Humantics Foundation
Breast Implants: Recovery & Discovery
Humantics Foundation Breast Implants: Recovery & Discovery |
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We dedicate this page & this day to our Sisters, Mothers, Aunts, Neighbors, Friends and other Loved Ones who have not survived the complications of their breast implants ... please visit our Memorial Webpage.
Patty Faussett Karen Curry Terri Peake Shari Halverson Read about Children of Implanted Women Read about CANDO and the Platinum Issue A new study was just published: Breast Implant Surveillance Reports to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Maternal-Child Health Problems Online Support Groups & Chat Rooms Implant Info Net Website & Chatroom Lany's Prayer & Information Group
Recommended Sites of Implanted Women Pamela's Website ~ Human Adjuvant Disease Corporation Gretchen's New Website, My Implant Story In The Know ~ Mary McDonough's site Sally Kirkland ~ Oscar Nominated Actress
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Krista’s story in and out of the world of breast implants Growing Up
My high school and college years, while I was happy, I always felt like I was missing something, like I was never quite a “whole woman.” I’ve always been very petite and even though I knew most women admired this about me, I always hated the comments “you are so tiny,” “you are so skinny.” I can remember in college getting compliments on my body “wow, you have the perfect body,” while I always politely thanked them, I would always think to myself “what are they thinking, how can I have a perfect body, I have no boobs!” I was always constantly and painfully aware of the size of my breasts. I could never find bathing suits or bras that fit. I always had to have so much padding just to be able to fill them out; it was not only embarrassing but uncomfortable! I longed to be able to wear strapless dresses and certain tops without also having to wear bras and padding. I so admired women with big, round breasts and hated my little pointy mosquito bites. Entering Adulthood Upon graduating from college I got involved with a man who would change my life forever. I wanted desperately for him to feel the same way about me as I did him, and when he didn't I convinced myself it was because I had such small breasts. It was at this point in my life that I started seriously considering getting breast implants. I would tell myself “how could a man ever love me or want to marry me with these tiny little things?” I can remember seeing women with large breasts and thinking how much more attractive they were then I was. I was beyond envious and jealous of any woman who had anything larger then an A cup. A few of my friends, people that I knew and family members had starting getting implants around this time, and I thought “well, this is what everyone is doing, so this is what I am going to do too.” I did my research, as most everyone does, and the only negative things I could find about implants were either involving the silicone implants, or minor aesthetic complications with the saline implants that I was told could be easily fixed. The odds seemed so low that anything bad could happen to me, and there simply wasn’t enough to talk me out of it. My life soon became consumed with how I was going to get my implants. I moved back in with my Mom so that I could save every last penny from my measly paycheck. For an entire year I hardly bought anything for myself, I saved everything I could spare. Then, in December of 2003 I had my surgery. I had salines, 360ccs, under the muscle. I went from a barely there 32AA to a nice round 32C. I was so thrilled that I finally had something to put into a bathing suit, a bra, a strapless dress. What a wonderful feeling it was! Adulthood with Implants I married shortly after this (my husband knew me for only 2 months before I got the implants) and he and I re-located to a different state. For 3 years I did not have any health issues with the implants. I did however have minor rippling that goes with having saline implants, I also lost sensitivity in one of my nipples and after 2 years a strange bump developed below the other nipple. I had these things checked out my plastic surgeon who told me I didn’t have anything to worry about, the rippling was common and the bump was just the implant. I was happy with them because I could finally wear the things I wanted to wear, I finally felt like a sexy woman, where before I always felt like a woman trapped in a little girl’s body. I think the most difficult thing about having the implants was meeting new people. Since I had moved to a new state, I had a lot of new people to meet and I always felt uncomfortable, I would always wonder...do they know, how should I tell them, are they wondering, are they talking about me, do they think I'm fake? etc. etc. etc. I was still always painfully aware that they were “not mine.” I contemplated from time and time about getting them removed due to the rippling and odd bump, but always decided against it because I was scared at how I would look. So, I would quickly put those thoughts out of my head. The Problems Begin Then, at the beginning of 2007 I started to develop a minor pain in my left chest area. Around the same time I was also diagnosed with stage 2 hypertension. My doctor thought the left chest pain might be associated with my high blood pressure, many tests (from blood tests, to x-rays, even an electrocardiogram) were run, and they were not able to find anything that would indicate my pain was a symptom of my high blood pressure. The minor pain soon developed into a full-flown left side pain…..arm, hand, fingers, neck, back, etc. About a week or so after that, I woke up with my left implant deflated. Around this same time I also started to develop more strange aches and pains throughout my body, a sort of brain fogginess, abnormal intense fatigue, I just didn't feel right. I decided to keep these feelings to myself because I knew I would need to undergo surgery to either have the implant replaced, or both taken out and I didn't want to deal with the other health problems at the same time. The easiest thing for me at the time was to simply have the implant replaced, which I did, a few weeks later. After getting out of surgery I was simply told by my plastic surgeon that he had found a hole in the back of my implant, and that was all he said. Getting Worse Most of my symptoms subsided for about a week or so after the surgery. However, a week or so later the symptoms came