Patty's 2004 update...
After going through explant in 1998, my life became a journey of healing. I
had hoped that the organized medical establishment would be the one I could
look up to, to offer answers that would allow me to fully regain my health.
After all, they do want us to trust them with our lives, don't they?
Shockingly, my experience has been that medical professionals coldly turn
their backs on those of us who are so ill from implants.
It would be almost comical, if it weren't so sad, how staunchly
held is the view that implants are not
making us ill while at the same time our suffering remains a mystery to most doctors.
The last 6 years of my life have taught me many lessons, but one of the most
important is that I needed to be proactive in my own care and take full
control of my health to pursue treatments that were safe and effective. That
path has led me towards almost full recovery.
It was a path of trusting in God to find ways of healing that have been proven through
centuries of time, such as fasting and enemas, and which promoted
natural healing and immune system
rejuvenation, such as toxic elimination, nutrient supplementation and
exercise. (My favorite antibiotic is raw garlic!)
I found that alternative medicine professionals were most
closely aligned with this way of thinking,
and were very compassionate and understanding. Prescription drugs, the
majority of which are toxic, held no place in my healing journey, with the
exception of thyroid replacement therapy.
In the summer of 2002, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's autoimmune thyroid
disease by my homeopathic physician. This was over 4 years after explant,
but in that 4 year period of time I had suffered residual symptoms of my
initial illness to a lesser and lesser degree.
I knew I was healing, but it was a very long and slow process,
predictable bad days, with brain
fog one of the symptoms that was the slowest to resolve. My blood work,
although not entirely normal, had become closer and closer to normal numbers,
which gave me hope. The diagnosis of Hashimoto's autoimmune thyroid disease
was the final piece of the puzzle that was needed in order to get the final
treatment that would allow me to feel nearly 100% healed.
Today, I feel very much alive and my body has regained energy and stamina!
I no longer feel dreadfully poisoned and lethargic and have seen continual
improvements in my health as lifestyle changes became incorported into my
daily routine permanently.
I live a full and active life, and can almost
finally forget that implants had nearly destroyed my health completely.
Now that I am 6 and a half years post explant, hindsight has given me greater
vision for offering hope for other women harmed by breast implants.
Healing can happen---that I know from my own experience.
| What needs to be remembered through this nightmare of illness brought on by implants is that healing is a process which requires much patience, and a dedication to principles of healing which respect the body's innate healing capabilities, while at the same time prompting the body to give up the toxins that seek to take up residence in our cells. |
Proper explant is a must, with a totalcapsulectomy. That is the first step.
Subclinical infections, whether fungal
or bacterial in nature, must be addressed.
And finally, detoxification and nutritional rebuilding must be incorporated
into a lifestyle change that will
become a lifelong endeavor.
My life has been forever changed by having breast implants.
What could have led to a tragic ending in my life has been transformed into a plethora of
valuable lessons that I couldn't have possibly learned any other way.
I owe it all to God's incredible grace, and for Him I am thankful to be able to
share it with all of you.
God bless,
Patty
To write to Patty personally,
Part One of Patty's Saline Implant Saga
In May of 1997, I made a decision that changed my life completely, one that took me down a road I wish I had never traveled.
I would have never gone down this path, had I known the truth about breast implants.
But it was in this month and year that I finally realized my dream of getting saline breast implants which I had longed for so many years. I want others to know what happened to me, so that they can understand that saline breast implants are not without serious risks to your health.
The so called "safe" saline implant, manufactured by McGhan, was anything but safe to my body.
I had a career in management before being fortunate enough to stay at home with my last two children.
However, I was not happy with my figure after breast feeding and began to consider implants as a possible solution to my sagging bustline.
I did my research, reading any books I could find at the library, (which in 1996 there weren't many) watching the 20/20 shows on TV, reading any news articles I could find about them (all positive) and when a friend of mine disclosed the fact that she had breast implants, it made the idea of actually getting them all the more realistic.
I waited until my last baby was finally done breastfeeding, and then I made an appointment with a very highly regarded plastic surgeon in town. My husband went with me to the doctor's office, where we asked about the risks, and were told that they were very safe, that the chance of having any problems was very, very small.
We discussed infection, hematoma, capsular contracture, and all the normal surgical risks, but after being told that the implants would "go with me to the grave," my husband and I felt completely comfortable with our decision.
We both were looking forward to a very good outcome. We joked about how good I would look even when I was old and in a nursing home. I had the surgery on May 23, 1997, and I did "very well."
I had no complications whatsoever from the surgery.
I went to a full D cup.
My husband loved my new figure, as did I, of course!! We went shopping for bras together, new clothes, we had a wonderful new sex life, I was the happiest I had ever been in my life.
I felt that my life was now finally what I had always dreamed it would be. I was extremely healthy, active, still financially secure, I felt beautiful and was told I was, I felt totally blessed in my life.
What more could I ask for?
My girlfriend and I became even closer because we shared our implant experience. Then my world crashed.
In January 1998, I became frighteningly and alarmingly ill.
I thought I was getting Multiple Sclerosis or something, because my vision became disturbed. My head felt funny. I couldn't concentrate on simple things, like paying bills, watching TV or reading. I was extremely tired. Mentally, I was laboring, my head was in a fog all the time. I could hardly care for the kids or the house anymore, I was so exhausted, drained and dizzy. I had night sweats and sleep disturbances. My husband asked, "do you think it is the implants?"
I blew that off--no, it wasn't the implants! I went to three doctors, something I previously had never had to do except for pregnancy. Blood work was done, and they found nothing.
