A woman was stunned to discover she had a cyst the size of a football in her stomach - after people kept asking if she was pregnant.
Abi Chadwick, 19, ballooned from a size 12 to a size 18 within a few months and carried most of her weight around her stomach - but couldn’t work out why.
The care assistant then went on a diet and lost one stone, but she couldn't shift the bulge from her protruding stomach.
Confused Abi said she would feel sick and full after just a slice of toast.
She desperately try to slim down when people started to tell her she looked nine months pregnant.
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But when she started experiencing sharp pain in her stomach in March 2021, doctors finally discovered she had a 13-inch cyst in her abdomen.
Terrified Abi had the mass removed two weeks later at Walsall Manor Hospital, West Midlands, before it ruptured.
Abi from Cannock, Staffordshire, said: “My stomach was rock hard and when I used to go out to the shops people used to tell me I looked nine months pregnant.
"It made me feel bad because I couldn't lose the weight even though I wanted to.
"I was relieved when I was told it was a cyst the size of a football. I just wanted it gone."
Abi first noticed something wasn’t right when she gained two stone – and couldn’t work out why.
She said: “Every time I had two mouthfuls of toast I would be absolutely stuffed - I couldn't figure out why.
“I couldn’t eat anymore so that really took its toll.
“People kept telling me I was pregnant, and I thought it was just because I was fat and there was nothing I could do so I brushed it off.
“I can understand why they said it though now because I didn’t look like I had done.
“But in the moment you don’t think anything of it."
But in March, 2021 Abi started experiencing severe pain in her stomach so she sought medical help.
Abi said: “I had what felt like a stitch in my right side and it was agony. I couldn’t really walk or bend over.
“I went to work, and they thought I had a UTI but everything was normal after I got tested.
“The pain didn’t stop so I went to A&E and they thought it was appendicitis or kidney stones.
“But after getting checked over again they couldn’t find anything, I didn’t know what to do.”
Doctors finally scanned Abi’s abdomen and were shocked to find a huge cyst sitting in her stomach.
Abi said: “I couldn’t believe it when they told me.
“They said I had cyst in my abdomen which needed to be removed.
“I was probably born with it and it just grew and grew and I never knew.
“If I had left it and it ruptured it could have been really bad.
“I always had a bit of a pudge underneath my belly, but I thought that was just the way I was.
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“Looking back now, I don’t know how I didn’t notice that something was up.”
Abi finally had the cyst taken out at Wallsall Manor Hospital, West Midlands, on April 13 2021.
She said: “I was so relieved when I finally got it removed and I feel like myself again.
“I’m yet to see anyone that’s had one that big.
“I thought the cyst would be small and it would go but I realised my stomach was all cyst.
“I’m glad I don’t look pregnant anymore, but I can’t believe I was walking around like that for so long.”
