The story so far...
Ten years ago I had a gastric by-pass and lost half my body weight. As you can imagine after a lifetime of yoyo dieting I was thrilled. I was 45 and fitter than I had ever been. I was no longer smoking, every day I did some form of exercise whether it was weights and cardio at the gym or yoga (a new discovery which I absolutely loved).
Obviously, that kind of intense weight loss left its mark in the form of excess skin, and - if I may be frank - no tits.
I did extensive research to find someone who could alter the exterior to match my new interior, and found Dr Jan Stanek. I'd seen his work on the TV show Ten Years Younger, so I figured he would be the one.
On my first visit to him he agreed on a lower face lift (my neck was so saggy I looked worse than my Mum did just before she died), removal of the excess skin hanging from my arms (bingo wings), and then there was the issue of my boobs. When I removed my bra he took one look and said 'well they're empty'. I appreciated his bluntness because they were. I described them as looking like New Year's Eve balloons at Easter time.
I stressed I didn't want a huge bust, my new slim figure was quite athletic and to stick two beach balls on it would've looked rubbish. He was pretty keen for me to have implants though and showed me how I'd look with just a lift. I looked 'like a boy' as he said. He promised to use the smallest implants possible and he kept his word, he also put them under my chest muscles as he said that gave the best, most natural shape.
After the surgery, and once the swelling had gone down, I was happy with the way things looked. I went back to exercising, and got on with my life.
Fast forward six months later, I began to struggle a bit keeping up to my old speeds on the treadmill. My knees - right knee especially - would hurt, not ache actually hurt. I started to feel tired. My hair began to fall out. My eyesight got so bad I had to get vari-focals.
Eventually I went to my doctor. We were both perplexed, I was on a fitness high, yet now I felt tired almost all the time, and I was getting all these weird and unconnected aches, pains, and frankly odd symptoms.
I was sent to a rheumatologist and after fairly extensive tests was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and connective tissue disease. I'd also blazed through menopause and the doctor assured me that often times Lupus can occur in menopausal women.
At that stage there was no real treatment prescribed. I was given anti-inflammatories, and bizarrely malaria tablets that helped with the joint pain.
The years went by, I began to gain weight even though I was eating less and less. The symptoms came thick and fast and my exercise regime ground slowly to a halt. Between 2010 and the present day I've been suspected of having everything from angina, to lung cancer, to acute anxiety, to laziness, and finally they decided to add fibromyalgia to the shopping list.
My life today consists of nothing much other than bed rest. If I do something active it can take two or three days to recover. I'm profoundly depressed (as anyone would be). I have trouble walking, some days I need to use a stick. Basically everything hurts all the time.
Then, back in January of this year I was googling yet another symptom and came across this thing called Breast Implant Illness. My old journalistic skills came back into play and I researched the whole of the net to find more information. I found a list of symptoms and it was my eureka moment.
Here they are:
After the surgery, and once the swelling had gone down, I was happy with the way things looked. I went back to exercising, and got on with my life.
Fast forward six months later, I began to struggle a bit keeping up to my old speeds on the treadmill. My knees - right knee especially - would hurt, not ache actually hurt. I started to feel tired. My hair began to fall out. My eyesight got so bad I had to get vari-focals.
Eventually I went to my doctor. We were both perplexed, I was on a fitness high, yet now I felt tired almost all the time, and I was getting all these weird and unconnected aches, pains, and frankly odd symptoms.
I was sent to a rheumatologist and after fairly extensive tests was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and connective tissue disease. I'd also blazed through menopause and the doctor assured me that often times Lupus can occur in menopausal women.
At that stage there was no real treatment prescribed. I was given anti-inflammatories, and bizarrely malaria tablets that helped with the joint pain.
The years went by, I began to gain weight even though I was eating less and less. The symptoms came thick and fast and my exercise regime ground slowly to a halt. Between 2010 and the present day I've been suspected of having everything from angina, to lung cancer, to acute anxiety, to laziness, and finally they decided to add fibromyalgia to the shopping list.
My life today consists of nothing much other than bed rest. If I do something active it can take two or three days to recover. I'm profoundly depressed (as anyone would be). I have trouble walking, some days I need to use a stick. Basically everything hurts all the time.
Then, back in January of this year I was googling yet another symptom and came across this thing called Breast Implant Illness. My old journalistic skills came back into play and I researched the whole of the net to find more information. I found a list of symptoms and it was my eureka moment.
