Maria Menounos Shows off Scars From Pancreatic Cancer Surgery in Bikini Selfie
Maria Menounos is celebrating her scars after revealing her private battle with pancreatic cancer. The former E! News personality, who revealed in May that she had secretly been battling Stage 2 pancreatic cancer after being diagnosed in January, took to Instagram Sunday to share a photo of her surgery scars while proudly rocking a bikini.
"I look back on surgery earlier this year and am grateful for the strength god blessed me with to get through and of course all of the beautiful humans that he sent to help me too!" Menounos wrote of the successful procedure she underwent to remove a 3.9-cm. tumor. "Now I see the scars that I sunscreen up carefully to protect and I smile." Menounos' followers were quick to praise her, with one person commenting, "YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION!!!" Another wrote, "You are one incredible warrior! From your battles you bless us all with so much tools and inspiration! And you look great!!!!"
The Heal Squad podcast host also had part of her pancreas, spleen, a fibroid and 17 lymph nodes removed during surgery after she first was dismissed by doctors for her symptoms of "excruciating abdominal pain" and diarrhea. Menounos told Hoda Kotb on TODAY in May that follow-up scans were initially "unremarkable," which made it difficult for doctors to proceed with her case.
"Anytime I complained about it thereafter, [doctors told me], 'Well, we just scanned and everything was fine,' but I kept feeling my upper-left quadrant this throbbing," Menounos told Kotb, adding that she knew "something was wrong." After undergoing two MRI scans, doctors found the mass. "When I came out, he goes, 'Oh, this is definitely something,'" Menounos shared. "I remember waking up the next morning, and I hadn't really cried, 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 going to get to meet her.'"
The 44-year-old media personality and her husband, Keven Undergaro, are currently expecting their first child with the help of a surrogate. Menounos has had numerous health issues throughout the years, which she's shared with the public. In 2017, she was diagnosed and treated for a benign brain tumor, which was preceded by a diabetes diagnosis.