[FireWire]

From CNN:

(CNN) -- It may not be the most appetizing reading before a hearty holiday meal, but the New England Journal of Medicine is devoting part of its Thanksgiving issue to a giant hairball -- and not the feline kind.

The prestigious journal details the case of a previously healthy 18-year-old woman who consulted a team of gastrointestinal specialists.

She complained of a five-month history of pain and swelling in her abdomen, vomiting after eating and a 40-pound weight loss.

After a scan of the woman's abdomen showed a large mass, doctors lowered a scope through her esophagus.

It revealed "a large bezoar occluding nearly the entire stomach," wrote Drs. Ronald M. Levy and Srinadh Komanduri, gastroenterologists at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.

For the uninitiated, a bezoar is a hairball.

"On questioning, the patient stated that she had had a habit of eating her hair for many years -- a condition called trichophagia," they wrote.

"It seemed like she'd been doing this for several years," Levy told CNN.

Impressive picture of the offender: (not really disgusting, but just to be sure I hid it in a spoiler tag)

 

Wow!

[Aquataris]

...Vaguely looks like a Thanksgiving turkey! Who's hungry?

[JoshuaZ]

Once again, please don't eat your hair people. Good lord. On the upside she lost 40 lbs and the hair had to be another 10 lbs. Killer weight loss program.

[FireWire]

Haha! Anybody else thinks it looks like the missing leg from a giant tarantula?

[abbaZaba]

hair that has fallen off from other people, especially when wet, grosses me out like none other. I really cannot stand it. that picture makes my stomach turn and I just ate thanksgiving dinner.

[Aquataris]

Originally Posted by abbaZaba 

hair that has fallen off from other people, especially when wet, grosses me out like none other. I really cannot stand it. that picture makes my stomach turn and I just ate thanksgiving dinner.

Yet you saw that pretty spoiler tag and just HAD to click it.

[His Dudeness]

Hopefully no short curlies in there.

[Eug]

I've actually seen one of these in real life before, in a medical museum.

It's usually in people with some sort of psychiatric disorder, cuz... well... most people don't generally eat their hair I guess.

This is what it looks like on X-ray.

[Face Ache]

Originally Posted by Eug 

I've actually seen one of these in real life before, in a medical museum.

I've watched one being pulled out of a 12 year old girl. Stank the whole theatre out.

Chewing your hair is a nasty habit, huh?

[andi*pandi]

I knew what this was about before clicking, the office already ewwwed over it last week.

We're gonna have a helluva nasty clinical images calendar this year.

[Lateralus]

...wow.