Boobie Trapped, Part 1

A 2 part blog about breast implants, breast implant illness,

explant surgery, advocacy for women’s health and Pilates and yoga for recovery

“Boobytrap” :: Noun

1. an apparently harmless object containing a concealed explosive device designed to

kill or injur anyone who touches it.

**2. A trap for the unwary or unsuspecting, a pitfall

The opportunity and responsibility of any educator is to share information, knowledge

and experiences regarding a certain subject or subjects for the greater good. For over

27 years, I’ve been sharing my knowledge of Pilates and movement with a wide

audience. I’ve used my expertise to communicate movement principles and technique,

to help people get out of pain and improve their quality of life. I’ve shared my own

experiences with the Pilates method to thousands of people and will continue doing so

as long as I can, proudly with purpose and intention.

I have much more to share, and it’s not only about Pilates.

I find value in learning new things be it about Pilates, cooking, travel, financial

strategies or health/wellness, for example, from many sources. I’m a voracious learner.

I also believe in the power of personal experience being one of the best teachers

anyone can ask for. Hearing other peoples stories about theirs trials and tribulations or

success can be powerful tool and deeply meaningful. It can sometimes be that one

new element or one piece of information that can catapult a person into a whole new

direction and/or help them find deeper meaning to something they’ve been inquisitive

about or looking for answers to.

In the spirit of education, sharing and advocacy, knowing what I have to say could help

even one person, or possibly many, I’m writing this from my own personal perspective.

I want to share my experience with breast implants, breast implant illness, the level of

misinformation about breast implant safety, how they’ve affected my life and how I

resourced Pilates and therapeutic/restorative yoga to help me post breast implant

removal surgery. This blog is being written from a place of honesty, integrity and

authenticity. My hope is to help shed some light on this topic, provide information, to

help people understand their way around these issues and to have the conversation.

In this part 1 of 2, I’ll be providing an overview of breast implants and how they are

placed, what Breast Implant Illness is, symptoms, when and why you should be

concerned, when you need a diagnosis, and how my implants were making me sick

and affecting my Pilates practice and my life. Part 2 I’ll discuss decision making

around implant removal, picking your surgeon, types of surgeries, pre and post surgery

protocols, healing and of course - movement post surgery and beyond.

Part 1

What is Breast Implant Illness ::

Breast Implant Illness refers to a wide range of health issues and symptoms after

placing implants, especially inflammation, the root cause for disease. BII occurs in

both saline and silicone-filled implants. It’s a complex illness that is becoming talked

about more and more. Research is being done everyday to provide clear data and

evidence to this growing problem, yet there is misinformation and unclear messaging

from the FDA about the safety of breast implants and the illnesses resulting from them.

BII isn’t yet recognized as an official medical diagnosis, but this is rapidly changing.

The following link discusses the scientific evidence of BII in great detail. It’s worth a

read.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1744666X.2022.2010546

Implants are made of a silicone shell (all implants have a silicone shell no matter what

they are filled with). Some people can have strong, negative responses occurring

immediately after they are put in, or years later. Not all people will experience

problems or symptoms, which adds to the complexity of the diagnosis. Silicone has

been shown to bleed through the intact shell and can migrate to the lungs, skin, and

extremities causing incredible problems. Implants can also rupture and is often

undetectable. The silicone gel can find it’s way into lymph nodes, muscle and other

surrounding tissue. If silicone leaches out and into the body, bloodstream, lymph nodes

etc, this can be a life threatening issue and until detected, is silently poisoning people.

Annually in the U.S., approximately 400,00 women augment their bodies with breast

implants either for cosmetic reasons and/or for reconstruction after breast cancer.

Worldwide, the numbers are closer to 1-2 million women having breast implants.

How do you know if you might have Breast Implant Illness ::

If your health is suffering and you’re not sure why, have been seeking answers, seeing

multiple doctors with no clear direction and you have breast implants, they could be

the reason. Breast implant illness symptoms can affect various body systems including

the endocrine (hormones), neurological, immune, gastrointestinal, detoxification and

metabolic systems. Immune dysregulation and the presence of pathogenic organisms

can contribute to autoimmunity through a process known as leaky gut. The symptoms

can often share traits with autoimmune and connective tissue disorders.

Receiving a diagnosis can be complicated and some regular doctors do not know how

to offer a true diagnosis. Functional medicine doctors are typically the better source

when looking for guidance and direction due to their perspective on finding root causes

to issues rather than simply offering medication and/or prescriptions to band aid

ailments. For a person to truly find out if they may be experiencing BII, it often takes

multiple rounds of bloodwork to measure hormone levels and toxicity paired with

symptoms and a doctor willing to help investigate and help a person understand their

situation.

