Northland woman Joanne Phillips is grateful to life-saving pothole which prompted her to seek medical treatment

Whangārei woman Joanne Phillips will be forever grateful for the gnarly pothole on one of Northland’s main state highways that helped her discover a life-threatening mass in her pelvis.

After several years of symptoms and previous attempts to get a diagnosis failed, it was a humble pothole in the Far North that finally resulted in the 62-year-old getting the treatment she needed.

Phillips and her husband hit the now-lauded pothole during a trip north in their motorhome in July.

“Sometimes we moan about the roads, and they are in a shocking condition, but if we hadn’t hit that pothole, I wouldn’t have known it [the mass] was in there,” she said.

“It could have ended up being very dangerous.

“There was a blessing in it.”

Whangārei woman Joanne Phillips is grateful to the pothole that caused her pain and prompted her to seek medical treatment. Doctors found a 10cm mass in her pelvis.

Phillips and her husband were on their way to Kaikohe to get a certificate of fitness for their motorhome two weeks after selling their house in Hikurangi.

The couple had travelled through Whangārei and were nearing the Puketona Junction at the intersection of SH10 and 11 just south of Kerikeri when she remembered a pothole by the bridge.

“I reminded my husband to take it easy over the bridge ... but we flew over it and hit this pothole.

“It felt like my ribcage and my hipbone had pinched, and I yelped out in pain. I thought I had put my back out.”

Later that day Phillips was feeling “uncomfortable but not too bad”.

But in the days that followed she was still feeling discomfort, including a “heaviness in the lower part of my belly”.

“The pain came and went in intensity, and I wasn’t feeling too good.”

Her husband took her to Whangārei Hospital’s emergency department on July 28 but she was sent home, she said.

“I’d had this pain before in 2019 and went to the ED twice and was told it was diverticulitis [inflammation in one or more small pouches in the digestive tract].”

Three days later she returned to the hospital and this time the doctor sent her for a CT scan.

Phillips was also referred for an ultrasound and blood test to see if there were any cancer indicators.

The tests confirmed she had a “solid 10cm ovarian mass” weighing 110 grams growing inside her.

Though benign, “it was loosely torted around its pedicle twice, so it could have turned out nasty and life-threatening,” she said.

Phillips, who now lives in Onerahi, had to have the mass removed along with a total hysterectomy and appendectomy.

When she was told of her diagnosis she said to the surgeon: “Well God bless the potholes.”

“If we hadn’t gone over the pothole and I hadn’t gone into pain I wouldn’t have known it was there.

“It could have gotten a hell of a lot worse.”

Te Tai Tokerau obstetrician Ian Page said an ovarian cyst is a fluid-filled sac that develops inside a woman’s ovary.

He praised Phillips for “seeking immediate medical attention”.

“Fortunately, most ovarian cysts are non-cancerous, cause no symptoms and will often go away without needing treatment.

However, in less than five per cent of cases, they can rupture, twist, bleed or become infected – all of which are likely to cause pain and sometimes nausea and vomiting.

“Ms Phillips certainly did the right thing to seek immediate medical attention.”

In hindsight, Phillips said she noticed changes in her bowel and “waterworks” in 2018 but put it down to ageing.

Her appetite had dropped off 10 months before the pothole saga.

Her message “for women of all ages” is to seek help when you notice changes in your body.

“Push to have extra tests done. Don’t let them send you home saying you’ve got diverticulitis.

“It’s a warning for everybody.”

Jenny Ling is a news reporter and features writer for the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering health, food, lifestyle, business and animal welfare issues.