2004-08-07 - 6:17 a.m.
Disturbing conversation I overheard at the airport:
Woman 1: ... had just this little sort of birthmark thing on her back, and another on her thigh. And within a year that had joined up and become a tumour that weighed 200 pounds!
Woman 2: Couldn't the doctors remove it?
Woman 1: They were afraid to.
Woman 2: 200 pounds?
Woman 1: And she only weighed 125 pounds herself. She'd wake up and the tumour would be ten pounds heavier just overnight! It was sucking all the nourishment out of her! It was like she was growing out of a wall of tumour!
Womand 2: That's terrible.
They then went on to talk about sweater lint (specifically the removal thereof), without providing any of the additional information I wanted about poor Wall of Tumour Woman. Was this someone W1 knew personally, or just something she'd heard, or seen on one of those medical documentary shows on the Learning Channel that my housemates won't let me watch anymore? Why exactly were the doctors afraid to remove it? Did they suspect some sort of independent consciousness in the tumour? Is it even possible to have a tumour that weighs more than you do? If so, how does one go about preventing it?
I may actually be forced to go and Google "200 pound tumour".
Update: Eew. My advice is to never google "200 pound tumour". It's just not worth the trauma...
