Jeana Keough is being treated for squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue after a biopsy found the cancer, and her family says the illness has already forced doctors to move past the first operation. Kara Keough said surgeons removed the cancer, then found more trouble when they recommended a second surgery to remove lymph nodes and discovered the disease had spread.
That update lands now because Jeana is in her fifth week of chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy, a stretch that has left her exhausted and struggling to stay awake. Kara said the pain in her mother’s tongue and throat has made even small bites and sips hard to manage, and that she is becoming malnourished as treatment continues.
Kara said the warning signs began quietly a few months ago, while she was visiting Jeana and Shane in Florida, when her mother mentioned a painful spot on her tongue. Jeana thought a tooth was rubbing against it and had gone to the dentist several times to have the tooth filed down. By the time Kara pressed for details, the sore had been there for nearly a year.
The family has now turned that private struggle into a public appeal. Kara created a GoFundMe to help pay for her mother’s treatment, saying the money will go toward expenses, everyday living costs, nutrition and additional support while Jeana goes through care. She also traveled from Florida to Orange County, California, to help look after her mother during treatment.
What makes the situation harder is that the first surgery did not close the case. Doctors found the cancer had spread only after they went back in and recommended the second surgery to remove lymph nodes, a sign that the disease is more advanced than the early biopsy suggested. Kara said she and her brothers want their mother to feel cared for, loved and supported through the fight, and on Sunday, July 19, she described Jeana as almost impossibly optimistic in the face of terrifying things.
Jeana, who shared Kara, Shane and Colton with her late ex-husband Matt Keough, is not through the hardest part yet. The confirmed next step is more treatment, but the story now is not about what comes someday; it is about whether she can keep up the pace of care long enough for it to work.
