this is my story- for all women considering implants please read

[Guest guest]

Dear new members,

I'm only 21 years old, I've had my implants less than 2 years and

take my advice, do not get them. I am not out to tell people what

choices to make and am not usually an opinionated person what so

ever. Never would I spend the time to write this unless I thought

maybe if you heard my story it would change one of your minds and

possibly save one person's health from turning into what mine is.

I got into a hit and run accident while walking home at age 18 and

it left me with a lot of scars and body issues. I was finally

feeling better months later and fully recovered health wise, but

mentally I was very depressed and had post-traumatic stress

disorder. So in my parents' attempt to make me feel better about my

body they told me they'd do or pay for anything. I had always felt

awkward about my A cup boobs, I was always a pretty self-consious

person and until my late teens looked pretty gangly. So I actually

went through with it and got a breast augmentation.

At first they looked good, and actually did help a little with my

self esteem. I got on the birth control pill as well as started

eating more. Suddenly I felt self consious about my chest more than

I ever did before because I gained just a little weight and they

went from a full B/small C to a big C/small D. People were

commenting on how huge my boobs were, and again I didn't show any

clevage because they started to look fake and like the fake balls

that they are. They even felt a little heavy and started getting

more achy. I regretting getting them a little but I wasn't about to

tell my parents I wanted them out after all that money they had just

spent on me to make me happy, so I figured in a couple of years if

they still felt fake me and I still felt awkward about having such

large boobs on a skinny body to explant when I had the money after

graduating from school.

I started noticing about 2 months after my implantation that my

breasts had sharp pains in them. My doctor said they were probably

still " settling " and it only happened occasionally so I dismissed

it. Soon, I had shooting pains up my arms. I thought I had been

using the computer too much and completely unconnected it to the

implants. The arm pain turned into wrist pain, and then crippling

pain in my hands. The doctors had no idea what was wrong since I

tested negative for carpal tunnel as well as rheumatory arthritis,

and I'm too young to have osteoarthritis becasue I have never broke

or strained my wrists and hands too much. I have lived with that

pain for about 18 months when suddenly it seemed to have gone away.

A few weeks after it went away I started noticing aches in all of my

joints. Horrible aches like pins and needles. It was horrible, and

I was convinced I had some disease but again I tested negative for

rheumatory arthritis and all other tests were negative. I saw on

MTV Kacey Long's story about her implants and it clicked in that

they could be the culprit.

In just the past 3 months I have begun to get additional symptoms,

pains in my spine, muscles, joints, muscle twitches everywhere that

are very frighetening, and worse yet brain fog. I used to be a very

articulate writer and now I'll be trying to write a midterm and I

can't think of the word I want and my head feels like I have someone

squeezing it. All my symptoms come and go at different times, but I

know it all started with shooting pains in my breasts. A girl knows

these things about her body and I can just feel it literally and

figuratively that it stems from my chest.

I can't explant until late May when I'm out of school because I

can't miss any classes and I am SO anxious and miserable. Some days

my life feels like hell, I feel like I'm 90 years old, other days

are better. I felt so hopeless but these women on this site who

have recovered give me hope. They don't know how they've been

angels to me and feel I found this site for a reason, because fate

wanted to lead me towards my key to good health. And I am so

grateful for Peggy who made this site because without it I would

still be oblivious to what my health issues were from. I hope I can

inspire just one of you to reconsider.

Although all my doctors have told me they doubt it is related, my

plastic surgeon has told me that it may be worth a shot to take them

out. He told me he can remember 2 times when women had similar

symptoms that were dismissed as Fibromyalgia (which is a diagnosis

for someone who has a ton of weird symptoms and tests negative for

everything else), but these 2 women whose doctors thought they had

fibromyalgia didn't care what the doctor thought because they hated

their implants and the way they made them feel and got explanted

anyways. He said those specific women came back and let him know

they felt SO much better, but he said there were many cases where

women just happened to get diseases while having the implants so

getting them out wouldn't cure anything if this is the case. The

trouble with studies is no hard proof that in some cases women do

get sick in several ways, because many symptoms that are aquired are

not able to be tested for in blood tests (such as aches and pains)

and if you read through the stories you will see that so many do.

