Do You Have Breast Implant Illness?

You’re here reading this. Something tells me you suspect you have Breast Implant Illness. On the off chance you’re researching breast implants before making a decision on whether to get them, let me redirect you here, about the importance of Informed Consent, here, about the complicated reality of living with Breast Implant Illness, or here, about my battle with vanity and what role breast implants played.

If You’re Done Messing Around With This BS + Ready To Heal Right Now, Read On

What IS Breast Implant Illness? And How Do I Know If I Have It?

If you have breast implants and you’re reading this, you probably have Breast Implant Illness. Hopefully you’ve caught it early and it won’t be super complicated to avoid the inevitable cascade of chronic misery many of us have suffered.

What, actually, is it though?

Who really knows what breast implant illness is? When I first heard the term, I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but it clicked with me instantly:

Ohhhhh, breast implant illness … THAT’S what I have.

Still, what is it?

The trouble with a Breast Implant Illness diagnosis is that it is different for each and every woman and therefore does not have a specific set of side effects or symptoms that define it. 

Breast Implant Illness is a syndrome-like illness with an unlimited number of possible side-effects/symptoms, ranging from mild to severe, that are triggered by the presence of breast implants. What this means is that literally any side effect or symptom that shows up after the placement of breast implants can go onto the list of symptoms of your individual case of Breast Implant Illness. 

Example: 

• breast implants are placed
• hair starts falling out in handfuls, in the shower, in your brush, on your pillow
• first symptom of BII = hair loss

And so on, just like that. It really is that simple. 

You may or may not know that it is not normal to lose hair like that and while hair-loss can often times be attributed to some other underlying condition such as anemia, a stressful life event, or even postpartum. If you’ve been diagnosed with anemia, it’s easy to hear your doctor say, “It’s not your implants, it’s just anemia.” When you hear a doctor say, it’s not this, and is that, you feel some relief. phew! I can keep the implants! I just have anemia.

But what’s causing the anemia? Could it be the implants?

If you’ve read any of my other posts, you may know that placement of any foreign object inside your body starts a domino effect. From the moment they arrive, your body actively starts trying to get rid of them. And once it’s clear they aren’t going anywhere, it starts doing everything it can to protect you from them. It’s on high alert. Regular functions become less important and keeping you safe is the number one priority. This silent war inside your body will eventually develop into a cascade of chaos, one thing leading to another and everything affecting and changing the next. Symptoms only show up when things are starting to become unmanageable. If your hair is falling out, your body has placed all of the functions that are required to keep hair from falling out at the bottom of the list of priorities. It is now more important to fight the enemy.

Meanwhile, you may be reading this and thinking, “Hair-loss?! Who’s worried about hair-loss when you’re bedridden and literally unable to function in day-to-day life?!”

I get it. Breast Implant Illness can be, and is absolutely debilitating for some women, and hair-loss is the least of their concerns. But at the end of the day, it’s the same thing we are all dealing with. Increasing inflammation triggered by stress (breast implants) and imbalances (caused by stress) that will continue to grow until the toxins are removed.

So when you start noticing symptoms that can be explained away by your conventional doc as just anemia, or are suddenly diagnosed as hypothyroid, do not doubt for one second, if you have breast implants, that they are playing their part as the trigger to literally every symptom that showed up after they did. 

But Wait

This is where it can get complicated. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT! While some women are lucky enough to experience immediate relief from explant, often times symptoms will return. Weeks, months or even years later, symptoms can return. And, in fact, some women experience no relief at all from explant alone. This, unfortunately is where some women have concluded, “It wasn’t the implants,” or that they never had Breast Implant Illness to begin with. This is a very dangerous assumption, as some women have such a difficult time accepting their post-explant bodies that once symptoms return (or if they experience no relief from explant alone) they are falsely led to believe that the implants must have been harmless. Some of these women actually to re-implant. I know this sounds dramatic, and like who would do that? But, there are entire facebook groups dedicated to this unfortunate phenomenon, full of women who claim to regret explant and are considering re-implanting. And sadly, some have already re-implanted and go on to be the misguided hero the others are looking for in their time of feeling like they have made a mistake by explanting.

This is absolutely tragic! And it’s happening because these women have only followed through with the first step in the detoxification and healing process, by removing the implants. They need deep healing work that requires a level of commitment many cannot comprehend and could last many months to a few years. For most women, you didn’t wake up the day after your implant surgery with every symptom you had the day of explant. So, it stands to reason that you’re not going to wake up the morning after explant surgery with all of them gone. It took you a while to get into this. It’s going to take you a while to get out.

HOW TO RECOVER FROM BREAST IMPLANT ILLNESS

That’s all any woman with breast implant illness wants to know. How the heck to I get out of this? 

Is it any different from healing from any other illness?

You might be surprised to know that it isn’t. Healing from Breast Implant Illness is exactly the same as healing from any other ailment. 

