Once upon a time there was a young woman who had a pretty good life. She was active and healthy and fit. One day she decided that her body needed some work so she decided to get breast implants. She was told everyone did it and she would love her new look. She was not told there were possible (probable) side-effects. So she had the surgery and life went on.
Over time she didn’t even realize how many things were changing in her and in her life. She stopped running, the thing she loved the most. The thing that took away her stress. Why? Well, it’s not so easy running when you have these huge bags bouncing on your chest. It’s uncomfortable. You have to wear sports bras so tight they cut off your circulation and you can’t breathe so why bother with running. So you stop.
Your health and fitness declines. You don’t put two and two together that it might be the implants but instead blame the stress of life and getting older. As your health deteriorates more and more you start cutting out everything you eat that might be contributing to your almost constant headaches, your lack of energy, and your hurting body. You are an Arbonne consultant and in 2013 you start living the 30 Days to Healthy Living plan. It makes a huge difference in the way you feel. Your inflammation mostly goes away and your knees don’t hurt anymore. The migraines disappear but you still have that nagging daily headache. You have more energy but are still not up for working out and getting fit.
You continue to blame the stress of life, after all you did adopt four teenagers from Ukraine and that was not an easy road to walk. Surely it took a lot out of you and your health and it’s certainly going to take some time to recover from the trauma of it all. (My book – Adoption Combat Zone – available on Amazon). You continue to find ways to excuse the constant fatigue, gaining weight, and headaches. The inability to breathe deeply and easily. The out of breath just walking around your house. The wanting to cry because you’re so miserable and you don’t know why because life is so good. You are doing everything right and yet everything is so wrong and you don’t know why.
You tell someone that you don’t know what would happen if you stopped pouring all the Arbonne nutrition into you every day. Fizz sticks, detox tea, body cleanse, protein shakes, and more. You know it’s those things that are keeping things going as well as you are. You go two days without drinking the Green’s Balance three times a day and think you are dying you hurt so bad and your head is aching. You start drinking them again and feel instantly better. You wonder if this is what aging is all about. And you know deep inside that it isn’t. But you don’t know what it going on. Someone tells you that you probably have an autoimmune disease. Chronic Fatigue maybe. How can that be you ask yourself? You do everything right. You eat the right foods and you’ve eliminated all the wrong ones. You eat so clean and fresh. You only use clean Arbonne products on your body.
Then one day a friend on Facebook posts that she is having explant surgery. You comment to her “good luck” and move on. In your mind you tell yourself she must have had silicone. Those are nasty. You don’t think about it again. Then a few months later another friend, one who you admire very much, posts that she is having explant surgery. Hmmm…is this the new rage you wonder, having your implants out. But you admire this woman so much that you reach out to her and ask what type of implants she had and why she decided to have the surgery? She graciously answers all of your questions and you are left with the sinking feeling that your whole world has just been turned upside down because she had saline like you and her list of issues sounded like she was in your body. And her implants were only 10 years old, not almost 26 years old like yours. You want to scream! When she told you that even saline implants are made with silicone you are shocked. You had no idea.
This can’t be true. This can’t be why you’re having all the headaches, and the pain, and the tiredness, and why you can’t breathe right. But you know in your gut it is. You start searching out this thing called breast implant illness and the surgery to explant called En Block Total Capsulectomy. You are sick to your stomach. You start sobbing. You realize that 26 years ago you made a decision that completely altered your life and your health. That everything you are dealing with is 100% your responsibility. That you did it to yourself. That you did something that stole your health and your quality of life. That you thought you could do better than Yahweh when it came to how your body should look.
At the same time you are elated because now you know what is going on and there is something you can do something to turn things around. The first thing you have to do is tell your husband. Boy oh boy that is a conversation you do not want to have. More on that in the next post.
I will be blogging my journey through this crazy process to remove the toxic bags that have been poisoning me for the last quarter century. You will learn about breast implant illness, the surgery that needs to happen to have them out (getting the right surgeon is crucial, and so much more), and my recovery from this whole mess.
I will leave you with this for today. Following are just some of the symptoms of breast cancer illness. If you have some of these things and have implants, please feel free to reach out to me. Or go to this website for more information: https://healingbreastimplantillness.com/ There is also an amazing Facebook page with over 70,000 women who are in the process of healing themselves from breast implant illness. Breast Implant Illness and Healing by Nicole. I highly recommend if you have implants (OR thinking about getting implants) to take some time and read the posts in that group.
Here are some of the symptoms many of those 70,000 women are dealing with or have dealt with that have gone away after explanting:
Fatigue
Brain fog
Memory loss
Hair loss (including face and body)
Dry skin and/or hair
Rapid tooth decay/gum disease
Premature aging
Weight problems
Inflammation
Poor sleep and insomnia
Hypo/hyper thyroid symptoms
Hypo/hyper adrenal symptoms
Parathyroid problems
Hormone imbalance, diminishing hormones, early menopause
Hysterectomy
Low libido
Slow healing, easy bruising
Throat clearing, cough, difficulty swallowing, choking
Acid reflux, metallic tastes
Vertigo
GI issues: acid reflux, GERD, Gastritis, Leaky Gut, IBS, SIBO
Pancreatitis
Fevers, night sweats, intolerant to heat and cold
Persistent bacterial, viral, fungal infections
Yeast infections, candida, sinus and UTI infections
Skin rashes
Ear ringing
Sudden food intolerance and allergies
Headaches, migraines, ocular migraines
Slow muscle recovery after activity
Heart palpitations, changes in normal heart rate or heart pain
Sore and aching joints of shoulders, hips, backbone, hands and feet
Swollen and tender lymph nodes in breast area, underarm, throat, neck, groin
Dehydration for no reason
Frequent urination
Numbness, tingling sensation in upper and lower limbs
Cold and discolored limbs, hands, feet
General chest discomfort, shortness of breath
Pain and/or burning sensation around implant or underarm
Liver and/or kidney dysfunction
Gallbladder problems
Toxic shock symptoms
Anxiety, depression, panic attacks
Feeling like you are dying
Symptoms of Fibromyalgia
Symptoms of Lyme disease
Symptoms of EBV
Symptoms of Autoimmune diseases such as Raynaud’s Syndrome, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Scleroderma, Lupus, Sjogren’s Syndrome, Nonspecific connective tissue disease, Multiple Sclerosis
Symptoms of BIA-ALCL Lymphoma
Diagnosis of Cancer
If someone you know has implants, or is thinking about getting implants, please pass this along to them.
This is Simply My Opinion,
Kathe
www.adoptioncombatzone.com
Instagram: arbonnekathe
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathe.ray.7
www.katheray.arbonne.com