Call it a rebirth.
A 20-year-old Florida woman is celebrating the removal of her 104-pound ovarian cyst that held about 46 liters of fluid.
Allison Fisher told a local Jacksonville TV station it felt like she was “pregnant with 10 kids.”
“I let myself believe that if I ignored it, it would go away,” Fisher recounted to Action News Jax.
“I was scared. I was just really scared.”
She claimed to News4Jax that she started a menstrual cycle in 2020 that lasted an entire year.
She said she avoided seeing doctors about the problem because in the past, her health issues were dismissed as complications of being overweight. She eventually understood it was a serious matter.
“I started to see other people coming forward on social media about their ovarian masses and their problems with their cycles, and I started to realize that something was not right with my stomach,” Fisher told the outlet.
“As I looked closer at it, I realized that it was rock hard. I couldn’t lay on it. I felt like all my organs were being crushed. I looked like I was extremely pregnant.”
She told the news station that she couldn’t stand for more than five minutes, nor drive a car due to the sheer size of her midsection.
Fisher said she was also scared to see a doctor as this was happening during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fisher said her mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2021, which eventually spurred Fisher to seek medical treatment the following year.
Doctors discovered the large benign ovarian mass infiltrating her reproductive area.
Shortly thereafter, she was in the emergency room being operated on by Dr. Martin Martino, a gynecologic oncologist at Ascension St. Vincent’s.
“When we met in the emergency room, she was short of breath,” Martino told the station. “It was right before Christmas. [While she was] lying on her side, I said, ‘Now’s the time, let’s do this.'”
Pulmonary and cardiology specialists were on hand as well, he added.
“We came together and said, ‘Let’s figure out a way to remove this,'” Martino explained.
Physician assistant Nicole Antenucci emphasized that the procedure, which involved robotic technology, “truly took a team.”
“We all just felt so lucky to be able to be a part of it and help her and now be part of her journey moving forward,” Antenucci said.
Fisher said it feels like she has a “second chance” at life.
“I can see my feet again, I haven’t been able to do that in years,” she said. “I can stand a little bit longer.”
She admitted she is still working to regain her strength, as the cyst “destroyed” her back.
“I feel so much lighter, I feel like a person,” Fisher continued. “I can wear clothes, I can do things that normal people can do. Now, moving forward, I am in the beginning stages of weight-loss surgery, and I am really excited for what life has in store for me.”
Fisher’s ovarian mass is one of the largest recorded in recent years. Last year, a Brazilian woman had her 100-pound ovarian cyst removed after reportedly living with it for five years.
Two years ago, a Texas woman realized her belly fat was actually a 17-pound stomach tumor.
