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Speaker 1: It is Kiss FM. See christ with you. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: having us on. I've got some Jonahs Brothers tickets coming

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Speaker 1: up in just a minute, but I want to shift

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Speaker 1: gears and bring in Maria Manunos. Who's uh Maria? How

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Speaker 1: long do you think We've known each other? Over twenty years? Right?

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Speaker 2: Oh? For sure? How are you?

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Speaker 1: I'm doing well? Thank you for asking and thank you

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Speaker 1: for calling. We saw the just to sort of get

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Speaker 1: into it. First, we saw the news that you shared

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Speaker 1: with everybody just the other day that you were diagnosed

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Speaker 1: with stage two pancreatic cancer in January. And I'm wondering

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Speaker 1: when you were told that news, what was your reaction.

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Speaker 2: Your first reaction, Yeah, well, it's a neuroendocrint humor that's

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Speaker 2: on the pancreas. And when the doctor told me I

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Speaker 2: it was so crazy because there's so many steps before that.

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Speaker 2: It's like, first it was a radiologist who found the mass,

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Speaker 2: and of my first words to him was like, oh cool,

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Speaker 2: so I'm a goner. And then I rushed off to UCLA.

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Speaker 2: They confirmed the MRI, and then I had a biopsy

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Speaker 2: and they came back and they're like, it's definitely something.

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Speaker 2: And then when you know it's definitely something. And you

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Speaker 2: know what you know, which is the limited stuff we

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Speaker 2: know about pancreas cancer is that it comes with uh swift, swift, aggressiveness,

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Speaker 2: and it's not usually a good result. It's it was terrifying.

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Speaker 2: I was horrified. And I saw you just days later,

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Speaker 2: by the way, because when I came to Live to

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Speaker 2: announce the baby.

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Speaker 1: My gosh, you just found out and yes, and you

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Speaker 1: were having I just found out. Oh my gosh, Oh

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Speaker 1: my god.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And so I made a conscious decision to come

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Speaker 2: because I turned around. So the story is I was

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Speaker 2: going home to Connecticut earlier to be with my dad.

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Speaker 2: I was so sad. I didn't want to tell him,

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Speaker 2: but I just want to be around him. And then

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Speaker 2: we were going to drive into the city to see

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Speaker 2: you guys and do the show. And as I was

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Speaker 2: driving to the airport, I was having a lot of

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Speaker 2: pain and I was like, oh my gosh, I have

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Speaker 2: to turn around. They turned around. I didn't know if

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Speaker 2: I was going to end up doing the show. And

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Speaker 2: then Sunday night, I started to feel a little better,

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Speaker 2: and I said, Kevin, we need to shift this narrative

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Speaker 2: and we need joy and we need love. Right now,

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Speaker 2: and this baby deserves to have excitement around it and

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Speaker 2: not sadness. And that's why we went well.

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Speaker 1: And I mean, I remember, it's amazing you don't know

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Speaker 1: what people are going through because I remember sitting next

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Speaker 1: to you, Kevin, right there in the audience and you

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Speaker 1: announced that you guys are having a baby together, baby girl,

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Speaker 1: via surrogate, and we were so Remember Kelly, I was

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Speaker 1: so elated, like it was just there was so much

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Speaker 1: excitement there. So Maria, what's happening now? Like where are

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Speaker 1: you and what are they telling you? And what can

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Speaker 1: we know?

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Speaker 2: So now I am doing great, thank God, and recovering

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Speaker 2: from surgery. They got it all out. It was what

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Speaker 2: they call well differentiated, so it was in one area

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Speaker 2: they got clean margins. They tested everything. The pathology came back,

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Speaker 2: all the lymph nodes, the spleen, the part of the

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Speaker 2: pancreas they removed. Everything was negative. And so now they

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Speaker 2: just have to do scans in six months to just

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Speaker 2: make sure and then from there it's every year. So

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Speaker 2: it's just observing and making sure everything's fine.

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Speaker 1: It's something that I'm just thinking about how you reacted

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Speaker 1: to this, and you kind of made a joke. I mean,

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Speaker 1: in that moment, right, you said, oh I'm a goner. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean I will. Yeah, how we would process and

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Speaker 1: handle this kind of news. I've had it happen with

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Speaker 1: my family, and I've seen my family react to cancer,

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Speaker 1: but you do wonder, like, how would you react? And

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Speaker 1: I'm also thinking about the fact that you're gonna be

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Speaker 1: joined by this baby in what weeks? Months? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, baby's coming this summer.