1. If there is a toxin involved — remove it — detox

2. Use nutrition, exercise, stress reduction + sleep to heal the damage

That really is it. Trust me I can feel your frustration coming through the page right now. How can it be that easy? Well I never said it was easy. I said it was simple, and it is. Still, how do you heal? Ok, let’s get a little more detailed.

What’s the same about all of us?

Each and every one of us is different. The only things we have in common are that we are females with breast implants that have made us ill. Even if we are mother and daughter or twin sisters, the similarities stop at just the two—> females with implants that made us ill.

Why is this significant?

This matters because in life we seem to believe that what’s good for one person is good for everyone. This may be the biggest mistake we make in life. Whether it’s fad diets or supplements, or any other thing that makes me feel good and you feel terrible, we are 100% individual and need to heal as such. 

What’s different?

When going into a healing journey, you need to accept that literally everything that is happening in your body is different than what’s happening in mine. When you look at things through that lens, that you are starting with a blank slate, it’s easier to solve. The cycle of trial and error can end. When starting this investigation, you don’t start with the breast implants. The implants came way later into the picture. Let’s start from the beginning. When we document your physical and emotional health history, your exposures, your life experiences, add in symptoms, genetic and lab results, we begin to get a much clearer picture than just a woman with breast implants who feels like shit.

So how do we heal? 

There are some actions that apply to all of us, you may be thinking, and you’d be right. I mentioned them above. Remove toxins + heal using nutrition, exercise, stress reduction + sleep. Yeah, yeah…that’s the super simple way to describe the healing process. 

For real, what am I supposed to do now? That was NOT helpful.

Ok, for real. It is what I said it is, but sometimes these things, as simple as they seem are a little more complicated to pull off. Sometimes we require some guidance, the expertise of someone who’s been there, someone who has the confidence you don’t quite feel yet. Someone who knows you can heal yourself. Someone who will point you in the right direction — someone who will help you. 

If you’ve been to all the doctors and specialists who have given you a million diagnoses or none (it’s all in your head) and you want to heal, you need to heal, like yesterday… it’s probably time to consider asking for help.

A properly trained and skilled practitioner can walk you through this process. It’s time to stop getting nowhere and be done with this bullshit. 

Pre Op Blueprint

• Prepare your body for explantation (if you haven’t already explanted)
• Explant (enbloc total encapsulation)
• Heal from surgery (detox from anesthesia + other pharmaceuticals used during + after surgery)
• Prepare your body for detoxification

Post Op Blueprint

• Establish (Medical + Personal) History (including but not limited to)
  • Illnesses, chronic conditions, allergies, diagnoses
  • Surgeries, use of pharmaceuticals
  • toxic exposures, living conditions
  • diet, nutrition history
  • sleep, exercise + physical, mental + emotional stress history
  • ALL SYMPTOMS
• Lab Work To Establish More Hidden Stressors + Imbalances
  • Hormones
  • Microbiome
  • Leaky Gut
  • Detoxification, Digestion + Oxidative Stress
  • Food Sensitivities
• Genetic Testing to Check for Genes that:
  • Impair Detoxification
  • Impair Methylation
  • Predispose for Metabolic Syndromes, Dementias, Cancers, etc.
• Metabolic Typing
  • Metabolic Typing clears up dietary confusion by recommending the most healing and restorative diet for you
  • The importance of establishing the proper diet cannot be overstated when it comes to allowing your body to use its innate intelligence to heal
• Start Personalized Protocol Based On History, Symptoms + Lab Results including but not limited to:
  • Surgery Prep
  • Explant + Recovery
  • Diet, Rest, Exercise, Stress Reduction, Supplementation + Detoxification 
• Detoxification Protocol
  • Open Drainage (Colon, Liver, Gallbladder, Lymph, Organs, Tissues + Cells <— in the right order)
  • Address Bacterial Imbalances (SIBO) + Parasites
  • Heal the Gut + Support Immune System

Once upon a time I told myself I would be able to share what I’d done to heal from Breast Implant Illness with all of you and actually be helpful. I thought I would be able to share tips on detox and everyone would be able to do what I did, easy peasy. But what I have found is that Breast Implant Illness is no different than any other ailment and that requires personalizing the entire journey. Yes, you can take the tips and free information and try to go it alone, and you may succeed. But I can tell you from experience, it is not easy. 

What is easy is to get stuck in a never-ending cycle of trial and error when it comes to healing. Each and every one of our bodies have very specific needs. These needs are revealed when we can work with all of the information for each individual woman. 

Having the information is the first step and some women will be able to interpret and develop a protocol based on that information. But more will need some level of guidance and most will need to go through a process of learning how to properly heal and care for herself. Once you learn this invaluable skill, you will be forever equipped to handle whatever comes your way in terms of managing your own health.

If you would like my help, please reach out.

Join my Breast Implant Illness Group on Facebook or contact me directly using the form below, or chatbox on the bottom left of this page.