back. The left side pain became unbearable so much so that I could barely get through a day of work. I went back to my doctor; she recommended more tests, physical therapy and massage therapy. I had an electromyogram done to check and make sure my muscles were working correctly on my left side, and to rule out MS. All tests came back normal and I did do PT and MT for a few weeks. For awhile I felt okay (not great, but okay,) but half way through the summer I started to get many of the symptoms back, this time worse then before. My left side pain was so bad I just wanted to cry. My brain felt like it just wasn't working properly and I felt like I was constantly living in a cloud or looking at life through a dirty window. I was so tired all the time and no matter how much sleep I got, I was still tired every moment of the day. Anything physical (cleaning the house, walking around the block, shopping, etc.) would just make me exhausted, to the point where I’d just be in a complete fog. My whole body ached like I had the achy flu, my lymph nodes were extremely swollen, I was having anxiety, I was beyond irritable, hypersensitive to sounds and smells, having a hard time concentrating and learning new things, regular headaches, my hair started falling out, my teeth became extremely sensitive, I was having strange dizzy spells, nausea every day, the list goes on and one. I went back to the doctor....more tests, everything came back normal AGAIN. I was starting to get more and more frustrated not knowing why I didn't feel good. I spent countless hours on the computer trying to research my strange symptoms, then running different possibilities by my doctor. None of my symptoms fit into any particular illness or disease. She had brought up the possibility of my implants causing my problems, but I basically dismissed it because I refused to believe that "salt water" could be causing me all these problems. However, somewhere deep inside I had also been suspecting the implants (even if I refused to accept it.) But like I said, I kept dismissing it because I thought they were safe and could not be making me so sick. Then, in the fall of 2007 when I realized I was still having quite a bit of soreness in my left breast, something just didn’t feel right and I still had no answers, I decided to do a little research. The Light Went On After quite a bit of digging, I was amazed, stunned and shocked at what I found. There were so many stories out there of women who came down with similar symptoms as mine, have implants (both saline and silicone,) whose health either returned after explantation or significantly improved. There were just too many for me to call it a coincidence. I was shocked to find out that the salines that I was told were completely safe are actually encased in a silicone shell, which as we all know has been known to cause problems for many women. Silicone is made up of many many foreign chemicals. I found out that the chemicals in implants migrate into our bodies through a deflation in the shell (like me,) a break-down of the shell, or the deterioration of the implant over time. When our bodies "see" foreign substances, objects or chemicals, our immune system (our special macrophage cells) will attack it. The macrophage cells keep eating at the implant, then take the toxins from it to other parts of our body including our organs, tissues, muscles, nerves, blood, etc. and make us sick. I believe the mysterious hole in my implant was caused from my macrophage cells attacking the implant and ultimately eating a hole through the implant. I was also shocked to find out that the salines are only guaranteed to be sterile for up to 2 years, then after that the valves and outer shell weaken and let bacteria and fungus in which can also make us sick. I know that I probably should have known this before going into all of this. But, as some women can deeply understand and attest to, when you have gone your life without having any breasts, you will do just about anything to get them. Reading about all the problems and issues out there just isn't an option, because then you might talk yourself out of it, and that REALLY isn't an option. You tend to look for the success stories and that is what you focus on. Plus, it is a lot more difficult to find issues with implants then it is to find information on all the wonderful things they will do for your self esteem, body image, etc. The little bit of negative information I was able to find about breast implants was quickly dismissed because I thought “that couldn’t happen to me.” There is a lot more information out there that I was not able to initially find, and I know now that it is not easy to find for a reason. Women are big money makers for the plastic surgeons and implant manufactures out there. They are spending a lot of money to hide this information from us. We are not given all the information we need to know before making a decision on whether or not to get implants. It is heartbreaking that so many thousands of women have gotten or are sick and breast implants are still on the market, and women continue to fall into the trap. I take full responsibility for the decisions that I have made, but I cannot help but feel lied to. My Symptoms -Excruciating pain that began on one side of my body. -Extreme hypersensitivity to sounds and smells -Extreme fatigue -Pain and burning in my breasts -Swollen lymph nodes -Flu-like symptoms -Nerve pain -Brain Fog -Unable to concentrate and learn new things -Itchy rash on my back -Hair loss -Sensitive teeth -Muscle and joint pain -High blood pressure -Panic and anxiety attacks -Nausea -Feelings of room spinning -Headaches -None or low energy -Chills one minute and sweating the next -Excessive thirst
