Television personality Maria Menounos has given insight into a personal health battle that she’s been facing.
Menounos. 44. sat down with People magazine for an exclusive interview concerning her diagnosis of stage 2 pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer was also what Jerry Springer, Patrick Swayze and Alex Trebek died from, “Today” reported.
Menounos said she received the news in January and had surgery to remove a 3.9-cm tumor, as well as part of her pancreas, spleen, a fibroid and 17 lymph nodes.
“I need people to know there are places they can go to catch things early,” she told People. “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.”
Menounos had health scares in the past including a benign brain tumor in 2017 that was about the size of a golf ball and pushed on her facial nerves. It was found after she experienced dizziness, headaches and slurred speech, the “Today” show reported. She also was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes but controlled the condition with insulin, diet and monitoring her glucose levels.
“I was crushing it,” Menounos told People. “I felt so good. What else could go wrong?”
But a month later she was back in the hospital, this time “with excruciating abdominal pain coupled with diarrhea.”
Preliminary testing showed nothing, but she was still having issues. During a flight, she said the pain was so bad that it felt “like someone was tearing my insides out.”
That’s when she underwent a full-body MRI that found a mass on her pancreas. A biopsy confirmed it was a stage 2 neuroendocrine tumor. Menounos’s doctors told her she didn’t need any chemotherapy or other treatment, but she will have to go through annual scans for the next five years.
While the health scare has abated, Menounos has a positive life change coming soon — a baby girl expected to be born via surrogate this summer, People magazine reported.
“I’m so grateful and so lucky,” Menounos said. “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.”
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