A harrowing state of affairs. Maria Menounos revealed that she secretly battled pancreatic most cancers earlier than saying that she’s anticipating her first baby by way of surrogate.
The TV host, 44, was identified with stage II pancreatic most cancers in January after experiencing extreme belly ache and diarrhea. “They said, ‘Everything’s fine.’ But I kept having pains,” the previous pageant queen informed People in an interview revealed on Wednesday, May 3. At one level, the ache was so acute that Menounos mentioned it felt “like someone was tearing my insides out.”
After a whole-body MRI, the TV character’s docs found a 3.9-cm mass on her pancreas and confirmed it was cancerous with a biopsy. In February, she underwent surgical procedure to take away the tumor together with a part of her pancreas, her spleen, 17 lymph nodes and a fibroid. “It was super painful,” Menounos recalled. “I couldn’t move or lift myself up.”
The Dancing With the Stars alum was identified simply months after studying that she has kind 1 diabetes. After altering her weight loss plan, taking insulin and monitoring her glucose ranges, Menounos was feeling like herself once more in October, however then her belly pains began.
In the meantime, she and husband Keven Undergaro have been gearing up for the arrival of their first baby by way of surrogate. The couple, who tied the knot in 2017, introduced in February that they’re anticipating a child this summer season.
“We were going to go to Greece in the summer. We’re having to move that up because we’re having a baby,” the “Heal Squad” podcast host revealed throughout an look on Live With Kelly and Ryan. “I had to share it here first because you guys are my family, you guys have been on the journey and I’m so grateful.”
Menounos and Undergaro, 55, have been attempting for years to have a toddler. In 2016, the Massachusetts native revealed that her try and get pregnant by way of in vitro fertilization was unsuccessful.
“It’s been a long time. We’ve done everything — I mean, literally everything,” Menounos informed Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest in February. “They’ve tried to get me pregnant, that didn’t work. Kevin had a surgery, that didn’t work. He’s hung me upside down like a chicken, that didn’t work!”
Maria Menounos attends Fast X Trailer Launch on February 9, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Stewart Cook/Shutterstock
The former Extra host has additionally battled unrelated well being points, together with a mind tumor that left her with extreme complications, blurry imaginative and prescient and slurred speech. In June 2017, docs eliminated a golf-ball sized mass that was urgent on her trigeminal nerve, which supplies sensation to the face.
“For a long time, probably for two years before, I was exhausted and I didn’t know why,” Menounos recalled in a May 2018 interview with Today. “Everyone told me it was because I worked so hard. Somehow, it didn’t really sit right with me, but you have no other explanation for it — that’s what you kind of go with.”
A February 2017 physician go to, nevertheless, confirmed that it wasn’t simply stress, and 4 months later, Menounos underwent surgical procedure that got here with a prolonged restoration course of. “It really affected my balance a lot and I had a lot of difficulty with my eyes — I was seeing double and triple,” the previous E! News anchor recalled. “I needed a walker for a long time for stability.”
Menounos inspired followers on the time to all the time search for solutions when something feels off. “Find the right doctor who is going to help you investigate it properly,” she mentioned. “People get told, ‘It’s nothing, you’re just tired and stressed’ or, ‘You’re being paranoid.’ I was lucky to have a doctor who instantly realized that we needed to take action and take it seriously.”
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One yr earlier than the previous Today correspondent realized of her personal mind tumor, her mother, Litsa Menounos, was identified with stage IV mind most cancers. Litsa died in May 2021 after battling the illness fore greater than 4 years.
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