Here they are:
SYMPTOMS OF BII
FATIGUE OR CHRONIC FATIGUE
COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTION (BRAIN FOG, DIFFICULTY CONCENTRATING, MEMORY LOSS)
MUSCLE PAIN AND WEAKNESS, JOINT PAIN
HAIR LOSS, DRY SKIN AND HAIR
PREMATURE AGING
WEIGHT PROBLEMS
INFLAMMATION
POOR SLEEP AND INSOMNIA
DRY EYES, DECLINE IN VISION, VISION DISTURBANCES
HYPO/HYPER THYROID SYMPTOMS
HYPO/HYPER ADRENAL SYMPTOMS
ESTROGEN/PROGESTERONE IMBALANCE OR DIMINISHING HORMONES
SLOW HEALING OF CUTS AND SCRAPES, EASY BRUISING
THROAT CLEARING, COUGH, DIFFICULTY SWALLOWING, CHOKING, REFLUX, METALLIC TASTES
VERTIGO
GASTROINTESTINAL AND DIGESTIVE ISSUES
FEVERS, NIGHT SWEATS, INTOLERANT TO HEAT
NEW AND PERSISTENT BACTERIAL AND VIRAL INFECTIONS
SLOW CLEARING OF COMMON COLDS AND FLUES
FUNGAL INFECTIONS, YEAST INFECTIONS, CANDIDA, SINUS INFECTIONS
SKIN RASHES
EAR RINGING
SUDDEN FOOD INTOLERANCE AND ALLERGIES
HEADACHES
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
BOUTS OF DEHYDRATION FOR NO REASON
FREQUENT URINATION
NUMBNESS/TINGLING SENSATIONS IN UPPER AND LOWER LIMBS
COLD AND DISCOLORED LIMBS, HANDS AND FEET
GENERAL CHEST DISCOMFORT SHORTNESS OF BREATH
PAIN AND OR BURNING SENSATION AROUND IMPLANT AND OR UNDERARM
LIVER AND KIDNEY DYSFUNCTION
CRAMPING
TOXIC SHOCK SYMPTOMS
ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND PANIC ATTACKS
SYMPTOMS OF OR DIAGNOSIS OF FIBROMYALGIA
SYMPTOMS OF OR DIAGNOSIS OF LYME DISEASE
SYMPTOMS OF OR DIAGNOSIS OF AUTO-IMMUNE DISEASES SUCH AS; RAYNAUD’S SYNDROME, HASHIMOTO’S THYROIDITIS, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, SCLERODERMA, LUPUS, SJOGREN’S SYNDROME, NONSPECIFIC CONNECTIVE TISSUE DISEASE, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
SYMPTOMS OF OR DIAGNOSIS OF BIA-ALCL LYMPHOMA
And here are my symptoms:
Rheumatoid arthritis
Tinnitus
Parts of the body feeling on fire
Swelling of joints/pain
Ache in left breast
Tender in both armpits
Lymph nodes in my neck
Connective Tissue Disease
Fibromyalgia
Abnormal anti-nuclear antibodies
Hair loss
Wanting to wee all the time
Lungs aching
Breathlessness
No energy
No strength
Extreme sweating around breast area especially
Feeling of heat generating from my breasts
Eyesight diminishing
Infections
Skin peeling
Vitiligo
Weight gain
Memory loss
Lack of concentration
Cuts taking so long to heal
FATIGUE OR CHRONIC FATIGUE
COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTION (BRAIN FOG, DIFFICULTY CONCENTRATING, MEMORY LOSS)
MUSCLE PAIN AND WEAKNESS, JOINT PAIN
HAIR LOSS, DRY SKIN AND HAIR
PREMATURE AGING
WEIGHT PROBLEMS
INFLAMMATION
POOR SLEEP AND INSOMNIA
DRY EYES, DECLINE IN VISION, VISION DISTURBANCES
HYPO/HYPER THYROID SYMPTOMS
HYPO/HYPER ADRENAL SYMPTOMS
ESTROGEN/PROGESTERONE IMBALANCE OR DIMINISHING HORMONES
SLOW HEALING OF CUTS AND SCRAPES, EASY BRUISING
THROAT CLEARING, COUGH, DIFFICULTY SWALLOWING, CHOKING, REFLUX, METALLIC TASTES
VERTIGO
GASTROINTESTINAL AND DIGESTIVE ISSUES
FEVERS, NIGHT SWEATS, INTOLERANT TO HEAT
NEW AND PERSISTENT BACTERIAL AND VIRAL INFECTIONS
SLOW CLEARING OF COMMON COLDS AND FLUES
FUNGAL INFECTIONS, YEAST INFECTIONS, CANDIDA, SINUS INFECTIONS
SKIN RASHES
EAR RINGING
SUDDEN FOOD INTOLERANCE AND ALLERGIES
HEADACHES
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
BOUTS OF DEHYDRATION FOR NO REASON
FREQUENT URINATION
NUMBNESS/TINGLING SENSATIONS IN UPPER AND LOWER LIMBS
COLD AND DISCOLORED LIMBS, HANDS AND FEET
GENERAL CHEST DISCOMFORT SHORTNESS OF BREATH
PAIN AND OR BURNING SENSATION AROUND IMPLANT AND OR UNDERARM
LIVER AND KIDNEY DYSFUNCTION
CRAMPING
TOXIC SHOCK SYMPTOMS
ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND PANIC ATTACKS