I was told that I was suffering from clinical depression and anxiety.
This made absolutely no sense to me. I was happier than I had ever been!!
Of course, my implanting plastic surgeon reassured me that the implants were the safest on the market, and that I had nothing to worry about. He patted me on the shoulder and spoke soothing words.
"Awww, you're okay!" he bantered.
However, getting on the Internet, I found that other women with implants were experiencing the same things as I was. Of course, I didn't want to believe it! I fought against this idea--
I wanted to keep my lovely implants!
I cried so many tears, but I knew that this made so much sense.
I continued to hear from woman after woman who suffered what I was, and I could no longer deny that the implants could be my problem. With the help of Ilena and her support group, I went to another highly regarded, very ethical, plastic surgeon in a larger city 2 and a half hours away from my home, and there I was told that I should get the implants out, and that I should see a rheumatologist.
This plastic surgeon believed, through his experiences with patients, that implants definitely are causing some serious problems with women's health. The truth was the implants were hurting me and I had only had them 8 months.
I could not believe this was happening to me. I cried out to God to not let this be, to let me keep the implants.
But I knew that if I wanted to get better, I had to make this very hard decision of removing them forever. This was the most heart-wrenching experience of my life--my joy since having the implants had turned into my worst nightmare in only a matter of months. I got the implants out on February 27, 1998, and blood tests from a rheumatologist showed that I had an elevated rheumatoid factor, as well as a lowered C3 Complement, and macrocytosis.
Before I had the implants, I hadn't been sick in over 10 years!!
The rheumatologist told me that I was a very smart woman for having gotten the implants out. He also ordered a brain MRI due to my constant brain fog, and the radiologists report said, "Mild prominence of superior cerebellar sulci, significance uncertain.
Suggest clinical correlation." "There is mild prominence of sulci over the superior cerebellar hemispheres bilaterally, of uncertain significance.
This may indicate a mild degree of cerebellar atrophy considering the patient's age."
I was only 37 years old at the time. There is no doubt that the implants were harming me in a terrible, terrible way.
As I write this, it has now been almost 4 years since explant, and I have regained almost all of my former health.
It has not been without its trials, however. I have had to work exceedingly hard to detoxify my body, change my diet, my lifestyle, I have lost precious time with my children as I fought to regain my stamina and energy.
My rheumatoid factor, elevated to 117 in April 1998, and 159 in August 1998 has now returned to near normal again, and I feel alive again. I will never forget the feeling of being poisoned that was my constant companion for months and months.
The cost of this experience has been enormous.
Obviously, there is the financial cost. I paid $3500 in cash for the implants. The cost to remove them has been much higher than that.
I paid the explanting surgeon a total of $3000, plus the hospital bill ran into many more thousands.
Ofcourse, there was the cost of medical doctors, clothes, travel, lost time from work, vitamins and supplements,and organic and healthier foods to try to regain my health.
I have never seen the MRI bill to this day, but am aware that it was very expensive.
There has been the cost to my family--my children suffering the loss of their healthy, active, caring mother, which brings me the most pain.
They have witnessed me unable to take care of the house, not having the energy to do things with them, play with them, cook meals every single day, even talk with them, as my mental capacity diminished, and I didn't have the energy to search for the right words for them!
My husband has suffered the loss of his caring, nuturing wife, and instead has had to be the emotional strength for a family of 6, besides going to work every day to keep us financially secure. I am not even going to discuss the cost to me emotionally, except to say that it has been the worst nightmare in my entire life, and I would give anything not to have gone through this. There is the future cost of this nightmare as well to consider.
Will my body ever fully recover from the effects of the silicone shell I allowed to be inserted into my body?
Will I get cancer in my breasts someday because of this, or a brain tumor, or will I still get a full-blown autoimmune disease?
These unanswered questions remain unwelcome visitors to me daily. I was led to believe by my implanting plastic surgeon that my implants would "fix" my post- childbearing figure, that the chances of them causing disease was miniscule, that they would go with me to my grave!
He was promising me a lifetime of happiness, empty promises in the end. Instead, I got 8 months of pleasure, and then destroyed health, more surgery, huge medical bills, pain and loss to my children and husband, not to mention the risk to our health insurance coverage. There was no mention, no discussion, of these risks to make sure that I could have been fully informed.
I have also been left with huge red scars underneath my breasts, some loss of nipple sensation, and an area of numbness in one breast. This, too, was a cost not fully counted, which has brought me much sadness and grief. I do not consider the little I was told about implants to indicate" informed consent" in any way. Even today, there is this illusion that saline implants are not suspect in any of the diseases women are presenting with, even though the product inserts (which I never saw) warn of these possible dangers.
If I had been told that neurologically I was at risk, there would have been no way that I would have gotten implants.
Would any woman in her right mind risk her brain function for a larger bust????
I would hope not.....How about the fact that insurance companies deny women with implants coverage? But that is not discussed, and nowhere in my research about implants was any of this indicated.
In my opinion, getting implants is a Russian Roulette, and the so called "safe" saline implant is not safe.
There is no such thing as a safe breast implant.
These are inferior products, and need to be removed from the market. Breast implants themselves are not life saving devices and are totally unnecessary and dangerous to health and wellbeing.
They are costly to our society! I think we need to go back to square one, and find a safe and sane alternative. Maybe our only hope now is in tissue cloning.
Ideally, every woman would learn to love her body the way God made it. Look to the left for a full list of symptoms I experienced during my implant ordeal, almost all of which have now completely resolved!
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