Maria Menounos has been through a health roller coaster over the last several years.
In 2017, she underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor. Then last year she learned she had Type 1 diabetes.
Most recently, she was given the terrifying diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The diagnosis came not long after she and her husband became expectant parents via surrogacy.
She spoke to Hoda Kotb at Today about her experience.
You can watch below.
In the interview she recounted how she had eaten a farro salad on an airplane not long after her diabetes diagnosis.
She thought perhaps she was developing a gluten intolerance, but after the pain persisted along with other gastrointestinal issues, the journalist went to the hospital and got a CAT scan.
The scan showed nothing remarkable, so she started to look for other answers.
At Anastasia Soare’s birthday party, a woman approached Menounos asking her to come into her facility for a full body MRI as they were looking for health influencers to experience their services.
After that MRI, Menounos recounted the radiologist said:
“'You need to go to the hospital right away,’ and he’s white as a ghost and he’s shaking.”
It was then Menounos called her primary care physician and got a second MRI that confirmed the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
After receiving the devastating news all she could think aaboutwas her baby. But at a certain point, she chose to change her mindset from fear and sadness to excitement for her child.
She underwent surgery to remove the tumor, the tail of her pancreas, her entire spleen, 17 lymph nodes and a uterine fibroid “the size of a baby.”
She is now celebrating being cancer free.
People can’t imagine what she has gone through.
Menounos imparted important words saying:
“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.”
