But first, a little disclaimer. Healing can be tough. It can be really tough to get through on your own. And it’s not always as easy as checking off the boxes. On my website and in my social media posts and videos, I will always try to make it as simple as possible for you to get through, but sometimes we can feel like we’ve hit a wall. Or that we just need some more support.
I know when I was going through it myself, I had to scour the internet and piece together what the hell I was supposed to do now that I felt like I was imprisoned with my implants and that their sole purpose for existing was to make my life miserable.
Don’t get me wrong, I figured it out. And here I am. But I will say that my own breast implant illness just about sent me to the funny farm. I spent 15 of the 18 years I had implants experiencing too many symptoms to name here, and diligently trying to figure out what was wrong with me. It was quite maddening. I’d think I’d figured it out, found the answers and corrected the problem, only to experience a new symptom and the reappearance of the old ones, over and over and over again.
But I digress. All that to say, I did need help. I went to doctors and naturopaths, chiropractors and functional doctors, holistic nurse practitioners, hell I even pursued upgrading my education so I could solve the problem no one else could help me solve.
I searched and searched for someone who was an expert on breast implant illness. I found one woman who hadn’t even had her explant yet, but was an FDN (like me). She’d just begun talking about BII but I felt drawn to her because of her other work in the health space, and the fact that she’d come to the conclusion that the implants were toxic and needed to go. I never reached out to her because I wasn’t ready…
This was two years before I was finally able to explant. During that time, I found THE breast implant illness Facebook group. You know the one. Over 150k women in it by now, all telling the same stories of being chronically ill and gaslighted by doctors! Yes, that one.
It was in this group that I learned about the list of approved surgeons — the ones who offer enbloc total capsulectomy, the microsurgeons, the ones who no longer place implants — those surgeons.
After I waited a whole year on the waitlist for the #1 surgeon for explant (because she was the one closest to me and in the state I reside), I knew I couldn’t wait any longer and I started searching again. I quickly found an excellent alternative to my preferred surgeon and he was even closer, which made the idea of this all actually happening feel even more realistic.
In the year while I was on the waiting list, I’d already decided I would become the expert I needed. All I felt like I needed was someone who knew what they were talking about to tell me what to do. That is genuinely what I felt like I needed. I was already a Board Certified Holistic Nutritionist and that shit wasn’t cutting it, I’m sorry to say. Not for what I was going through. I needed someone to help me with BREAST IMPLANT ILLNESS, not my diet.
So while I waited on my own fate, I dove deep into the labyrinth of breast implant illness. I collected more certifications, and there I stumbled into what felt like all the answers anyone could even need — the icing on the cake some might say. I’d had experience with functional doctors, health practitioners and an interesting array of healing modalities, supplement protocols and even fell into a rabbit hole on genetics and methylation, but I’d never heard of functional labs.
Functional labs represent lab work that reveals where inside the body, the hidden stressors were doing the most damage. This is almost in direct opposition to what most of us are familiar with in the conventional medical world and that is diagnostic labs. What this meant to me was that even if Breast Implant Illness wasn’t a diagnosis to be determined by a lab, that didn’t matter. I didn’t need a diagnosis. I needed to locate the damage and learn how to fix it! OH MY GOSH.
So, in my final certification, I learned the labs. And, I learned the anatomy and physiology of the bodily systems that were being affected not only by my breast implants, but by literally every toxin my body encounters from air to food and water, to household products and even other medical interventions like dental fillings and botox. Who knew so many things declared safe by the FDA were so toxic?
After my explant, there was one thing I still didn’t feel expertise on and struggled with myself, and that was detoxification of the metals and chemicals I’d been exposing myself to for 18 years by way of my boobs. I was post explant and still had many, many symptoms that needed resolving. It was around then that I actually pursued the help of a detoxification expert, whom I’d missed finding in my previous search for an expert. She was a few years into her practice and as good as I was going to find. I stuck with her for about six months and while I didn’t entirely resolve my issues by the end of our time together, I knew I could work it out myself if I just submerged myself into the detox world.
I no longer needed someone to hold my hand. I was on the other side and getting better. I’d done 18+ years by myself and knew I could keep going on my own.
Today, I’m almost 3 years post explant, and I am my own expert. If I have an issue, I know what labs to run and how to tweak my own protocol.
And while I do still have some residual symptoms, most of them are gone.
The fact that they are not all the way gone is a testament to the kind of damage that can be done in 18 years.
But the fact that they are almost all gone is testament to the fact that anyone can heal from Breast Implant Illness.
I’d love to hear your comments or your story below. Please also know that you don’t have to try to figure this out alone. If you’re done trying to figure it all out on your own, and you’re ready for custom, one on one guidance, I’d like to offer you a free consultation to find out I can help you restore function, heal your body and properly detox from Breast Implant Illness. Click the link below to schedule your free consult today.
