Cat owner says she was left horrified after tummy pains turned out to be 'giant fur ball'
A cat owner says she was left horrified when pains she was suffering in her lower abdomen turned out to be a giant fur ball growing inside her.
Writing for XOJane, Michelle Barrow said she had suffered a ‘tummy ache’ for about a month and reported it at a gynaecologist appointment.
Ms Barrow had been using an intrauterine device (IUD) and her doctor assumed tampon fibres had become stuck around the device.
Instead, she claims the pains were caused by her allowing her cats, Cricket and Donut, to sleep with her in bed.
“She began the exam and immediately starts muttering to herself ‘what is that? I’ve never seen anything like that. What the heck IS that thing?” she wrote.
She claimed the doctor tried to dislodge the mysterious lump and called for assistance from a nurse to cut it out.
“With her tweezers she holds up a glob about 2 inches long that looks distinctly furry and happens to be the exact same color as Donut,” Ms Barrow wrote.
“The doctor is waiting for me to say something but the only thought running through my head is: Holy s*** that is cat hair, there has been a ball of hair inside of me for a month.”
Ms Barrow said lab test results described the hair ball as a ‘foreign object’.
She blamed her bed sheets for the disturbing find.
“I’m not very good at making the bed each day so Cricket and Donut have free reign,” she said.
She said the tummy ache discovery had lasting effects: “I no longer let the cats on the sheets".
Ms Barrow’s story has been dismissed as a hoax or cat lady parody however magazine writer Maureen O’Connor claimed she was persuaded once she spoke to Michelle.
When asked if she understood why people might not believe the story, Ms Burrow said it’s not something she would make up.
'Now I wish I'd taken a picture of it,' she told NY Magazine.
