Implant removal due to Breast Implant Illness
Donation protected
Here it goes.
I’m letting down my walls of pride & asking for help.
Back in 2011, I made the decision to get a breast augmentation, I had always wanted this done because I was teased throughout some of middle school Into high school about my chest side. It caused very low self esteem & I hated how small my chest was, I was in a serious ATV accident & due to that I had the funds to go through with the procedure!
I got the implants & I loved the outcome, or so I thought. I was in my early 20s & my physical appearance meant a lot to me, I was a healthy women no issues prior to implants. Shortly after the breast augmentation I started getting very bad anxiety, to the point I wouldn’t leave my house. Shortly after that I was diagnosed with IBS. I was then put on medication for both issues. Months go by and I started having horrible joint pain in my shoulders & elbows, again more doctor visits, they couldn’t find anything wrong after a few tests. Finally they gave me a diagnosis of “frozen shoulder” said I needed surgery for my rotator cuff.
More time had gone by & I started having bad migraines, more medication. I dealt with little things popping up here and there for several years, I chalked it up to just getting older.
Fast forward to the last two years of my life. The worst two years I have experienced. My migraines became a normal thing. Daily. I had them more then I didn’t! All of a sudden the joint pain came worse then ever throughout my entire body. Muscle weakness followed, causing me to be walking & my legs just gave out on me, seized up. I’ve falling more times in the last two years then I have in my 30 years of life. I fell down the stairs carrying my infant daughter to the point I had to teach her how to safely use the stairs because I didn’t trust myself carrying her up and down them anymore. I had seen my PCP on numerous times about everything I was experiencing for her to finally tell me “ I can no longer help you, I don’t know what’s going on with you!” Things just kept getting worse and the doctors couldn’t see anything wrong, to them & the tests I was healthy.
Symptoms kept getting worse my vision would come and go, leaving me driving & pulling off on the side of the road because all I could see was black, the joint pain in my legs so bad from driving just 5-10mins that I would need to pull over to stand up, stretch my legs. I don’t know how many I’ve pulled over on the side of the highway, back roads etc in so much pain. The brain fog got horrible, I couldn’t remember anything, my speech started to get messed up, I would try and say refrigerator and instead say something completely random. I wasn’t making any sense. Fatigue is so bad, more days then not lately that I can’t even get myself out of bed anymore, the pain is so bad, walking makes me cringe. Stairs are my worst nightmare. This is all extremely frustrating due to the fact that I have 2 children that depend on me everyday & it’s such a struggle to just do my normal day to day.
I could go on and on about how these symptoms are effecting me everyday and how each symptom has such an impact on me, this would become a novel though so I will list all my daily symptoms & if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me! Anxiety, fatigue, joint pain, insomnia, brain fog, memory loss, numbness and tingling across my whole body, muscle weakness, hair loss, dry skin, vision issues, migraines, depression, decreased libido, sharp pains in the breast, mood swings, weight gain, bloating, food changes/intolerance, inflammation, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, IBS, acid reflux, fibromyalgia symptoms!
I have seen numerous doctors & specialists! I have had countless tests done on me, several MRIS, cat scans, spinal taps, blood work, nerve testing, testing of my head, neck & brain, sleep studies! Mind you every doctor I spoke to knew I had implants, I made sure to always include that under surgeries on my paperwork. Everything coming back “normal” it got to the point I gave up, I thought I was crazy, it was all in my head.
Then one night everything changed. I was in the office working & I had gotten a friend request on Facebook, a women I had never seen we had a few mutual friends though so I looked at her profile! It was private & the only thing I could see was a video of her a year after explanting (having her implants removed) & speaking up on BII (breast implant illness) & I had never heard about this, my implants making me sick!? No way, I got saline implants the surgeon said they were safe, this can’t be it. That night I did hours of research & found myself crying as I’m going through & processing all this news I was reading, watching the videos & reading the stories from THOUSANDS OF THOUSANDS of ladies going through the SAME EXACT THING I was. All the symptoms, doc visits, testing everything coming up normal. I honestly believe that this was fate, this women who thought she knew me, sent me that request & I listened to her story & now I’m spreading the word through my social media trying to get ladies to realize that you are beautiful, you don’t need these to feel beautiful, because what I’m going through now is not worth it. I can promise you that.
