For some this will be TMI.. but I’m known for being an all or nothing kind of gal!

Happy ONE-Year-Boobs-Out-A-Versary To Meeeeee!!!

In 2021 I had implants. On April 17 2023 I got them out… and TODAY IS FOR CELEBRATING THAT!!!

They made me horridly unwell. It was literally debilitating. Breast <CLAP> Implant <CLAP> Illness <CLAP> Is <CLAP> Real <CLAP> For <CLAP> Many <CLAP>

It was for me.

Breast Implants… regardless of what’s inside of the actual implant.. are housed by ‘medical grade silicon’ that your body will launch an immune response to. Great if you have saline implants.. the shell is still silicon. Great if you have silicon implants that aren’t leaking… the shell is still silicon.

My symptoms were slow to start, but stacked up relatively quickly. I didn’t have ‘textured’ implants which are thought to be more problematic for BII symptoms becoming apparent faster. Something to do with the surface area of a textured implant. I had smooth ones.

I became unable to do things that I have always done. The most scariest of symptoms were (out a long long list of syptoms):

* Being forgetful – like forgetting almost everything all the time. I thought I was getting dementia
* My brain was slow to process things
* I had very little energy reserves (spoon theory : I had about 1-2 spoons a day and had to be very careful how I used them)
* I had pain in my breasts
* I had chronic severe pain in my hand joints daily. All day.
* My eyesight went backwards
* I had trouble concentrating
* I was no longer funny. Yes this was a scary one!
* I felt like I’d gone from colourful, energetic and vibrant (yes, even when wearing my standard black clothes hahah!) to grey, slow and faded.
* Weight gain and my body felt constantly inflamed
* I didn’t/couldn’t work out cause I had no energy and no strength

There were many more things I was dealing with, but these were the scariest for me.

One of the things that started me investigating what was wrong with me, was I had a ‘mini breakdown’ at my car upon arrival to derby training because I couldn’t find the keys to the stadium. I couldn’t remember where they were. I couldn’t remember if I had put them somewhere. I was literally sobbing at the boot of my car, panicking, because I didn’t know what the heck was happening with me.

Seems silly now, but it was awful. I told a friend about it and said I was going to have my hormones checked cause I’d recently had a new Mirena in.

They were fine. It was fine. Perimenopause was floated as a suspect. But nothing concrete.

So I tested for a whole host of other things including Ross River, RA, other blood tests that all came back ‘normal’ or almost within normal range…. the doc wasn’t concerned. I poured over those lab results learning everything I could about what was tested for.

It was suggested that the pain wasn’t actually that bad. That I was burned out. That I had fibromyalgia. That it was in my head. That I should learn to live with it. That there was NOTHING MEDICALLY WRONG WITH ME.

Around this time I stumbled upon BII and when I read the list of things people were living with I found that I was EXACTLY LIKE THEM…. and that implants were a big cause for what I was experiencing.

I knew I had to get them out.. even if it didn’t FIX me, but I wanted to rule it out as a cause.

That was ONE WHOLE YEAR AGO.

Recovery has been interesting. From feeling at my best to back to almost-the-worst energetically.

But bit by bit, day by day the pain lessened, the removal of toxins continued and by about February (10 months post op) I finally felt like ME again. Well about 99% me again!!!!

Which leads us to today.

If you’ve got this far, the thing I IMPLORE of you is to be your BEST advocate for YOURSELF that you can be. You know when something’s not right… even if bloods show as ‘in normal range’. Normal range is subjective, by the way!

I decided I wanted nothing else foreign in me for my immune system to attack! So I had the Mirena out. I continue to detox gently by removing the silicon from my body (and all the HORRIFIC chemicals that were being leached into my body every second of the day for 2 and a bit years).

I sadly had to have a plate put in my wrist to hold the bones together recently but that will also be coming out as soon as I can have it out.

ANYTHING foreign in your body is going to produce an immune response! Its how our systems are programmed!

If you have implants, please please PLEASE be aware of this. You may not have symptoms and that is BLOODY AWESOME for you! But if you’re not feeling ‘right’, then have it investigated.

I did love how they looked when they were in…. these fun bags! hahah! I loved them.

I could finally fill a bra and a dress hahah!!

But when they turned into Poison Bags… I regretted having them in.

KNOW THIS: You’re gorgeous and amazing and fabulous as you are. You do not need these things in your body x There are other ways of filling yourself out if that’s what you want… fat grafting is an option! Or padded bras hahah!

x I hope this helps, or inspires, or educates you!

PICS:

1) 3 months Post implants in! I loved that I didn’t need to tape the dress down!! The joy of being able to fill a top/dress was awesome!!!
2 & 3 day of explant
4 Scar tissue and implants
5 Post op – particularly puffy but not at all chesty! YAY!!!

SO HAPPY ONE-YEAR-BOOB-A-VERSARY TO ME!

Life is looking might fabulous!

Photo 1 – Post Implants Fullness! Loved this so much while it lasted! There’s nothing quite like the joy of not worrying about leaning the wrong and accidentally showing too much boob cause it doesn’t fill the space!!

Photo 2 Morning of Explant with my leading man Dom. What a legend this human is. I am very blessed to have had him by my side supporting me.

Photo 3 On my own in preop almost literally pooping my pants and wondering if I was making the right decision

Photo 4 Post op – super full face ahahaha!! I woke up to THE MOST interesting and hilarious under garments EVER. There’s a time and a place for that story!

Photo 5 – Implants and Scar Capsules. The top tissue is the scar tissue capsule. Only in for 2 years and 3 months. Surgeon described it as particularly gnarly, especially for only being in for 2+ years. My poor body.

You can see the tissue (the red stuff) looks thick and hard. (Like bacon! lol). If you were to open that up, the implant (clear things) would be inside that red mangy stuff.

Scar tissue that forms is supposed to be quite transparent & shouldn’t have the thick, non-transparent texture and appearance.

I was told that many people who have had their implants in for many many years may not even have scar tissue like this! Guess I was lucky my body lanched a brut force attack on them. Welp.