Breast Implant Survivors Day

We have dedicated April 1, 2007 as

Hello, my name is Kathy Keene.

Please visit our Breast Implant Support Forum

I'm 44 years old and live in Northeast Texas.

I got my first pair of silicone gel breast implants in 1989. I was not happy with the size or shape, so I had a second surgery in late 1990, again with silicone gel.

Between 1989 and 1995, I was working full time and first caring for my ill father who passed away in 1991, and again for my mother who died of breast cancer in 1998.

Over the years it started with subtle changes in my health that I contributed to my work schedule and caring for ill and elderly parents. By 1995 I was starting to have fairly serious health problems, but none of the doctors I went to could find a problem, all denied my implants could be causing a problem. By 1998, after several mammograms and fear of rupture, I decided to have my breast implants replaced with saline. I discussed explant with my plastic surgeon but he assured me I would be disfigured, so we discussed saline implants. He told me silicone was perfectly safe, and I would not be happy with saline.

So in May of 1999 I had my third and final breast augmentation. Again I was implanted with silicone gel implants. I knew from the minute I woke up from that surgery something was wrong, I didn't feel right and it got worse every day. I literally spent the next 6 years going from doctor to doctor to find a cause for my declining health. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, IBS and Hoshimoto Thyroiditis but was still told by every doctor I went to that the implants were in no way causing my health problems. I grew weary and lost all confidence in doctors and the medical industry. It seemed when it came to putting the implants in, the plastic surgeons were happy to talk to me, but when I brought up having them removed, they wanted nothing to do with me. In addition to severe pain and muscle weakness and fatigue I now had numbness in my face, hands and feet, problems with my vision and memory, vertigo, cognitive and neurological issues and depression.

I continued to decline and there were days I couldn't even get out of bed…I was homebound. Since I looked good on the outside I think people had a hard time accepting I was as ill. Finally in 2005 I started researching on the Internet and was relieved to find some websites where women were suffering from the same symptoms I was having! What a blessing to finally know and accept the truth. I made the decision in October 2005 to have my implants removed and was explanted by Dr. Edward Melmed in Dallas, Texas on March 27th 2006. Since my explant I have been diagnosed with silicone poisoning, atypical MS, and questionable tumors on a recent brain MRI.

I'm happy to report that I'm improving with each and every day and I don't regret my decision to explant in any way, I just wish I would have paid attention and done my research much, much sooner – and listened to my doctors less.

I now look to the future with high hopes and want to tell my story in hopes of helping other women.

I hope Breast Implant Awareness Day will heighten awareness that just because the ban has been lifted on silicone, that does not necessarily mean they are safe. I fear for the thousands of women who continue to have these defectives devices implanted every day.

Together we can make our voices heard!

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Kathy Keene