I then read into what an implant is made up of ( tin, platinum, arsenic, lead, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, Beryllium ( human carcinogen), cadmium, sliver, selenium, titanium, calcium, copper, iron, Epoxy Hardner, aluminum) and that’s just to name a few - I have all information to back all of this up! If I knew then what I know now I don’t think I would have gone through with the surgery. But unfortunately I was never told any of this, I was never told I could become very sick with having these.
I’ve now made the decision to explant and get these toxic bags out of me and I had a consult with an amazing surgeon who believes in BII, he believes that implants can and are making women sick, & he thinks it’s going to be very common knowledge soon enough, he also thinks that this is one of the few cases where patients are bringing a diagnosis to a doctor rather then the doctor to the patient. He was also very honest with me told me that I would obviously look different, back to the physical appearance, but after dealing with everything I have dealt with and having the most amazing husband who would rather see me healthy and not care what I’m going to look like I’ve made the decision to have them removed. Again back to the thousand and thousands of ladies who have explanted, almost all of them within days, weeks, months have had ALL or close to all my their symptoms go away. With that being said I want these implants out of me and ASAP since I’ve been dealing with all of this long enough. I spoke with the surgeon and to do an explant with enbloc/Capsulectomy ( remove the implant along with the entire capsule that holds the implant ) it will be $7,000. I left feeling so positive at yesterday’s consult but then felt so defeated, I’m a stay at home mom, my husband pays all of the bills, I do have a side business that will now goto help pay for this surgery but that’s where I need to suck up my pride and ask for help.
I want to be back to my normal self, I want to be back to giving my children the mother they deserve and my husband the wife he deserves. I want to be healthy again. I don’t want to be in agonizing pain anymore.
I don’t want anyone to question my integrity and motives, I’m willing to answer questions if anyone has them, I will continue posting updates on my social media to get the word out about BII, and maybe help other women who are looking to implant to find other options.
Breasts don’t define us, the heal is real and I can’t wait to be back on the lighter side!
Thank you for taking the time to read my story!
❤️Jessica
I’m letting down my walls of pride & asking for help.
Back in 2011, I made the decision to get a breast augmentation, I had always wanted this done because I was teased throughout some of middle school Into high school about my chest side. It caused very low self esteem & I hated how small my chest was, I was in a serious ATV accident & due to that I had the funds to go through with the procedure!
I got the implants & I loved the outcome, or so I thought. I was in my early 20s & my physical appearance meant a lot to me, I was a healthy women no issues prior to implants. Shortly after the breast augmentation I started getting very bad anxiety, to the point I wouldn’t leave my house. Shortly after that I was diagnosed with IBS. I was then put on medication for both issues. Months go by and I started having horrible joint pain in my shoulders & elbows, again more doctor visits, they couldn’t find anything wrong after a few tests. Finally they gave me a diagnosis of “frozen shoulder” said I needed surgery for my rotator cuff.
More time had gone by & I started having bad migraines, more medication. I dealt with little things popping up here and there for several years, I chalked it up to just getting older.
Fast forward to the last two years of my life. The worst two years I have experienced. My migraines became a normal thing. Daily. I had them more then I didn’t! All of a sudden the joint pain came worse then ever throughout my entire body. Muscle weakness followed, causing me to be walking & my legs just gave out on me, seized up. I’ve falling more times in the last two years then I have in my 30 years of life. I fell down the stairs carrying my infant daughter to the point I had to teach her how to safely use the stairs because I didn’t trust myself carrying her up and down them anymore. I had seen my PCP on numerous times about everything I was experiencing for her to finally tell me “ I can no longer help you, I don’t know what’s going on with you!” Things just kept getting worse and the doctors couldn’t see anything wrong, to them & the tests I was healthy.
Symptoms kept getting worse my vision would come and go, leaving me driving & pulling off on the side of the road because all I could see was black, the joint pain in my legs so bad from driving just 5-10mins that I would need to pull over to stand up, stretch my legs. I don’t know how many I’ve pulled over on the side of the highway, back roads etc in so much pain. The brain fog got horrible, I couldn’t remember anything, my speech started to get messed up, I would try and say refrigerator and instead say something completely random. I wasn’t making any sense. Fatigue is so bad, more days then not lately that I can’t even get myself out of bed anymore, the pain is so bad, walking makes me cringe. Stairs are my worst nightmare. This is all extremely frustrating due to the fact that I have 2 children that depend on me everyday & it’s such a struggle to just do my normal day to day.