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Speaker 1: The greatest, the greatest, most bright, joy full, amazing thing

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Speaker 1: to happen to you and Kevin is coming. And this

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Speaker 1: doesn't this doesn't shade that at all, right, it did.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, it did at the time. So at

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Speaker 2: first I kind of cracked a joke, and then I

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Speaker 2: had to calm the guy down and like and console

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Speaker 2: him because he felt so bad giving me this news.

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Speaker 2: And when we left and we got confirmation the next morning,

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Speaker 2: I woke up and I was just kind of looking

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Speaker 2: at my icons on my mantle where I pray, and

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Speaker 2: I just started guttural crying because I was like, I

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Speaker 2: can't believe you would finally bless me with a baby, God,

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Speaker 2: and then you would take me before I get to

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Speaker 2: meet her. And it was crushing. Oh my gosh. Of

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Speaker 2: course I was terrified. But then at some point I

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Speaker 2: realized I didn't know the end to the story, so

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Speaker 2: I couldn't start projecting it, and I didn't want to

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Speaker 2: prophesize and catastrophize, and so I shifted and said, like

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Speaker 2: my favorite Christmas movie, Santa Claus is coming to town.

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Speaker 2: I'm just going to put one foot in front of

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Speaker 2: the other and I'm going to literally just take it

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Speaker 2: day by day, step by step. And the crazy thing

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Speaker 2: is Riy Is my best friend called me. She texted

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Speaker 2: me in January. She goes, I need to talk to

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Speaker 2: you tonight. Some news I need to share. And I go,

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Speaker 2: oh my gosh, so do I and I sat down

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Speaker 2: and we talked and she goes, I have stage one

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Speaker 2: breast cancer and I'm like what. And then when she

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Speaker 2: was done, I was like, well, not to one up you,

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Speaker 2: but this is what I'm dealing with. And so the

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Speaker 2: two of us were going through it together and we

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Speaker 2: had each other. So it was a wild time. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: it definitely was tough. But then, like I said, we

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Speaker 2: came to do live and you guys filled this with

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Speaker 2: so much joy. Your audience filled this with so much joy,

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Speaker 2: and from then on it was just about recovering from

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Speaker 2: surgery or getting through surgery, recovering. My dad was here

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Speaker 2: with me. He took such good care of me, cooked

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Speaker 2: for me, made me laugh. We played Uno every night,

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Speaker 2: and you.

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Speaker 1: Just love and Skippo the spinoff.

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Speaker 2: Awesome too.

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Speaker 1: But you know, I mean, I I do look at

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Speaker 1: you like family and we've worked together. I'm in friends

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Speaker 1: for so many years and I had no idea. That's

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Speaker 1: the thing. You just got to realize that you just

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Speaker 1: don't know what people are going through. And to hear

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Speaker 1: that you've made it to the side of the surgery,

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Speaker 1: you've recovered, and that baby's gonna be You're gonna have

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Speaker 1: your family in just a couple of months. That's uh.

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Speaker 1: That fills our hearts with joy and exciting. And I

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Speaker 1: know you're doing a lot of great talking about this

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Speaker 1: on your podcast Heel Squad. You can check that out

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Speaker 1: with Mariam and Nuns and stay close. We'll be in touch.

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Speaker 1: And big hugs to Kevin too. Thank you for coming on, Maria, Thank.

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Speaker 2: You, Thank you, guys. Love you really appreciate you. Thank you,

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Speaker 2: thank you, Talk.

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Speaker 1: Soon, bye, Maria. It's amazing to think that she had

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Speaker 1: she knew she was diagnosed with stage two pink Retta cancer.

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Speaker 1: A couple of days later, she's sitting next to me.

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Speaker 1: We're doing that show, or doing the show. She comes

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Speaker 1: on to announce that she's having a baby. Va surrogate.

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Speaker 1: I've never known, and yet you you just never know,

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Speaker 1: Like you just don't know what's going on right with people.

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Speaker 1: You got to give people the benefit of the doubt

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Speaker 1: when something doesn't seem right. You know, we're so quick

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Speaker 1: to judge. So great that she's sharing this story because

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Speaker 1: it's helping so many people, And I have to tell you,

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Speaker 1: I don't know how I react. Yeah, I mean I would,

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Speaker 1: I would, I don't know. I don't know. I don't

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Speaker 1: know how. Like what's our strength? Strength is everyone's biggest fear,

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Speaker 1: as your health. That's a she said, a very aggressive cancer. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: all right, we are going to shift gears and come

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Speaker 1: back with some tickets to go see the Jonas Brothers

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Speaker 1: at Dodger Stadium.

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Speaker 2: Hang on,