Jeana Keough is having a difficult time amid her excruciating battle with tongue cancer.
The “Real Housewives of Orange County” alum’s daughter, Kara Bosworth, gave Page Six an exclusive update on her mother, who revealed her devastating diagnosis in mid-July.
Bosworth — who told us Wednesday she’d “just left” Southern California after a week-long visit with Keough — lamented, “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.”
The Florida resident, 37, added that a feeding tube remains her mom’s “primary source of nutrition.”
Bosworth went on to share that Keough is “feeling a lot of regret due to the impacts of her treatment,” noting that part of her believes her mom might wish she hadn’t agreed to such intense intervention.
“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.
“She’s doing twice weekly speech and swallow therapy, but we still have a long way to go.”
In late July, Keough — who was unable to speak at the time — told Page Six via email that she expected to be using a feeding tube for two to six months and that she had been given a 40 to 60 percent cure rate within the next five years.
Since receiving her diagnosis, the 71-year-old has undergone a tongue dissection, surgery to insert the feeding tube, a neck dissection to remove dozens of nodes, radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
And during all this, she wound up in the hospital for malnourishment and dehydration.
Simultaneously, she was treated for a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) blood clot and infection in her leg.
Keough previously told us that at some point last year, she noticed a painful sore on her tongue, which her “trusted dentist” insisted was the result of a sharp tooth that needed to be filed down — multiple times.
The former Bravolebrity was admittedly under the impression she was dealing with a “small issue,” but after finally receiving a referral to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor, she scheduled a biopsy — at the behest of Bosworth.
“That doctor took one look in my mouth and said, ‘That’s cancer,'” Keough previously recalled, adding that the subsequent biopsy “confirmed” her worst fear.
Bosworth has said that she and her brothers — Shane Keough, 40, and Colton Keough, 34 — feel their mom could have and should have received a diagnosis sooner.