Expectant mother Maria Menounos opens up about battling pancreatic cancer

Maria Menounos opens up about her harrowing battle with stage two pancreatic cancer as she awaits the birth of her first child.

The former Extra and E! News host reported that the mass on her pancreas her doctors diagnosed in January nearly doubled in two months due to a spate of health problems before she was officially diagnosed with the disease diagnosis was made.

Appears on this week’s episode of Dear MediaNot skinny but not fatOn the podcast, Menounos told host Amanda Hirsch she was “damned” at the possibility of never meeting her daughter due to her health crisis.

“I was just crying in my throat and I was like, I can’t believe God just blessed me with a baby, I’m going to have a baby,” said the 45-year-old, who was nine weeks post-surgery at the time the episode was taped.

“We’ve been in surrogacy for two months and I can’t believe I’m finally going to have a baby and not get to meet her. Because what we also found out is that when they found the tumor on the MRI, I said, ‘Can we go back and get the records and look at the November scan?’ I bet it was there.’ And it was.

“At that point it was two centimeters and when they found it it was almost four centimetres. The size had doubled in two months.”

The ‘Entourage’ and ‘One Tree Hill’ actress said she is “still healing” from this information and is trying to figure out why the tumor wasn’t detected sooner, detailing the complicated process to determine which scan each is reasonable circumstance.

“My goal has always been to help people and share information, and that’s why I do both,” Menounos said, later adding, “It would be such a shame to say ‘woe is me,’ if God has granted it to many.” Wonder.”

In May, the Heal Squad x Maria Menounos podcast host revealed that she had secretly battled pancreatic cancer and had successfully undergone surgery to remove a 1.5-inch tumor. She thought she was “a failure,” she said People Magazine, but was fine because it was spotted “early enough.”

The TV personality’s reveal came just months after she announced it was she and her husband, AfterBuzz TV creator Keven Undergaro Expecting a baby girl through a surrogate mother after almost a decade of fertility problems. The baby is expected this summer.

Despite the strains on her physical and mental health, she has since focused on helping others find solutions to their health problems. your show, she told HirschShe has become her “responsibility partner who makes health a priority in our lives because nobody teaches us that health is that important.”

Menounos has been open about her health issues for years, including Hashimoto’s autoimmune disease and dealing with other hormonal tumors. She has been diagnosed In 2017 she suffered from a benign brain tumor and was treated for it, not long after her late mother battled brain cancer. She said that last summer she suffered from severe leg cramps and “uncontrollable” pain that led to a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, which is common in her family. Menounos told People that she was prescribed insulin, followed a strict diet, started monitoring her blood sugar levels and was feeling dramatically better.

But in November she was back in the hospital complaining of unbearable abdominal pain coupled with diarrhea.

Test results and a CT scan were inconclusive and Menounos said her pain continued and at times felt “like someone was ripping my insides out”. Then private diagnostics company Prenuvo approached her show and convinced her to get a full-body MRI. The scan showed she had a mass in the pancreas, and a biopsy later confirmed it was a stage 2 cancerous neuroendocrine tumor of the pancreas.

However, the prognosis was good and she underwent surgery earlier this year to remove part of her pancreas, her spleen, a large fibroid and 17 lymph nodes. She told Hirsch that this led to her switching back to insulin to manage her diabetes.

“I still don’t understand everything, including the fact that so few survive pancreatic cancer at all,” Menounos wrote an Instagram post from May 3rd. “I have SO much information and SO many breakthroughs that I think/hope can save others. I plan to share everything on my podcast and on as many platforms as possible.

“Right now I want to say how grateful I am that I’m fine and that I can hold my baby in my arms!”