Maria Menounos has revealed that doctors originally missed her tumor before she was eventually diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
At the end of last year, the 45-year-old was complaining of severe pains and underwent a series of tests and a CT scan, but nothing unusual was found.
She later ordered a full-body MRI with another company when a doctor spotted a mass on her pancreas, which was eventually diagnosed as stage 2 pancreatic cancer – news which left her reeling.
In February, she went under the knife to remove the tumor, and has been focusing on her recovery – as well as the upcoming arrival of her first child via surrogate – ever since.
Appearing on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, Maria detailed her health battles, explaining: ‘I had been experiencing things and trying to get to the bottom of them. I went to the hospital that November in severe abdominal pain, got a CAT scan, everything was fine, they said.
‘I had severe pain again, they were like, “Well, we scanned you and your blood is fine.”
‘I had severe diarrhea for a month and a half. I did all the stool tests, they came back negative, nothing was bad.
‘But my pain kept persisting, and any time I complained about the pain, my doctor was like, “We’ve done all the tests.”‘
It was then that the E! News star decided to look into another option and booked an MRI, which uncovered a worrying mass.
‘When he said there was a large mass on my pancreas, I started to well up,’ she continued. ‘I looked at him and was like, “So I’m a goner, right?”
‘I know what pancreas and tumor means. He was like, “I just know you need to go to the hospital right now.”
‘I was just f**king gutted. I was guttural crying, I can’t believe God just blessed me with a baby, I’m going to have a baby… We were two months along and I was like, I can’t believe I’m finally going to have a baby and I’m not going to get to meet her.’
When she was finally diagnosed in January, Maria decided to look back at her previous scans, where health experts were finally able to spot the mass.
‘When they found the tumor in 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,’ she recalled.
‘At that point it was two centimeters and by the time they had found it was almost four centimeters. It had doubled in size in two months.’
Maria explained that she is still ‘getting to the bottom’ of how the tumor was overlooked, but is also choosing to focus on her upcoming bundle of joy, with husband Keven Undergaro.
‘I’m so grateful and so lucky,’ she previously told People Magazine. ‘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.’
