Florida woman, 20, develops ovarian tumor the size of an EXERCISE BALL trends now
A 20-year-old woman from Florida has had an ovarian cyst the size of an exercise ball removed from her abdomen.
Allison Fisher, from Jacksonville, said the tumor was so large she felt like she was pregnant with ten children and could no longer bend over or see her feet.
She regularly faced stomach pain, bloating and even had a period that lasted an entire year. But the Florida native put off seeing doctors, fearing the costs and hoping that it would just 'go away'.
She finally decided to see medics after her mother got cancer and she diagnosed the giant ovarian cyst and sent her for surgery to have it removed.
It measured 20inches by 20inches, about the size of an exercise ball or extra large watermelon, and weighed 104lbs, accounting for a fifth of her bodyweight.
Allison Fisher, 20, from Jacksonville in Florida, had a tumor so large that it weighed 104lbs and was about the size of an exercise ball. She is pictured above before surgery to remove the tumor
Ms Fisher said that having the tumor removed has 'saved my life' and made her feel 'like a person' again.
She told local station News4Jax: 'Well, for starters, I can see my feet again, and I haven't been able to do that in years.
'I feel so much lighter. I feel like a person, I can wear clothes, I can do things that normal people can do.'
Ms Fisher said she is now learning to drive. She is also working towards getting gastric bypass surgery to help with her weight.
Before getting the tumor removed she weighed 500lbs, which has now dropped to 400lbs. She is aiming to get her weight down to 150lbs to 200lbs.
Doctors say they have also managed to save Ms Fisher's fertility because during the surgery they managed to save her left ovary.
Ms Fisher first became concerned something wasn't right when she was 14 years old, but doctors told her to lose weight and even made her join weight watchers.
Her menstrual cycle began when she was 17. It lasted for a year and stopped, before returning later abnormally heavy. She has never had a regular period,
BEFORE AND AFTER: Ms Fisher shown before and after she had the surgery to remove the tumor. Immediately afterward she was 100lbs lighter, equivalent to losing about a fifth of her bodyweight
Ms Fisher (in red dress) is now learning to drive and says she plans to get weight loss surgery. She is shown above with Dr Martin Martino who led the surgery. Also pictured are Nicole Antenucci (left), physician assistant, and Kendall Bugbee (right), registered nurse
In 2020, she started to experience stomach pains and faced a period that lasted for an entire year.
But she put off seeing doctors because she had no health insurance and feared they would just tell her to lose weight.
Her mother Eileen was diagnosed with cancer in 2021. Ms Fisher said it was after watching everything that her mother had battled through that she decided to see doctors again.
By this point, she was being asked by strangers whether she was pregnant and her stomach had become rock-hard.
She went to Ascension St. Vincent's Riverside hospital in Jacksonville in November where scans detected the tumor but found it was not cancerous. Doctors recommended she had surgery.
Just before Christmas, she was rushed back into the ER there after suffering a bleed from her vagina that was so bad she thought she was having a hemorrhage.
Doctors then rushed her through to the operating theatre to get the tumor