I could go on and on about how these symptoms are effecting me everyday and how each symptom has such an impact on me, this would become a novel though so I will list all my daily symptoms & if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me! Anxiety, fatigue, joint pain, insomnia, brain fog, memory loss, numbness and tingling across my whole body, muscle weakness, hair loss, dry skin, vision issues, migraines, depression, decreased libido, sharp pains in the breast, mood swings, weight gain, bloating, food changes/intolerance, inflammation, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, IBS, acid reflux, fibromyalgia symptoms!
I have seen numerous doctors & specialists! I have had countless tests done on me, several MRIS, cat scans, spinal taps, blood work, nerve testing, testing of my head, neck & brain, sleep studies! Mind you every doctor I spoke to knew I had implants, I made sure to always include that under surgeries on my paperwork. Everything coming back “normal” it got to the point I gave up, I thought I was crazy, it was all in my head.
Then one night everything changed. I was in the office working & I had gotten a friend request on Facebook, a women I had never seen we had a few mutual friends though so I looked at her profile! It was private & the only thing I could see was a video of her a year after explanting (having her implants removed) & speaking up on BII (breast implant illness) & I had never heard about this, my implants making me sick!? No way, I got saline implants the surgeon said they were safe, this can’t be it. That night I did hours of research & found myself crying as I’m going through & processing all this news I was reading, watching the videos & reading the stories from THOUSANDS OF THOUSANDS of ladies going through the SAME EXACT THING I was. All the symptoms, doc visits, testing everything coming up normal. I honestly believe that this was fate, this women who thought she knew me, sent me that request & I listened to her story & now I’m spreading the word through my social media trying to get ladies to realize that you are beautiful, you don’t need these to feel beautiful, because what I’m going through now is not worth it. I can promise you that.
I then read into what an implant is made up of ( tin, platinum, arsenic, lead, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, Beryllium ( human carcinogen), cadmium, sliver, selenium, titanium, calcium, copper, iron, Epoxy Hardner, aluminum) and that’s just to name a few - I have all information to back all of this up! If I knew then what I know now I don’t think I would have gone through with the surgery. But unfortunately I was never told any of this, I was never told I could become very sick with having these.
I’ve now made the decision to explant and get these toxic bags out of me and I had a consult with an amazing surgeon who believes in BII, he believes that implants can and are making women sick, & he thinks it’s going to be very common knowledge soon enough, he also thinks that this is one of the few cases where patients are bringing a diagnosis to a doctor rather then the doctor to the patient. He was also very honest with me told me that I would obviously look different, back to the physical appearance, but after dealing with everything I have dealt with and having the most amazing husband who would rather see me healthy and not care what I’m going to look like I’ve made the decision to have them removed. Again back to the thousand and thousands of ladies who have explanted, almost all of them within days, weeks, months have had ALL or close to all my their symptoms go away. With that being said I want these implants out of me and ASAP since I’ve been dealing with all of this long enough. I spoke with the surgeon and to do an explant with enbloc/Capsulectomy ( remove the implant along with the entire capsule that holds the implant ) it will be $7,000. I left feeling so positive at yesterday’s consult but then felt so defeated, I’m a stay at home mom, my husband pays all of the bills, I do have a side business that will now goto help pay for this surgery but that’s where I need to suck up my pride and ask for help.
I want to be back to my normal self, I want to be back to giving my children the mother they deserve and my husband the wife he deserves. I want to be healthy again. I don’t want to be in agonizing pain anymore.
I don’t want anyone to question my integrity and motives, I’m willing to answer questions if anyone has them, I will continue posting updates on my social media to get the word out about BII, and maybe help other women who are looking to implant to find other options.
Breasts don’t define us, the heal is real and I can’t wait to be back on the lighter side!
Thank you for taking the time to read my story!
❤️Jessica
Organizer
Jessica Grella
Organizer
Manchester, NH