Maria Menounos has gone by way of hell and again this yr.
The journalist sat down with People on Wednesday to get candid a few well being battle she’s confronted in secret the previous few months, revealing she was identified with pancreatic most cancers earlier than welcoming her first baby by way of surrogacy this summer season.
Everything was wanting up for her, particularly after she had healed from battling a benign mind tumor again in 2017… till she began to really feel extreme leg cramps final June, the previous E! News correspondent recalled:
“I was feeling so good, and then I got slapped in the face with a new diagnosis. I’d scream out loud, I was inconsolable.”
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She went to the hospital and he or she realized she had sort 1 diabetes, which runs in her household. She was prescribed insulin, started a strict weight loss plan, and began monitoring her glucose ranges. Thankfully, issues improved vastly in a matter of months. To today, she nonetheless takes insulin every day and wears a glucose monitor. By October, she “was crushing it,” she mirrored:
“I felt so good. What else could go wrong?”
Unfortunately, one thing main was coming down the pipeline in only one month, which landed her again within the hospital “with excruciating abdominal pain coupled with diarrhea.” The reason for her discomfort remained a thriller after an preliminary CT scan and intensive testing:
“They said, ‘Everything’s fine.’ But I kept having pains. On a flight several weeks later, the pain was so bad it felt like someone was tearing my insides out.”
She then agreed to endure a full-body MRI with an organization referred to as Prenuvo in January, which unearthed a 3.9 cm mass on her pancreas. A biopsy confirmed it was a Stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, a type of most cancers.
“I’m like ‘How in the freaking world can I have a brain tumor and pancreatic cancer?’ All I could think was that I have a baby coming.”
Because she caught the most cancers so early, she was given a very good prognosis and went into surgical procedure on February 16 to take away the tumor, a part of her pancreas, her spleen, a big fibroid, and 17 lymph nodes, she shared of the restoration:
“It was super painful. I couldn’t move or lift myself up.”
Her household was together with her each step of the way in which:
“Keven [Undergaro, her husband] slept in the hospital every night. And my dad was the best caretaker.”
Per her docs, UCLA‘s Dr. Ryan Aronin, and surgeon, UCLA’s Dr. Timothy Donahue, the surgical procedure did wonders and he or she doesn’t require chemotherapy or extra remedy. She simply has to go in for annual scans for the subsequent 5 years. Whoa! Such excellent news!
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This medical emergency has given Maria a complete new perspective on her life — particularly her journey into motherhood. The 44-year-old is at present placing on the ending touches to her child’s nursery, she shared:
“I’m so grateful and so lucky. God granted me a miracle. I’m going to appreciate having her in my life so much more than I would have before this journey.”
While The Holiday Dating Guide star may have a small meet-and-greet with household and mates after the newborn arrives, she is now not planning a child bathe. Just three months out from the surgical procedure, she’s utilizing all her time and power on therapeutic from this trauma:
“This whole year has been trauma, stress, crisis. There was a minute when we were planning something, and then it became too much. I thought, ‘I just need to heal.’”
The Heal Squad podcast host now has a message for everybody else, urging:
“I need people to know there are places they can go to catch things early. You can’t let fear get in the way. I had that moment where I thought I was a goner — but I’m okay because I caught this early enough.”
Sharing the story on her Instagram, Maria mirrored:
“Obviously, there’s so much to say about this and what I’ve gone through these last few months, and even year. First, dealing with the diabetes diagnosis last summer, second (my other miracle) preparing for my soon to be newborn baby and third, pancreas cancer. I still haven’t come to grips with it all, including the fact that so very few even survive pancreatic cancer. I have SO much information and SO many breakthroughs that I think/hope can save others. I do plan to share everything on my podcast and on as many platforms as I can. For now I’ll say how grateful I am to be able alive and well and that I WILL get to hold my baby ! Thank you God, St. Nectarios the healing saint, my doctors and nurses, and my family and friends who helped me through. Longer list of thank you’s to come but thank you @prenuvo for catching this early enough to save my life. Know I’m working to get these scans covered by insurance for everyone!! And thank you Lisa Paulsen and [Entertainment Industry Foundation].”
So a lot to be pleased about!!
We are SO glad Maria is doing effectively proper now, and want her nothing however the perfect transferring ahead. What a scary few months she and her household have had — and all proper earlier than her child lady’s arrival! We hope this subsequent yr will probably be filled with happiness and well being.
[Image via Maria Menounos/Instagram]
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