It makes me so sad that many women are oblivious the implants are

the reason for their health problems and live with the poision to

their bodies just sitting there as lumps in their chest. I KNOW

it's my body freaking out from the silicone lining of the saline

implant because I have read through ALL the message board and I read

through several women with the SAME exact symptoms. In my ears I

can't wear anything but gold because my body freaks out and my

earlobe becomes infected from many metals, and the silicone shell is

made from many similar chemcials.

I was finally healthy and living my life how I wanted and then this

nightmare came from getting these implants. Many of our bodies are

having a reaction, and if you are considering implants, I don't know

if you will get sick, I know many women obviously don't. If you do

decide to go through with it I wish you luck but if you were my

friend I would plead for you not to on hands and knees if I had to.

But eventually many do get sick, and because of the wide array of

symptoms, they may not even make the connection. Any type of

irritation my body has currently I account totally to the implants,

and with them you will never know if that is the reason you are sick

with anything. Every woman's body reacts differently with them,

some well, some poorly (thousands more than actually know it), but

it's completely unpredictable from person to person.

Think about it like this- put 2 car tires into a woman's chest and

maybe some would be fine, but I don't think that I would, and even

if right away I recovered from the inital shock of foreign objects

in my chest, after years of those tires in my chest I might get a

flat tire (leakage), or an infection around it I would imagine. We

all eventually need tires replaced no matter how expensive or

durable they are. They don't last forever, and mice have died by

eating the silicone shell. I feel sick thinking about all this and

I should really stop ranting because I am not trying to complain.

I'm just trying to help and I'm sorry if I upset anyone. I am

awaiting anxiously my explant so my health can start regaining it's

orginal state. I feel God picked me to react to them badly for a

reason, as well as many of us I don't think they're right for every

body, and honestly now I don't think they're right for anybody.

It's kind of like smoking, I know people who smoke for the quick

buzz or gratification they get from it. But it takes a toll on

their health, wallet, and eventually they will regret it when they

are stuck with the habit (or in our case the implants), both which

continue to make us feel worse.

To the women on this support group, I want to let you know I feel

we were chosen to read each other's messages for a reason. I have

been tested by God or fate so many times in my life and I am so

young, but feel I have had enough pain and life experience for 5

lifetimes. I feel I have always had good intution and I beat up

myself everyday about not following mine about my breasts,

especially after the intial symptoms- I may have never developed the

more recent ones.

I don't think God or whoever it is that watches over us wants us to

be miserable but he chooses for us to become stronger through

situations and trials such as these. Maybe mother nature is trying

to tell us something. I try to remain positive as we all should

because with time I have read so many women get better, almost every

woman explanted over time has been close to 100%. I am so miserable

I can't explain and there's no guarentee I will ever be 100% and I

am in the prime of my life- I'm just a baby. Please don't do it

because it is painful for me to see so many beautiful girls get

them. I feel so naive and I was so uneducated what I was doing to

my body.

When I get them out my breasts will be saggier than before and I'll

still be so young with saggy breasts but I will love them how they

are because I know I'll feel better. I think small breasts are cute

now, and I wish I could wear a little tank top like I used to and

not feel like my boobs looked out of control, so I can't wait for

that. My physical and mental health are in shambles but I do the

best I can because I know in 2 months I will be there. The

emergency room will seriously be like an oasis to me, I will be more

excited then scared. I NEVER in a million years would think I would

feel so strongly against my very nice looking rack right after I got

them, they aren't a quick fix, they aren't safe, I don't care what

anybody ever says again, not even my plastic surgeon who went to

Harvard Med School and is the head of plastic surgery in his

department. He's an honest man and even he admitted to me that

there are no guarentees someone wouldn't react negatively to them,

that most research hasn't documented anything very profound but not

much testing has been done. And because a lot of times no blood

tests or analysis can determine that diseses came and went because

when we react to implants we don't get any cut and dry diseases we

just get horrible reactions, so when they are resolved after

explantation the doctors just have to take your word and sometimes

think it is all psychological. All I know is that there are real

women with real problems directly from saline breast implants.

Don't make the mistake I did and dismiss the accusations that they

make you sick because it's disputed by doctors. I did and I regret

it more than anything in my life, even more than someone driving

into me with a car. Feel free to ask any questions or comment on

the longest entry of all time(sorry!) I hope someone hears me.

Thanks again for listening, Lo