to be more careful about her skin in the future.
Sister Wives is currently on hiatus from TLC.
The only thing I would like to know is why Janelle divorced her 1st husband( Meri’s brother)
I hope Janelle continues to improve and has no recurrences of the basal cell cancer.