News&Comment&Extreme Makeover looking for breast explant candidate

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In The News : breast implants

Her true self emerges after implants are removed

San Mercury News - San ,CA,USA

By Sue Hutchison. This is the story of a woman who became completely comfortable with herself after she got her breast implants . . . removed. ...

Posted on Tue, Jun. 07, 2005

Her true self emerges after implants are removed

By Sue Hutchison

Mercury News

This is the story of a woman who became completely comfortable with herself after she got her breast implants . . . removed.She didn't get the implants taken out because she was having medical problems. She's not passing judgment on women who think their own breast implants are fabulous. She just wants to say that after a lifetime of secretly buying into the mass-marketed beauty myth that big breasts conquer all, she is now thrilled to be rid of her artificial C-cups.

Hidden at first

Her name is Sahlstrom. She is 43 and lives with her husband, Kris, in San . The two met several years ago on Pikes Peak. She was wearing baggy hiking clothes and, Pikes Peak metaphors aside, her surgically enhanced bust line was not in view.``I fell in love with this engaging person I met on the trail,'' Kris said. ``I didn't fall in love with some `GQ' idea of a woman.''But all that came later.

Rewind to 1998 when was living in Florida, several years out of her first marriage and feeling like she wasn't attractive enough.Never mind that she is enviably petite and looks a decade younger than she is. It didn't matter that her ex-husband never had any complaints about her physique. Never mind that she is a bit of a health nut and revels in what is natural. Never mind that she was very happy in her job as a human resources specialist and she projected self-confidence.

A lifetime of growing up with ``female ideals,'' such as halter top-vixen Daisy Duke on ``Dukes of Hazzard,'' left her feeling that she would never measure up. ``I grew up hearing the jokes about being `a pirate's dream' with a sunken chest,'' she said, rolling her eyes. ``That stuff made me really self-conscious.''So she decided to ``fix'' herself. She talked to several women who had had breast augmentation, and every one said they loved it. figured this was the answer. Daisy Duke, here I come!

She went to a plastic surgeon in Tampa and got saline implants. Then she waited for her self-esteem to soar.It didn't happen. She got more attention, but it didn't make her feel better about herself. Instead, she didn't feel much like herself at all. ``I couldn't even fold my arms in front of myself when I was doing yoga,'' she said. ``These boobs were in the way.''

Five-year deadline

She had vowed to give herself five years with the implants, and if she didn't like them any better by that time she'd have them removed. It was in Implant Year Four when she met Kris on the mountain trail.They started corresponding online after she went back to Florida and he returned home to California. In one e-mail, he mused about why some people let Madison Avenue media images define what they should look like. So, she figured she'd better come clean about the implants.``I was a little surprised,'' Kris said. ``But I understand the pressure, especially on women, to look a certain way.''

They were married a year later, and she moved to California. couldn't wait to get rid of her Daisy Duke self. She went to Dr. Rosenberg, who has a private plastic surgery practice in Mountain View, and got the implants removed last October. Kris cheered her on all the way.Now she wants other women like her to know that being ``Daisy'' ain't all it's cracked up to be. The Implant Years were a strange journey for her, but she figures it was a trip worth taking since she got back to her true self. Finally, she's happy to be there.Sue Hutchison's column appears Tuesdays in A & E and Sundays in Style. Contact her at shutchison@....

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Subj: Re: platinum

Date: 6/7/2005 10:04:16 AM Eastern Standard Time

From: SWEETCAROLINELV@...

dr LYKISSA'S lab is the ONLY lab that hasnt been tampered with and he

and the persons who testified at the FDA hearings have shown EXACTLY

whos side they are on -----BEV ezra has talked to more people about

platinum and has pushed every TOXIC CHEMISTS in the country to help us

----the lab has run two studies and another lady who can help with any

PLATINUM ISSUE IS MARLENE KEELING she has ALL THE CORRECT INFO YOU NEED

----- its the CHEMICALS that cause our illness ----and this is one way

to FIND A DIRECT CONNECTION TO SILICONE DAMAGE ITS IN THE

SILICONE IMPLANTS ITS IN THE WOMENS BODYS

ITS IN THE BREAST MILK ITS IN THE CHILDREN WHO

NURSED OR WERE CARRIED WHILE SILICONE LEAKED IN THEIR MOMS BODYS -----

DUH -----RIGHT? GET TESTED LADIES ----ITS A WHOLE

NEW BALL GAME WTH TOXIC CHEMICAL DAMAGE ------ LUV CAROLINE ----still

in a semi coma and NOT UNPACKED -----ugh ---so hard ----- feel like a

tank ran over me then backed up and did it again ---- and its not done

YET -------

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Subj: Extreme Makeover looking for breast explant candidate

Date: 6/7/2005 7:54:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

From: ilena03@...

Dear ,

Thank you so much for posting this on our newsgroup and making this offer. It would be a dream come thru to have this side of the story told on your show.

I will distribute this to our support list ... I believe there may well be women who would be willing to do this and have no other means to pay for explant surgery.

Thank you so much.

Best regards,

Ilena Rosenthal

www.BreastImplantAwareness.org

Looking for Breast Explant Candidate

http://talkaboutsupport.com/group/alt.support.breast-implant/messages/121448.html

by andrea@...

Jun 7, 2005 at 11:26 AM

I'm a producer on ABC's reality show "Extreme Makeover." I've beendoing some research and finding the personal stories relating to breast explant surgery fascinating. I think our viewers would agree.If you, or anyone you know, is interested in having breast explantsurgery on our show, please contact me at:

andrea@...I really believe that these stories should be told to a national audience.

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