Doctors surgically removed a massive 50-pound ovarian cyst from a woman in Montgomery, Alabama after months of pain in her stomach and inexplicable weight gain.
Kayla Rahn, 30, had been having difficulty even with daily tasks for months, which turned out to be due to an ovarian mass that remained undetected despite its size.
Finding, Removing The Cyst
According to a report from WSFA, health professionals told her to lose weight to address the challenges she was facing.
"I couldn't even walk to my car without losing my breath," Rahn recalls to WSFA. "I had been trying to lose weight for about a year, but I was gaining weight."
The weight gain was so significant that people assumed she was pregnant, with one person even asking her if she was expecting twins. Rahn describes the experience as "frustrating and rough."
In May, the pain became so excruciating that her mother brought her to the emergency room at Jackson Hospital. There, Rahn finally found the reason for her suffering: a huge mass in one of her ovaries.
As soon as the diagnosis was confirmed, Rahn was rushed to the surgery table where doctors operated on her and removed the 50-pound cyst from her body.
Jackson Hospital OB-GYN Dr. Gregory Jones explains it's technically referred to as a mucinous cystadenoma, which is known as benign. While it's not an entirely new sight for him, he admits that the size surprised the medical team.
"This is one of the largest I have ever seen or certainly removed," Jones says. "We are very excited things went well for her."
The surgery allows Rahn to return home without her 50-pound burden. Not only will she be able to achieve tasks with less difficulty, but she says she is now able to wear clothes she hasn't been able to sport in a year.
An Even Larger Cyst
Rahn's 50-pound ovarian cyst comes after another incident in Connecticut that had doctors removing a 132-pound ovarian cyst from an anonymous 38-year-old woman in February.
CNN reports that the operation took 12 surgeons and five hours to complete at the Danbury Hospital. About 6 pounds of abdominal wall tissue and skin were also removed, as it was stretched by the size of the tumor.
While benign, ultra-large tumors such as this one can threaten the patients' lives by compressing blood vessels due to its massive size and eventually developing blood clots.