Allison Fisher, a 20-year-old woman from Florida, is lucky to be given the chance for a ‘second life,’ after she was diagnosed with a huge ovarian cysts.

Her  health issues started in 2020, when she started experiencing constant stomach pain. Along with that, her periods became unpredictable and irregular. This raised a red flag. It was obvious something was wrong, but she was hesitant about visiting a doctor because she believed they would tell her it is related to her weight.

“I let myself believe that if I ignored it, it would go away,” Allison told Action New Jax. “I was scared. I was just really scared.”

“[Growing up,] regardless of what I was there for—whether it was a cold or an ear infection, I was always told, ‘you need to lose weight. You need to lose weight,’” she explained. “If no one’s going to listen to me, if they’re always gonna tell me I need to lose weight, then what’s the point of going? What’s the point of listening to my body?”

Over time, she noticed something growing on her stomach. Having stumbled upon articles about ovarian cysts before, she assumed her ‘rock hard’ stomach could be a result of one, and she was right.

“I felt like I was pregnant with 10 kids,” she explained. “I couldn’t lay on my stomach. It felt like all my organs were being crushed.”

Sadly, the cyst grew so big that it started putting pressure on her lungs, affecting her breathing.

Eventually, somewhere around Christmas, 2022, a gynecologic oncology surgeon at Ascension St. Vincent’s, Dr. Martin Martino, told Allison that she was carrying a cyst which was 100 pounds big. It needed to be surgically removed as soon as possible.

“What was really interesting, is that once we removed it, we looked at the other ovary because now we could see it, and the left ovary was twisted three times. That [the left ovary] was about 10 centimeters that really helped us to be able to untwist it and save [Fisher’s] future fertility, and the chance to have kids.” Dr. Martino explained.

Luckily, the surgery was successful and Allison was given a second chance.

I can see my feet again; I haven’t been able to do that in years, I can stand a little bit longer. I feel so much lighter, like a person, I can wear clothes; I can do things that normal people can do. Now, moving forward, I am in the beginning stages of weight-loss surgery, and I am really excited for what life has in store for me,” she shared. Allison hopes her story will serve as a reminder that we should see a doctor whenever we feel unwell. “There are other people out there who are in my shoes, other bigger people, who are just so scared to go to the doctor because of their weight,” she added. “I just want them to know that they shouldn’t be scared.”