Flying Long Haul With An Ovarian Cyst

I had an ovarian cyst and didnt realise when i flew. Unfortunately mine was excrutiating haha. If it causes no pain i dont think it will be a massive problem. Mine was a fluid filled one aswell x

Was yours a large one? Did you have it removed?

I feel so lucky that it is not painful as it seems that everyone else has pain! Although that does also worry me a little as well! LOL

Yeah mine was a 12cm one aswell. I did i had my surgery in october. They had to do open surgery though due to the size. They also had to take out my ovary and tube cause the cyst had done so much damage. I know someone that had like 2 stone cyst and had absolutely no idea she had it. Absolutely crazy lol x

Oh no! I am terrified of it having done any damage to my ovary...I don't have any kids yet and so I still want to use them!! lol

Have you recovered now? Did they tell you how much your cyst weighed?

the 2 stone cyst is mental! How could you not know?! haha I bet she was happy when she had it taken out...suddenly 2 stone lighter would suit me! hahaa

Hi tb

I was diagnosed with a 12x9cm dermoid cyst 2 weeks before my holiday. My consultant said I was ok to fly but I was to check the medical facilities abroad and my insurance cover in case of any problems! When asked if I had experienced any pain and I said I had he advised me not to travel just in case. I cancelled my holiday and was able to have my op really quickly after...just as well as the cyst had traces of blood and was possibly starting to rupture!

A fluid cyst I believe is different to a dermoid....I would definitely wait to ask the gynae before making any decisions.

Good Luck.

I know i wouldnt have minded losing 2 stone haha. Im the same only 24 and no kiddies yet but they said it shouldnt affect it at all because my other one is fine. Actually pretty nice having regular periods for a change haha. Yeah im all recovered now. Dr said it would be 3 months recovery because of the type of surgery i had but j was back at work after 2 x

Thanks so much Freddie! Thats really useful - what type of pain did you have? Mine (touch wood) has not been painful at all. I have had some very minor feelings sometimes in my belly button but that's about it. They were not painful feelings, just odd.

I think you are right with the dermoid cysts and fluid cysts... I hope that you are ok now? How awful that it could have ruptured whilst you were away! I hope you got to reschedule!

My uncle owns an insurance firm so was able to get me a really good policy covering me for everything which was great of him, it all for me it was expensive but worth it for the cover. Hopefully it does not come to that!

Laura - I have not even had weird periods! I have had perhaps more painful periods but that is it... I bet you are enjoying having a regular cycle! :-)

It must have been awful being off for so long? I think I would go crazy! Glad you are ok now?

Yeah me too haha. Good luck with everything hun hope it all goes well x

^^^ Thank you!! :-)

Hi tb53756

Just saw your message about whether to fly or not. When I first went to my Dr about swelling in my

abdomen he said first thing to do was to get an ultrasound scan. I told him I was going on holiday the following week and he said I should cancel the holiday until it was known what was wrong.

I had various appointments before my surgery some 8 weeks later. If I had gone away on holiday I might have missed the dates for these MRI and CT scans plus various appointments for blood tests etc. So in essence if you go away and need medical help abroad you won't be treated by specialists here who have your medical records to hand. Also the problem of missing out on appointments means you go to to bottom of the waiting list for surgery.

This may also mean that if you did have any cancer ( heaven forbid ) it will have more time to spread. I'm glad I postponed my holiday because if I hadn't done so the surgeon may not have caught my cancer in time. My future health may have been in jeopardy and I wasn't going to risk that for anything.

Don't mean to spook you but In my experience it was the right decision for me to postpone the holiday. I didn't find out that my ovary was cancerous until 2 weeks after surgery.

Ann

Hi tb

Didn't really have any major pain just weird discomfort, such as mild cramps, back ache, needing a wee all the time & never feeling empty after a poo!! I did have a few twinges which took my breath away but these didn't last long & were so few & far between didn't really think too much about it...thought it was trapped wind!!!

There was 1 bout of pain about a week before my scan where i couldn't sit down as it felt as if there was something inside me, that lasted about 2 hours! When I told the consultant that, he advised me to cancel as he didn't like the description i gave!!

I had a laparotomy and at the time it was very painful but i'm fully healed with no complications. All the side effects that I experienced are now gone!!

I would def check with ins company whether you would be covered because if you are on a wait list or awaiting treatment they may exclude that particular condition.

Good luck x

Thank you so much for your responses Ann/Freddie! There is nothing online about this stuff so I really appreciate hearing from you! It really helps! :-)

I have already had two scans and several appointments, this has now been going on for four weeks for me. It is really disappointing as if they had diagnosed me correctly the first appointment I had, I could have already had my surgery! (I was diagnosed as 5 months pregnant at first!!)

With regard to insurance, fortunately, my uncle runs an insurance firm and he very kindly put together my insurance policy so I was definitely covered and everything declared. I didn't want to run the risk of certain things being excluded etc. It was quite expensive but it will be worth it if I have to cancel and of course there isn't a price on health! If I am advised not to fly tomorrow then I will not go on the trip. I couldn't risk it!

I am so pleased that you are both ok now!!

Ann, did they catch everything in time? I hope nothing had spread??

and Freddie, did you have to wait long for your surgery?

Hi tb53756,

Yes I was one of the lucky ones the cancer was very small and was taken away with the ovarian cyst. I was surrounded by other patients in the ward that were not as fortunate as me and had varying degrees of cancer that had spread so they would be needing further surgery.

But I was only told about the cancer at an appointment some 2 weeks after surgery. Immediately after the surgery the surgeon had told me that he hadn't seen any cancer at all but he would know for sure once all the bits and pieces had been examined more fully by the histology department. So it was only at the 2 week later check up I was told. I was stunned because I hadn't even given cancer a second thought. Not for one moment did I think I had it. Naturally I was thrilled for myself, but saddened at the other women that had been in my ward that hadn't got such good news.

So give it serious thought before holidaying and postponing possible surgery.

Ann XX