By Curtis Creekmore
In her nineteen years, Sarah Jane Bodell has done a lot. But nothing could have prepared her for what happened just a few months ago.
Bodell’s doctors discovered she had a dermoid tumor, a kind of tumor that forms when a pregnant mother’s hormones are so strong they cause one of her unborn-female baby’s eggs to develop while she is still in the womb.
The egg grows into a semi-fetus – Bodell’s even had teeth, hair and bone fragments.
Just as many young women do, Bodell pays regular visits to her gynecologist. Her first time in a gynecologist’s office, she expected nothing more than a routine check-up. But during the procedure, her gynecologist found something intriguing: Bodell’s uterus was enlarged.
“The only [cause] I knew of for that was to be pregnant,” Bodell said. “So I asked him, ‘Is that what that means?'” The doctor said that was probably the case.
But Bodell said she knew that wasn’t possible. The doctors ran a pregnancy test, which came back negative. The doctor also listened for a heartbeat other than Bodell’s. Nothing.
Perplexed, the gynecologist told her that it was probably an ovarian cyst. From the looks of it, it was the size of an almost four-month fetus.
The doctor told her surgery would be necessary to remove the cyst, but an ultrasound was needed first to confirm his diagnosis.
The following Monday, Bodell underwent the ultrasound, but no one in the office was available to read the ultrasound.
The next day, a phone call from the gynecologist told Bodell that indeed it was a cyst growing on her ovary. Her gynecologist scheduled the surgery for that Friday.
Friday morning rolled around, and at 7 a.m. surgery began. It took a total of 45 minutes from start to finish, whereas normally the procedure takes between an hour and a half to two hours.
But when Bodell’s doctor visited her in recovery, he told her of a shocking development: The growth wasn’t a cyst after all. That’s when Bodell found out she had a dermoid tumor.
Part of the tumor was taken and frozen for pathology. Bodell spent the next four days in the hospital bed, recovering from the surgery.
When Bodell went back to have her stitches removed a week after the surgery, she was very relieved to hear that the tumor was benign. The doctor said her growth was one of the 10 biggest cysts or tumors that he had ever extracted.
Dermoid tumors are rare, but are more common than many people think.
Bodell’s tumor could have caused serious complications if she had gotten pregnant before the tumor was removed. If the mother has a dermoid tumor she must have an abortion during the first half of pregnancy.
During the second half, doctors often allow the birth to take place, but it is likely either the baby, mother, or both will die.
In Bodell’s situation, a baby would not have survived. “The tumor was on the outside, and the baby would be on the inside of the uterus,” Bodell said. “There would be such a pressure on the baby that it wouldn’t survive.”
Always optimistic, Bodell hoped through all of the strife that she might get thinner, but no luck.
“I’m not any smaller – the doctor told me my intestines would just fall back into place,” she said.
The doctor also told her she would have known if it were a cyst. Most people with cysts have horrible pain, and can have erratic periods.
“But I had the perfect period. You could set your watch by it,” Bodell said. “I never had a cramp in my life.”
That ended quickly. She said her first period after the surgery was marked by severe cramping. Doctors prescribed birth control pills, which cooled the hot flashes and relieved some of the menstrual pain.
Though the pain stopped, Bodell was left with scars – physically and emotionally.
“It was pretty devastating to hear that, because my ovary and fallopian tube had to come out, that half of my womanhood was gone,” she said.
“Even if I had kept those, I have this huge scar on my belly. Not like I pranced around in bikinis or anything, but I’m a lot more self-conscious now.”
Her recovery was tough and is a work in progress, but she said she takes it a day at a time.
“The first time at the [gynecologist], you’re nervous. – But me, I go, and seven days later I’m having major surgery. God must hate me,” she joked.
Still, Bodell stresses the importance of regular gynecological check-ups.
“I know a lot of women who never went until they got pregnant, and they were fine,” she said. “But if I had [done that], I would be dead.”
Bodell relies on family and friends to help her through.
Her boyfriend of seven months, Joe Feist, was her rock. “It was pretty traumatic, more for her, definitely,” Feist said.
“It definitely made us closer and it made me more aware of what goes on in the female body.”
Bodell isn’t allowing the surgery to slow her down. She has lofty goals for the future.
She graduated high school with honors, received a full scholarship to the University of Louisville, and recently tried out for College Jeopardy.
“I’m gonna go to Yale Law school, persevere with my one ovary, and sue some [people],” she said.