SYMPTOMS OF OR DIAGNOSIS OF FIBROMYALGIA
SYMPTOMS OF OR DIAGNOSIS OF LYME DISEASE
SYMPTOMS OF OR DIAGNOSIS OF AUTO-IMMUNE DISEASES SUCH AS; RAYNAUD’S SYNDROME, HASHIMOTO’S THYROIDITIS, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, SCLERODERMA, LUPUS, SJOGREN’S SYNDROME, NONSPECIFIC CONNECTIVE TISSUE DISEASE, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
SYMPTOMS OF OR DIAGNOSIS OF BIA-ALCL LYMPHOMA
And here are my symptoms:
Rheumatoid arthritis
Tinnitus
Parts of the body feeling on fire
Swelling of joints/pain
Ache in left breast
Tender in both armpits
Lymph nodes in my neck
Connective Tissue Disease
Fibromyalgia
Abnormal anti-nuclear antibodies
Hair loss
Wanting to wee all the time
Lungs aching
Breathlessness
No energy
No strength
Extreme sweating around breast area especially
Feeling of heat generating from my breasts
Eyesight diminishing
Infections
Skin peeling
Vitiligo
Weight gain
Memory loss
Lack of concentration
Cuts taking so long to heal
Difficulty swallowing
Metallic taste in my mouth
Armed with this information I went to my doctor. Unfortunately he was away and I saw a locum. She was young and seemed open until I mentioned what I thought was the matter. She shut right down, giving me a speech I've since heard twice more (almost word for word) from other medical professionals. It goes a bit like this
Metallic taste in my mouth
Armed with this information I went to my doctor. Unfortunately he was away and I saw a locum. She was young and seemed open until I mentioned what I thought was the matter. She shut right down, giving me a speech I've since heard twice more (almost word for word) from other medical professionals. It goes a bit like this
"There's no proof. It's just a coincidence. These things happen. Many other things can trigger your assorted ailments"
And so it goes.
However, I'm nothing if not tenacious and after years of thinking there was no hope and that I was only going to get sicker and sicker, it's exhilarating to think that I might actually have a cure.
And so it goes.
However, I'm nothing if not tenacious and after years of thinking there was no hope and that I was only going to get sicker and sicker, it's exhilarating to think that I might actually have a cure.
I persuaded my GP to give me his email address and I sent him the medical research on the subject along with my list of symptoms (above). Finally I got a reply agreeing that I certainly did have many of the same symptoms. He has referred me to the Breast Clinic, which while not guaranteeing anything is huge compared to the negativity I was facing only a few weeks ago.
I understand the difficulty, we are living in times where the NHS is being butchered and every penny they have is precious. Why should they waste it on someone who was vain enough to want big boobs? Except I didn't, I was talked into it by a respected plastic surgeon. If there had been the tiniest sniff of evidence of these kinds of complications I would've opted for 'looking like a boy'.
My situation as a result of this illness means finances are low, if they weren't I'd gladly pay the £6000 I've been quoted to have them removed privately. I don't care what I look like afterwards, they can cut the entire breast off as long as I don't have this poison seeping into my body day after day.
As with all things, there is no proof removing them (or explantation as it's known) will cure me, but from my research, more women get better after explant than don't. It's a chance I'm willing to take, let's hope the specialist agrees.
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