Breast implants can be placed over the pectoral muscle or behind it. Implants are

made with approximately 40 toxic chemicals and contain an array of heavy metals

which is why they are known as endocrine disruptors. The body doesn’t recognize

implants because they are foreign objects. Inflammatory, carcinogenic, cytotoxic and

neurotoxins poison our fragile endocrine system (thyroid/adrenals and others) and

poison our thymus gland and our immune system, our gut health and create toxicity in

our organs and body.

Understandably, the body starts to defend itself and the immune system takes a huge

hit. The body mounts a war trying to protect itself. This causes immune issues and

dysfunction and eventually autoimmune symptoms and diseases like Hashimoto’s,

lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and scleroderma to name a few.

As soon as the implant is placed, the body begins forming a connective tissue

‘wrapping’ or capsule around the it. This capsule can sometimes adhere to ribs and

other muscle tissue in and around the chest wall or impinge nerves, often creating pain,

discomfort and distortion of appearance and/or size. This issue, known as capsular

contracture, can over time become debilitating enough for a person to want to go

through another surgical procedure to have the implant repositioned, replaced or

removed altogether. Although capsular contracture can be a slow developing issue, it’s

not advisable to ignore. It will become very painful and eventually need attention.

Here’s where the debate and discussion gets more intricate and to some, very

challenging to hear, but does need to be in this conversation.

The capsule is also where certain breast cancers are being detected. In March 2017,

the FDA issued a warning confirming that breast implants cause BIA-ALCL cancer

(breast implant associated - anaplastic large cell lymphoma) which is a cancer of the

immune system. This is deeply upsetting, as you can imagine. Women who have

breast cancer and who go through a mastectomy and who opt for implants for a

rebuild/reconstruction are risking getting another type of cancer from placing the

implants. A double edged sword. A booby -trap, a potential ticking time bomb.

For a full description of the cancers and recent FDA findings, please follow this link::

https://www.healingbreastimplantillness.com/bia-alcl/

Symptoms and Signs of Breast Implant Illness ::

Here is a short and partial list. These can affect everyone differently. I experienced all

of these and many more on the complete list.

• Extreme/chronic fatigue

• Joint and muscle pain

• Inflammation

• Weight gain or loss

• Tingling and numbness in limbs

• Brain fog, memory and cognitive problems

• Headaches

• Breathing problems

• Sleep disturbance

• Rashes and other skin problems

• Dry mouth and eyes

• Anxiety and depression

• Gastrointestinal problems/IBS

• Swollen lymph nodes

• Thyroid, Adrenal and Autoimmune disfunction/disease

For a full and complete list, please refer to ::

https://www.healingbreastimplantillness.com/breast-implant-symptoms/

Implants are not lifetime devices and it’s suggested that people replace them every

10-15 years making it sound as easy as going to get a manicure or pedicure.

Replacement is expensive and can sometimes be complicated. Often the replacement

procedure is not defined by surgeons in detail, nor is the possibility of complications

outlined clearly. People are not given the full picture of what goes into replacing

explanting.

To explant is to remove the breast implant device completely, including the

scar tissue capsule. I’ll be going into more detail about this in Part 2.Now for a bit of my story ::

I had my implants placed in 2013 as a personal choice for an aesthetic. I’ve always

been a small chested woman and I had wanted implants for years, so I made the

decision to augment my body. I had three consultations (always a good idea). Each

surgeon told me something different. The first surgeon wanted to place a D cup sized

implant in. Not for me thank you. The second surgeon was much help at all. The third

surgeon seemed to understand completely, that I just didn’t want to look flat. “You

have great shape, but no volume”. Exactly! I agreed to the smallest implant on the

market to give my chest just a bit of volume (235 cc). His words though “are you sure,

most women complain that they wish they’d gone bigger”. A red flag that I’ll discuss

later. This was going to be a big change for me, even though I chose the most modest

size. I was pleased with my decision and set the date for surgery. April 3rd, 2013.

My plastic surgeon did advise me that implants were not lifetime devices and that I

would most likely need to exchange them around 10 - 12 years. He also told me I

could develop capsular contracture or they could rupture or leak. When I asked him

about that, he basically said, “that’s not good, but don’t worry, that rarely happens”. I

took his word for it, didn’t ask additional questions. He was the surgeon after all and I

believed him. He was performing about 10 breast augmentations a week at that point.

I liked him and trusted him. Wasn’t I supposed to?

If there is one major point I want to make, I’ll mention this now. We MUST be our

own advocates in ALL of our health decisions. It’s personal, but our choices are

our own. I was about to really put this to the test.

I felt fine for the first few years, and was liking them, but around 2017, I started noticing

some changes in my health that seem to have come out of nowhere. One of the gifts

the Pilates has given me is Awareness. I have such awareness of my body that I

listened, paid attention to my intuition and asked myself some questions about what I

was feeling. FATIGUE was the main answer, deep fatigue. Like wanting to go back to

bed an hour after waking. That wasn’t normal for me at all. I was also hitting the

perimenopause timeline so I thought it could be that.

