breast implant illness
From a healthy, thriving mom of three, wife and entrepreneur to a frail, desperate, sickly patient in a matter of 6 months. Though wheelchair bound from a spinal injury as a teen, I was otherwise in great health prior to a breast augmentation in June 2017.
After the surgery, my health slowly began to fail, starting with an unexplained seizure at the end of July 2017. Towards the end of August, I began to notice that a capsular contracture was forming on the right side, while the left had healed fine.
On September 19, the right breast started to swell rapidly. I was admitted to Humber River Hospital in Toronto that evening. IV antibiotics began almost immediately and tests were started. After 4 days in hospital, it was determined to be a spontaneous seroma, a pocket of fluid but not infection. I was advised to finish the antibiotics by IV at home and follow up to have the capsular contracture repaired. I suffered from reflux requiring medication, diarrhea and vomiting that I was told were from the antibiotics and would resolve once the course was complete.
After leaving the hospital upon discharge, my symptoms became so severe that I had a partial rectal prolapse. I went into be seen in the emergency department. The antibiotics were discontinued and I was given more medication and a referral to have a surgeon repair the prolapse. Other symptoms included severe mood swings, mouth ulcers, loss of appetite.
If this is starting to sound like a nightmare, it’s because it really truly was my nightmare. But also my reality. I went from being a super independent, active mama to a very dependent, weak woman that couldn't even care for her kids.
My symptoms didn't stop when the antibiotics were discontinued and the pharmacist suggested that it may take a few days and recommended probiotics. Several times EMS were called to the house for different episodes of distress at different times of the day and night. Test after test were run.
Doctors could not explain the episodes, the results or the cause. They told me that it could be from the antibiotics but that symptoms should resolve. For months I suffered silently with chronic fatigue, headaches, muscle and joint pain, muscle spasms, cognitive dysfunction, recurring infections, unexplained sepsis, extreme weight loss, nausea, vomiting, insomnia, sudden food intolerance, heart palpitations, elevated pulse and blood pressure, dehydration, grey/black urine, low potassium, numbness in my arms, high lactic acid, extreme anxiety, leaky gut, IBS, positive autoimmune markers for celiac disease, reflux, vision loss, thyroid dysfunction symptoms, pain around right implant, loose teeth, difficulty breathing and pain under shoulder blade.
On a few occasions I was seen in emergency or by family physicians in clinic expressing the severity of the situation. Some further tests were done but no physician followed up and I began to lose hope. I was convinced that my symptoms were side effects from Ceftriaxone - the IV antibiotic given to me when I presented with the seroma - since that's when the ordeal began (not taking the seizure into account).
At the beginning of December, my plastic surgeon replaced the implant on the right side that had formed the capsule. Capsular contracture is the body's immune response to the foreign implant. The first four days post replacement were the best four days - with the least symptoms since becoming ill. But still no one associated the implants to the illness. The war on weight loss waged on and soon nothing was appealing to my appetite. I explored gastrointestinal parasite testing in the US - desperate for answers as my body starved.
In January 2018, I became so weak that I voluntarily admitted myself to hospital for nutritional support - which backfired and left me facing more setbacks. It was after having inconclusive results from a colonoscopy and gastroscopy that I did more research on illness caused by breast implants. All my symptoms had been experienced by tens of thousands of women worldwide!
At less than two months post replacement, the right implant had already started to form capsular contracture again. It was pulled high and tight, distorting the nipple. It was quite visually apparent that the body was not accepting the foreign implant once again.
I pleaded with my plastic surgeon to remove the implants immediately before I was to weak for the surgery. The surgeon could only give a date almost two weeks later due to restrictions at that particular hospital. I feared that I would be far more weak after waiting nearly 2 weeks and that surgery would no longer be safe. Discouraged, I saw finding a surgeon in the US and paying for treatment as the only way to save my life.
How can seemingly healthy women become so ill with no other explanation other than the foreign bodies that are constructed from toxic materials implanted in their chests? If you do the research, the answers are there. Some doctors are opening the forum for discussion but NOT QUICKLY ENOUGH! Companies like Allergan (the manufacturer of my implants) are keeping people quiet - doctors and unhappy patients! Money is power. Health Canada FINALLY and reluctantly agreed that a rare Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma was linked to breast implants (BIA-ALCL).
Breast implants are toxic and they poison the body over time. Some people will become ill very quickly, while others will get progressively more ill over a matter of years. Often times women are misdiagnosed and in cases like this, no diagnosis is conclusively given until after the implants are removed and the patient improves.
The very sad and scary part is that not one doctor within the local medical community recognized what was causing this illness sooner. The detox and healing from this illness is long, hard and mainly uncharted territory. My spinal cord injury makes gaining weight more difficult and will require specialized therapies. Weight loss also puts me at risk for skin breakdown so this limits my ability to be active. I will continue to fight for answers and I'm only one of a growing group of people who are questioning the safety of silicone implants.
Breast implants are not only a moral decision. So many women only consider the moral perception when considering this procedure. The medical risks are REAL and they're not well enough conveyed to society as a whole or even on an intimate patient basis. Please help us bring awareness to the dangers of Silicone Adjuvant Disease, Breast Implant Illness and Breast Implant Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma.
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