I found a wonderful plastic surgeon that agreed to do my explant. After talking with her and hundreds of other women and reading thousands of women’s stories who have been through what I was going through, it became clear to me what I needed to do. The weeks leading up to my explant were pretty unbearable. I had strange achiness throughout my entire body like I constantly had the stomach flu. I was tired every second of every day, no matter how much sleep I got. My anxiety was so bad, that I was having a difficult time sleeping at night. My once active, young, happy, carefree life came to a screeching halt. I no longer could keep up with everything that my husband and I had become accustomed to doing. I spent the weekdays just trying to get through until 5:00, I spent my weekends sleeping and dreading the upcoming week. I woke up nauseous every morning for 2 months. I became afraid to even leave the house by myself because I would get dizzy periodically through the day and I had no idea when it would happen. I worried my life was over at the age of 29. I finally had my explant on November 9, 2007. The Aftermath The aftermath of my story is one that I suspect will be a work in progress for quite some time. Immediately following surgery I was very sore for those first couple of weeks. My plastic surgeon said I had a lot of scar tissue that she had to remove; this is a sure sign that my body was attacking the implants. Immediately after explant my strange aches and pains, dizziness, nausea, brain fog, hair loss, chronic cough, high blood pressure slowly improved over the first month or so. It wasn’t until about week 4 that I really started to see some improvements and started to get my life back. Some of the symptoms have been a little more stubborn, like the extreme fatigue, some stubborn swollen lymph nodes, the left side pain, and I still get the flu-like achiness when I am tired. But, these are all improving with time, and I am hoping most of these symptoms will eventually disappear completely. I have been diagnosed with stage 2 hypertension, fibromyalgia, lymphadenitis, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, anemia, systemic candidiasis, generalized anxiety disorder, and my tests were all positive for both environmental pollutants and heavy metal poisoning, I have signs and symptoms for an autoimmune disease. Also, I didn’t realize this when I had the implants, but after having them for 4 years the weight of them caused my ribs to invert. So, I will forever have inverted ribs which causes me chronic chest pain. I pray everyday that I continue to recover as my body realizes that it no longer needs to fight foreign objects and toxins, and that I am spared of having a serious auto-immune disease that so many women are getting when their body attacks their implants. Nothing about my recovery has been easy. For the first month after surgery I cried about every other day, I was so sick of being sick!! I have had to make sure and plan out each of my days. Before my illness, I could run errands all day long, get 4 loads of laundry done, go to the gym and still have energy to have a social life in the evenings. Now, if there are errands I need to run, I have to make sure and space them out throughout my day so that I don’t get too tired. Then, if I have a “busy” day of errands, I have no energy to go out and have a social life. I have to take naps during the day if I am going to stay out past 8pm.I have spent thousands of dollars trying to find medical help to get my health back. I see a Naturopath now who has me on an extremely strict diet (I do not eat any sugars, dairy, caffeine, alcohol or wheat and all of my foods are organic,) I take a countless number of supplements, I have to sleep at least 10 hours each night to get through my day, and I do a variety of detoxing methods each week. It took 4 weeks after explant to get any resemblance of my life back, and a few months after that to function somewhat normally. Only time will tell when I will regain my health completely, if ever. My health will never be the same again. I will always have to be selfish with my time, careful of what I eat, and my health will always have to be treated as extremely fragile. One step in the wrong direction could be a major set-back and loss of my health again. So far, I have lost over a year of my young life to an illness with no name and no standardized treatment. Acceptance After all this, I am FINALLY realizing and accepting that I am beautiful with or without big breasts, and that big perfect breasts are not what make a woman beautiful. It has taken a lot for me to get to this point. I had been in denial for many months because I wanted desperately to keep my implants and refused to believe they were making me sick, but in reality they were, I have no doubt about that. I am mad at myself for choosing to put my body through this but most of all I am mad at myself for putting my wonderful husband through it, who did not deserve to have a sick wife. I am angry and sad that I missed out on precious time in my young life due to this unexplained illness. But I know throughout this ordeal that I have learned so much about myself; as this illness has truly made me look inward and see the woman I am on the inside, instead of focusing on what I looked like on the outside for so long, this has truly been a humbling experience. I am trying to just look at this as a life lesson, an expensive and painful life lesson.....but nonetheless a life lesson. Part of me of course misses the implants; I’m not going to lie to you. When I look down and see my scarred up double A's sitting there, I do get a little sad, and I do indeed miss the implants at times. But I had wanted big breasts for so long and then when I had them, deep down I was still painfully aware that I still didn’t have them and that they were never really “mine,” what I had was a man made plastic object in each breast making the illusion that I had big breasts. Overall, I am happy with the way my breasts look today, they may be small but I have no wrinkling or extra skin that I was worried about. Sure I wish that God had been a little more generous in the boobie department, but the other things in my life that he has given me far outweigh having large breasts. The last year of my life has truly been an emotional roller coaster. I am so relieved that I am on the other side of this and that I never have to deal with another breast surgery ever again. In the end, I have spent nearly $20,000 on my breasts, had 3 surgeries, countless doctor visits and tests, visits to the ER, more time missed from work then I care to admit and numerous emotional breakdowns. My Words of Advice
Thank you for your interest. I'm happy to hear from any of you.
Website: http://www.truthaboutbreastimpl
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Media Links Please see this excellent new video ... about the breast implant horror. Please view excellent video by implant survivors: Another Video (please let us know if any links go down)
Media Links Please view excellent video by implant survivors: Another Video (please let us know if any links go down) Stories by Women Harmed by Breast Implants ... and Those Who Love Them Rogene's Story (founder of Silicone Kids) |
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