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Thika doctors successfully remove a 16Kg. tumor from patient’s ovary.

Dr. Joseph Mukala (left) and Dr. Moses Njoroge check on Fidelis Wanjiku Mulama after a very successful operation to remove a 16Kg. ovarian cyst that has been a bothering her for over three months.
A team of doctors from a Thika hospital late last week successfully removed a huge ovarian cyst weighing 16kilogrammes from a patient that was almost filling her whole abdomen.

46 year-old Fidelis Wanjiku Mulama had been referred to the Central Memorial Hospital only for the CT scan to revealed that a huge follicular cyst in her abdomen.

While narrating her 3-month ordeal, Mulama explained how she noticed her stomach ‘growing bigger’ and thought that it was something to do with her feeding habits.

“When I noticed that, I immediately started dieting but instead, my stomach continued to grow bigger and bigger until it was no longer bearable,” explained Mulama.

She visited several health centres in Ruiru who told her that she had “water” in her stomach, a condition that could only be handled by specialised doctors.

Due to the nurses’ strike, her only remedy was in the private hospitals.

She arrived at The Central Memorial Hospital bearing back aches, with prolonged pelvic pain and could hardly walk or breathe. The cyst had already started straining some of her internal organs. So, after the scan and diagnosis, the doctors embarked on the momentous task of removing the cyst.

The procedure to remove the cyst took the team of doctors about four hours. Dr. Moses Njoroge, the hospital’s resident obstetric gynecologist who led in the operation pointed out that they needed to prevent any injuries on the organs that the cyst was compressing with its mass. He warned that any form of rapture could risk spreading the cancerous cells to other organs.

“It was a risky procedure because the patient had earlier on gone through a Caesarian section while delivering her second-born child. Secondly, a 16kg cyst requires a lot of caution so as not to rapture its thin lining,” said Dr. Njoroge.

He added that had she delayed further with the cyst, she might have undergone excessive bleeding, subsequently damaging her organs.

“We would have been forced to put her under intensive care first thereby delaying the whole operation,” he said.

A jovial Mulama can now express her joy of being offloaded the 16kg burden off her abdomen. She is now feeding well, gradually getting back to her normal meal portions.

“I feel so good, way much lighter and gradually gaining my strength back,” she sighed with relief.
She advises other women never to ignore any abnormality in their bodies because, as she rightly put it, had she been diagnosed earlier, her case wouldn’t have been as serious as she was this time.

“If you notice any kind of pain or discomfort in your ovary area, you might want to book an appointment with your doctor to get it checked out,” she advises.

Dr. Njoroge describes ovarian cysts basically as a solid or fluid-filled sac or pocket that's found within or on the surface of an ovary.

“One in five women will develop ovarian cyst at some point in their lives and 8% of premenopausal women develop large cysts that need treatment like in the case of Mulama,” explains the doctor.

His colleague Dr. Joseph Mukala who is a general surgeon advises every woman to go for routine screening so that such problems can get detected early.

Research has shown that majority of women develop ovarian cyst during pregnancy. The symptoms do not present themselves and neither the mother nor the foetus is in danger. But if the cysts are over 6-8 cm in size, complications could arise and can be fatal to the mother and the baby.

During a woman’s menstrual cycle, an egg grows in a sac called a follicle that is located inside the ovaries. The follicle or sac is supposed to break open and release an egg. But if the follicle doesn’t break open, the fluid inside the follicle can form a cyst on the ovary and grow up to about seven centimetres in diameter thus necessitating its removal through a surgical procedure.

Most women will experience a cyst on the ovaries at least once, and most are painless, cause no symptoms, and are discovered during a routine pelvic exam. Most ovarian cysts are benign and naturally go away on their own without treatment. These cysts cause little, if any, symptoms.

The symptoms of an ovarian cyst include nausea, vomiting, bloating, painful bowel movements and pain during sex. In rare cases, an ovarian cyst can cause serious problems, so it’s best to have it checked by your doctor.

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