I was laying in bed one night when I read about breast implant illness … who knew? … not me! I giggled at anyone who mentioned breast implants causing illness but then…
I read and read and read. I sat up in bed and thought, “how could I have been so naive? How is this making so much sense?”
Unfortunately, after all your tests, if you dare to suggest breast implant illness to your doctors.. good luck. You most likely will not get any help in this arena. I got many eye rolls and some flat out telling me my suggestion was IMPOSSIBLE.
There is no test for bii. Your plastic surgeon will most likely not acknowledge your ideas at all. Most women are misdiagnosed with a bazillion other illnesses and just like in my case, you will be told that your implants ARE NOT the cause of what you are feeling.
For your information:
Breast Implant Illness occurs with both saline and silicone breast implants and is a constellation of symptoms related to toxicity and immune, autoimmune, neurological, endocrine and metabolic dysfunction. (taken from the healingbreastimplantillness.com site)
I joined 2 Facebook groups and I honestly read online night and day. I was literally losing my mind. Some nights I thought, yes there are definitely a number of my symptoms that I can say would be caused by breast implants illness, but then there are a ton of other symptoms that seemed like they could be caused by anything. The very weird common denominator was that all of the women posting had the same exact symptoms. Some more serious than others….but 95% of them with the same ones as me.
After seeing a bazillion doctors who mostly looked at me like I had two heads when I mentioned breast implant illness, I decided to take control. There was one thing to do. Remove these bags to rule out that they were the cause. Taking them out completely would tell me immediately if they were the cause or if something else is going on. Now mind you, I have had every test in the world. Most of them I paid for out of pocket due to the fact that I asked for more extensive tests and our wonderful healthcare would not cover “those tests”.
I have a mentor high profile smooth implants filled with saline to 500cc’s. 150 cc higher than my first set. So I am less of a risk than those that have silicone, textured implants, but lets be honest. Silicone or Saline inside the bag, yes makes a difference but the bag is still made of silicone. Your body doesn’t just ignore the bag. Again, light bulb! Why didn’t I realize?
No matter what I did from the minute the second set was implanted, the symptoms have only gotten worse. Now mind you, I have changed my diet A LOT to try to figure things out, so my sleep has gotten better and the brain fog has cleared a little but…..there are still issues, many issues.
I have taken this list of BII symptoms from the Healing Breast Implant Illness site. It is in depth resource that lists everything you could possibly want to know about breast implant illness. This collection of Implant Illness (BII) symptoms was gathered from over 90,000 women. Here are some of the most common symptoms:
- Fatigue/low energy – this is a big problem for me. Some days are OK but a lot of days, I could just sleep.
- Cognitive dysfunction (brain fog, memory loss) – This literally made me feel crazy. I would sit at my desk and not have a clue as to what I was suppose to be working on.
- Headaches – Every morning, like clockwork.
- Joint and muscle pain – Non stop
- Hair loss – I could grab bunches in the shower or when combing and I’m talking abnormal amounts.
- IBS – Yes
- Problems with thyroid and adrenals. – Absolutely. I have gained over 40lbs even with a very clean diet and activity. The only thing that actually helped was when my holistic nurse suggested Isagenix. Their system helped me cleanse and I started to feel better than I ever have.
Here are some other symptoms on the list. The list is long and although I didn’t put two in two together, makes a lot of sense now based on the fact that so many women are experiencing the same things.
- Dry skin and Hair – Yes
- Weight Problems – Yes
- Inflammation – Yes
- Poor Sleep and insomnia – Yes at times
- Dry eyes and decline in vision – Horrible vision overnight
- Hormone imbalance – Yes, they put me on a ton of hormones
- Slow healing / easy bruising
- Throat clearing.. cough… difficulty swallowing
- Metallic taste
- Gastrointestinal issues – Yes and this was severe. I feel full immediately with very little food and it does not digest at all.
- Chronic heart burn. Yes. I would yell in pain some days.
- Leaky gut..IBS.. SIBO
- Fevers.. night sweats.. intolerant to heat or cold
- Persistent bacterial ..viral or fungal infections –
- Yeast infections… candida…sinus or UTIs – – Yes. I have been fighting candida for 4 years
- Skin rashes – Yes in specific spots on the inside of my legs
- Ear Ringing – Horrible ear ringing
- Food intolerance and allergies – Yes .. and more and more intolerance’s.
- Heart palpitations.. change in heart rate – – Yes …constant arrhythmia over the last 6 months.
- Sore and aching joints..shoulders… hips..back… hands and feet – Yes
- Swollen and tender lymph nodes in breast area.. underarm..throat…neck and groin. – Yes .
- Numbness..tingling sensation in upper and lower limbs Yes.
- General chest discomfort – YES! My chest is heavy (of course) but beyond that it feels tight and hard to breath.
- Pain and or burning around implant or under arm – Yes
- Gall bladder problems – I was hospitalized and went septic with what they called an unexplained gall bladder infection. I was there for 10 days.
- Anxiety, depression and panic attacks.
- Auto immune disease
Based on all of my reading, most women feel immediately better after their explant surgery. Photos show inflammation that has literally disappeared from their face within hours. Some cases are worse than others and months later, others are still recovering.
I don’t quite know what to expect. At the very least, the weight will be off my chest releasing my back of some of the pressure. I know everyone’s case is different and I have really stopped reading everything online. It was driving me crazy. Its just great to have the support. I have made so many new friends from sharing my story and what I have learned. 11 days until the big day. Feel free to follow my journey on Instagram and I truly hope it can help someone out there. If you are feeling any of the things I have mentioned above. Do not stop questioning things. Do not stop the tests. Keep moving forward and do what is best for you.
