With a hugely swollen belly and suffering heartburn, the 53-year-old from Ashburton would get comments from people.
Customers at her New World workplace, where she is a night filler, would even ask her if she was expecting.
‘‘No, I’m just fat,’’ she would joke.
Her symptoms began about two years ago, when she started slowly gaining weight.
In August last year, she felt rib pain when she coughed. It was minor, but bad enough to make her wonder if she had perhaps cracked a rib.
By February, she was getting larger and suffering reflux.
Her symptoms were a mystery.
She wondered if hormone changes as a result of being post-menopausal were responsible, or whether she may have gall bladder issues.
Dickson went to her doctor who put her on medication for indigestion after blood tests came back clear.
It put her mind at rest. But the weight gain continued.
Once again, she told herself it must be due to being post menopausal.
Having always had a good appetite, she wondered if she was eating too much.
‘‘My grandmother said: ‘It will catch up on you one day’. I thought it had.’’
So she cut down, something she found easy, as her abdomen felt so full there wasn’t much room to fit food in anyway.
But she continued to get bigger.
She did not have pain, just discomfort. If she sat on the ground, she found it hard to get back up and had difficulty tying her shoelaces.
‘‘I felt like I was full-term pregnant,’’ she said.
‘‘I would joke with my workmates: ‘It’s my baby’.’’
But those workmates – alongside friends, family and a couple of regular customers – felt something was not right.
They urged Dickson to get back to her GP. Dickson is grateful they did.
This time when she saw her doctor in May, he noticed something was not right.
As he felt her tummy, he could hear fluid. He referred her for an ultrasound, which she had the following week.
Further scans followed and she had surgery in June. The culprit was revealed to be a 38cm-wide ovarian cyst. It was full of 21 litres of fluid and weighed about 21kg.
Surgeons removed the cyst, and to ensure it or any related conditions did not return, gave her a full hysterectomy.
Dickson said it had been a relief to find out the cyst was not cancerous.
‘‘It was quite scary at the start. ’’
More than 20kg lighter after the surgery, she is today enjoying family life with husband Mark and their two adult children.
‘‘I feel really good, I certainly feel lighter!’’
She hopes by sharing her story she raises awareness of ovarian cysts.
Sometimes initial tests might not reveal what is going on, and it’s important people go back to their GP if they are not sure.
‘‘It was quite a roller coaster really,’’ she said of her health journey.