I got some bloodwork done and was shocked to hear the results :: “You have

Hashimoto’s.” I wasn’t familiar with that then, but I am now. It’s an autoimmune

disease. My thyroid was basically non-functioning and I was not producing much

estrogen, progesterone or testosterone and my gut was a mess. We began treating

with hormone therapy and I did a 6 week nutritional rebalance. Although I started to

feel a bit better, I would plateau every 3 months or so, then crash again. It became a

vicious cycle, required routine monitored bloodwork and very expensive.

Meanwhile inflammation started to set in, weight gain, numbness and tingling in my

hands and arms, joint pain in my pelvis, legs, shoulders, tinnitus and brain fog! I was

also noticing heart palpitations and even had a heart monitor for a week to check tosee if I had something

more serious going on. Luckily, I did not and was offered a cortisone management supplement which only slightly helped.

My mammograms were fine, but an ultrasound showed a suspicious spot on in y left breast. This made me

nervous of course and my doctor ordered another ultrasound. It was clear, but I wasn’t

satisfied so I requested an MRI just in case they missed something. Nothing showed

up. What was wrong with me?!! Why was I feeling so unwell?

I had also become reactive to many foods so choosing the right things to eat was a

chore and frustrating. It seemed like nothing I was doing was making me feel any

better. Moving my body was not feeling good most of the time. My joints hurt, I was

losing mobility (connective tissue problems), was dealing with lots of inflammation and

was still teaching, directing for Pilates Anytime, managing and teaching in my studio,

caring for my mother, traveling to teach and living as a single woman doing all of this

alone.

For years, these symptoms and so many more (I experienced over 40 from the full list I

included earlier) were just part of my every day and I was doing the best to manage

them. I was also experiencing an enormous about of grief in my life from the sudden

death of an older brother in December of 2019, caregiving for my mother, Covid,

massive job shifts and eventually the death of my mother. I leaned heavily into my

Pilates fundamentals, breathing and therapeutic yoga to help manage the anxiety,

stress and depression I was experiencing. I’d also been given another new diagnosis

of Epstein Barr. I felt lost and in a body that was not supporting me. I was getting

pretty scared and I felt like crap. Most of the time, all I wanted to do was lie on the

floor, breathe and do somatic-like movements. Pilates as I knew it didn’t feel good.

The capsular contracture had gotten so intense in my right breast and was pressing on

nerves causing a lot of pain. Working out hurt.

In December of 2022 during an evening Instagram scroll, I came across a post or a

story and to this day I can’t remember what or who it was, but it was something

discussing Breast Implant Illness. THIS, THIS must be what’s going on with me!!

I went down a rabbit hole that night, thankfully! I learned SO much. I spent hours

reading and found two primary Instagram accounts, a website devoted to BII and a

private Facebook group that accepted my request to join. All were resources that I

began to utilize to inform myself about Breast Implant Illness, what to do about it, what

surgeons performed the correct procedures, etc. Learning about this helped me

understand the severity of the issue and the complications that implants had caused

me, my health and my body.

I was coming up on the 10 year marker to replace them,

but my health issues and having the capsular contracture was evidence that steered

me away from that and towards the decision to have my implants removed.

I’ll get into more detail in part 2 about choosing the best surgeon because specific

criteria needs to be met and more about choosing the best team for healing. My local

functional medicine doctor was good, but many times I had to ask her for direction

about my BII issues; she should have been able to detect and direct me much earlier inthe game. I feel like I lost some time and quite a bit of money circling and suffering.

Being my own advocate, I started seeking out professionals better suited for my needs

and thankfully found them.

I began my search to find the best surgeon for me as well. I found a surgeon in

Scottsdale, AZ who specializes in explant procedures and now devotes his entire

practice to this. He believes in BII and no longer does implant procedures. This was

the surgeon for me! Why AZ and not Santa Barbara where I live? I contacted the

surgeon who placed my implants back in 2013, but he doesn’t believe in BII and

wouldn’t do the type of surgery needed to have them safely removed. Not my surgeon!

I have family in AZ and would need to lean heavily on them the first week of recovery.

This is a tough one to do alone. I made an appointment for a consultation and then set

a surgery date.

Knowing I was going to have the implants removed started bringing up lots of heavy

emotions and feelings. It’s an expensive surgery and I’d need several weeks off from

teaching. The bigger part was the anxiety around seeing my new “old” landscape,

having large scars, going back to my former flat chest, the possible challenges ahead

with detoxing the poisons that had taken over my body. How long would that take? To

remove implants and scar tissue is quite invasive. But, my health and well-being

mattered the most. Just as important was relearning my chest, my pectorals, my

shoulder girdle, and my biomechanics - returning to my Pilates and movement practice

with grace, patience and love. I needed to learn how to take a deep breath again

because I hadn’t been able to breathe well for years. Implants had affected so many

aspects of my life and my wellness. Friday October 27th 2023 couldn’t come soon

enough and I was ready.