Relieved another anaesthetist yesterday for a lunch break during her gyne list. The surgeons were just starting an operation to remove a large ovarian cyst from some poor lady who’s probably been embarrassed about the weight gain in her tummy for years. This thing was enormous. I can’t show you a picture because that would be unethical, but strangely enough there’s no shortage of photos on the internet that you can find on a cursory Google. It looked like this in situ:
And once it was out, almost exactly like this:
except our surgical team were all women and I can’t imagine they’d pose with it like this. They did have the hospital photographer in there though, so who knows what pics they took after I left? Although our ethical rules are very strict so I don’t imagine those photos will end up on the web anytime soon. I was only in there for half an hour but I still managed to win the weight sweepstake – my guess was 15 kg and it was actually 16 kg (for comparison, the one in the bottom photo was 18 kg).
You’ll be pleased to know these tumours are almost always benign.