February 13 is BREAST IMPLANT ILLNESS AWARENESS DAY internationally ..
A NOTE TO YOUNG MEDICAL STUDENTS and RESIDENTS .. YOU are the future of medicine. Please keep an open mind when a patient with breast implants presents to you with complaints of symptoms consistent with autoimmune illness; connective tissue issues; respiratory issues; difficulty swallowing and/or thick saliva that’s difficult to swallow; bruising easily; localized lumps, enlarged lymph nodes or masses; rashes; and more … Don’t let ‘normal’ blood labs throw you as most of us have results within normal range. DO proactively check the integrity of breast implants through ordering an Ultrasound / MRI.
It was a young resident that led to my rupture being diagnosed. The more senior doctors had dismissed my complaints as somatization. As I inched closer toward death he looked me in the eyes and asked if I really believed there was something wrong. I said YES, I KNOW there’s something wrong and I showed him with my hands where I could feel something inside my chest wall. He ordered an ultrasound which diagnosed both implants were badly ruptured, and on the left side there was extensive extra capsular rupture. An MRI confirmed the findings with more detail and was an exact map of where I’d shown with my hands that I could feel something inside me.
IF the more senior doctors had just ordered the same diagnostic tests years earlier my outcome could have been so different. As those doctors thought somatization and did NOTHING the silicone continued migrating more deeply within me. Beneath my left breast I had what felt like the thickness of a rib .. it was dismissed as scar tissue that had become displaced without investigation. What it actually was .. a large open-ended silicone granuloma that was allowing silicone to migrate from within the scar capsule surrounding my implant to the inside of my chest wall.
When I was ‘opened up’ at the time my implants were removed the nightmare within my chest wall was revealed. I was loaded with acute inflammation and infection, necrotized tissue, heavy calcification, silicone granulomas and so much more.
Think device failure, toxic chemicals, biofilms vs some stale party line .. think devices that can cause cancer of the immune system.
I owe my life to the Resident that broke from the pack and considered there just might actually be something wrong. I’m forever grateful.
Breast Implant Failure & Illness 