Current:Home > MyMaria Menounos Recalls Fearing She Wouldn't Get to Meet Her Baby After Cancer Diagnosis-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Maria Menounos Recalls Fearing She Wouldn't Get to Meet Her Baby After Cancer Diagnosis
View Date:2024-12-23 21:03:40
Maria Menounos will never forget her radiologist's reaction after an MRI revealed in January that she had a mass on her pancreas.
"He's like, 'Oh,'" the former E! correspondent told Hoda Kotb on the May 4 episode of Today. "And the mass kept persisting in every image. He goes, 'You need to go to the hospital right away.' He's, like, white as a ghost. He's shaking.'"
And Menounos—who is expecting a baby girl via surrogate with her husband Keven Undergaro—feared the worst. "My eyes started to well and I just looked at him and I go, 'So, I'm a goner. Cool,'" she recalled. "Like, I just kind of go to jokes fast. But it was not a good joke. All that kept flashing through my head was my baby."
The mass, Menounos previously told People, was 3.9 cm and was later confirmed to be a stage 2 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. The entertainment journalist—who has shared her road to motherhood—couldn't believe this was happening with her dream of becoming a mom so close.
"I remember waking up the next morning, and I hadn't really cried," she told Today, "but I just started guttural crying, because I'm like, 'How could God finally bless me with a baby after 10 years, and now I'm not gonna get to meet her?'"
However, Menounos decided to change her mindset.
"The more I thought about it, I was like, 'This doesn't make sense. This doesn't make sense,'" the 44-year-old remembered. "And then I realized it doesn't make sense. And that's when I shifted and said, 'I don't know anything, so why am I going to predict the worst? Why am I going to be thinking the worst?' So I said, 'We have to take this step by step.'"
Menounos underwent surgery to remove the cancerous tumor, sharing, "They took the tail of the pancreas, the spleen, 17 lymph nodes and a fibroid the size of like a baby off my uterus."
Today, she is cancer-free. And Menounos hopes her experience can help others. As the Heal Squad podcast host noted, her journey to receiving her diagnosis was a long one, with her experiencing "excruciating pain" months prior to her diagnosis as well as "loose stool for a month and a half." And while she "did all the stool tests" and a CT scan, they didn't show any red flags.
Still, Menounos knew something wasn't right. Even after one doctor initially thought "this was nothing"—suggesting it could be inflammation or pancreatitis—before her biopsy, she continued to seek answers. Now, Menounos—who was also diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last June and had a benign brain tumor removed in 2017—is reminding others to speak up and advocate for their health.
"I feel so blessed and so grateful because I've been given so many miracles," she told Today. "Like, I'm so, so blessed. And I know that other people can be too. So, my mission is to help people listen to their bodies and learn how to listen to their bodies. And I'm so grateful that God shifted me into this health space with my show and with everything that I do now because I want to sound the alarms to everybody that you have to be the CEO of your health. You cannot give that over to anybody. That job is yours. You know your body. You know what's going on."
And she can't wait to meet her baby later this year.
"I'm grateful that I'm in this position, and I know God made this all happen for me to be able to help other people," she continued. "And I'm just so lucky that I'm going to be able to hold my baby this summer. That's the best blessing of all."
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family).
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News AppveryGood! (218)
Related
- Mike Tyson emerges as heavyweight champ among product pitchmen before Jake Paul fight
- July ends 13-month streak of global heat records as El Nino ebbs, but experts warn against relief
- Meet 11-year-old skateboarder Zheng Haohao, the youngest Olympian competing in Paris
- Tropical weather brings record rainfall. Experts share how to stay safe in floods.
- Quincy Jones' cause of death revealed: Reports
- Populist conservative and ex-NBA player Royce White shakes up US Senate primary race in Minnesota
- 'I am sorry': Texas executes Arthur Lee Burton for the 1997 murder of mother of 3
- Jury finds man guilty of sending 17-year-old son to rob and kill rapper PnB Rock
- How to protect your Social Security number from the Dark Web
- A Georgia governor’s latest work after politics: a children’s book on his cats ‘Veto’ and ‘Bill’
Ranking
- Reds honor Pete Rose with a 14-hour visitation at Great American Ball Park
- Noah Lyles earns chance to accomplish sprint double after advancing to 200-meter final
- The seven biggest college football quarterback competitions include Michigan, Ohio State
- RFK Jr. closer to getting on New Jersey ballot after judge rules he didn’t violate ‘sore loser’ law
- Asian sesame salad sold in Wegmans supermarkets recalled over egg allergy warning
- Rapper Nelly is arrested for suspected drug possession at St. Louis-area casino
- Chief beer officer for Yard House: A side gig that comes with a daily swig.
- How effective is the Hyundai, Kia anti-theft software? New study offers insights.
Recommendation
-
Fantasy football buy low, sell high: 10 trade targets for Week 11
-
Roxane Gilmore, former first lady of Virginia, dies at age 70
-
US auto safety agency seeks information from Tesla on fatal Cybertruck crash and fire in Texas
-
Charm Jewelry Is Back! How To Build the Perfect Charm Bracelet and Charm Necklace
-
Sofia Richie Reveals 5-Month-Old Daughter Eloise Has a Real Phone
-
An Activist Will Defy a Restraining Order to Play a Cello Protest at Citibank’s NYC Headquarters Thursday
-
Daughter of Utah death row inmate navigates complicated dance of grief and healing before execution
-
Watch: 5 things you need to do before your next trip