Maria Menounos Reveals She Had A Brain Tumor Removed Amid Her Mother's Own Stage Four Brain Cancer Battle

Talk about a health scare!
Back in June, Maria Menounos underwent a seven hour brain surgery in order to get a benign meningioma (which was the size of a golf ball) off her brain. To make matters worse, Miz Menounos’ health issue came amid her mother Litsa Menounos‘ battle with stage four brain cancer. What a scary situation.
Related: Joe Jackson Hospitalized After Las Vegas Car Crash!
On how she discovered she had a brain tumor, the TV personality revealed to People:

“This February I thought I had an ear infection so I went to a doctor, and he said, ‘Your ears are the cleanest things I’ve ever seen. What else are you feeling?’ I’d been getting light-headed on-set and having headaches. My speech had gotten slurred, and I was having difficulty reading the teleprompter. I said, ‘I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but I think I have a brain tumor like my mom.’ He said, ‘I don’t think you’re crazy. Let’s just get an MRI.’ The next week I started feeling better, so I was like, ‘I’m clearly paranoid.’ So I kept pushing the MRI.”

But thank goodness the E! News anchor eventually went in for the MRI, as she later learned she had meningioma pressing on her facial nerves. In regards to her reaction to the upsetting news, Maria noted:

“I didn’t cry. I actually laughed… It’s so surreal and crazy and unbelievable that my mom has a brain tumor├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥and now I have one too?”

Unsurprisingly, Maria’s parents were very shocked when she announced her condition. However, she moved quickly as she made an appointment with her mother’s doctor and scheduled her tumor removal surgery on June 8 (which just happened to be her 39th birthday).
Related: Kendra Wilkinson Visits The E.R. On Her Wedding Anniversary
Thankfully, neurosurgeon Dr. Keith L. Black was able to remove “99.9 percent of it” and told Maria that the tumor was, in fact, benign. Phew! Nonetheless, the Massachusetts native will have to stay vigilant when it comes to her brain as her tumor could grow back.
She added:

“He said there’s a six to seven percent chance that we’ll see it come back. But I’ll take those odds any day.”

Preach. And now, Maria is happily recovering at home alongside her fiancé, Keven Undergaro. On her current condition, Maria dished:

“I don’t have my balance fully yet but as long as I’m holding on to Keven, I’m sturdy and fine. My face is still numb. This is something that takes at least a month of healing, but I’m getting stronger and stronger every day and I’ll be back to normal very soon.”

Bless. As for Maria’s mother, well Litsa’s cancer appears “to be shrinking” with physicians having called it “stable.”
At the end of the day, this whole experience was a positive one for Maria as she concluded:

“I saw all of this as a gift from the beginning. 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. Who knows what could have happened?”

Well said. We’re sending only good thoughts Maria and Litsa’s ways as they continue to recover from their respective health issues.
[Image via Instagram.]