Maria Menounos Was Diagnosed With A Brain Tumor

E! News host Maria Menounos tells People that in February, she knew something was wrong with her health when she started getting headaches and lightheaded on set. Now, getting headaches is a symptom of working with Ryan Seacrest, but what was happening to Maria was much more serious and scary. After she had trouble reading the teleprompter and started slurring her words, she had an MRI and learned that a golf-ball-size meningioma brain tumor was pushing against her facial nerves and fucking with her.

Maria says she went into surgery on her 39th birthday, June 8, and her doctor spent 7 hours removing most of the tumor, which was benign. Maria was told by her doctor that there’s a six to seven percent chance that the asshole tumor will come back. Maria still feels numb in the face, but is expected to fully heal. Around the time that Maria found out about her brain tumah, she was taking care of her mother, Litsa, who has stage 4 brain cancer. Litsa’s cancer is stable right now.

Because of her and her mother’s health, Maria, who also hosts a show on Sirius XM, has decided to leave E! and E! News after three years. Maria’s doctor told her that regularly reporting on the Kartrashians is terrible for her health and will make her worse. No, I don’t know if Maria’s doctor really told her that, but I’m assuming he did since any well-educated medical professional would advise that.

Maria also tells People that before her brain tumor was found, she and her fiancé Kevin Undergaro were planning to make a baby via IVF. She says that her brain tumor hasn’t stopped their plans and they’re hoping to start a family soon. She also said this about getting yourself checked out when things don’t seem right:

“I tell people all the time if your car is making a weird noise, you take it to the mechanic. How come when our body is making weird noises, we ignore it? I’m so lucky that I went to the doctor and raised the alarm.”

Maria is right about going to the doctor, but not all people take their cars into the mechanic when that shit acts up. I always put that off, because I know that when I take my car in, the sound of it crying in pain will be replaced by the sound of my credit card crying in pain. So when my car is sick, I do what my abuelita did whenever I was sick: I give it a mug of hot lemonade, a bowl of menudo, cover it with 10 thick blankets and tell it to sweat the ills out.

Pic: Wenn.com