Idaho woman has 50-pound tumor removed

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho woman who thought she was gaining weight because of menopause discovered she actually had a 50-pound tumor that had been growing inside her for decades.

Boise television station KTVB reports Brenda Cridland of Meridian chalked up her weight gain to aging, but when her health started to quickly decline about eight months ago she decided to see a doctor.

That's when a CAT scan revealed she had an enormous tumor that had displaced her organs and was cutting off the blood supply to her brain. Cridland said she underwent two-and-a-half hours of surgery to remove the mass, which luckily was benign.

Cridland says she lost 65 pounds in the process, and learned the tumor was caused by undiagnosed endometriosis.