Re: New Views on Breasts Now That You Are Informed

June 6, 2005

I'm thilled you canceled your surgery! It makes my

day!

The ones who are really happy with implants are the

plastic surgeons . . . They consider it like an

annuity! . . . The cash just keeps rolling in! As one

plastic surgeon told me to my fact " I make money

putting them in, and I make money taking them out. I

don't care what they do! "

Getting implants was the single worst decision I ever

made! I often wonder what I could have accomplished if

I had never gotten them. Sometimes I think they were

God's punishment for getting my values so out of

whack!

Thank God, He was really taking care of me though.

When I was at my sickest, I had a dream where He told

me to turn everything over to Him, that He would take

care of me, my family, my friends and my enemies! . .

..

Right after that, the ball started rolling. I was

given the name of a plastic surgeon willing to remove

them (by the only friend who knew I had them) who did

it properly (even though he still doesn't routinely

remove capsules), and set on a journey of learning

about detoxing.

What I really needed at the time was a mastopexy -

which I finally got when I had my implants removed.

Why doctors don't tell women about this when they come

in with sagging breasts following childbirth, I don't

know! What's really sad is when a woman goes in for a

mastopexy, or a breast reduction, and the doctors put

implants in without the woman's knowledge or

permission! Makes one wonder???

Thanks for letting us know about your decision!

Rogene

--- divapoet <divapoet@...> wrote:

> I had a post detailing about how I almost went undet

> the knife to get

> saline implants. It was actually scheduled to occur

> next Friday. I

> canceled it because I discovered new information

> about SALINE implants

> that I had not been privy to before. It was really

> jolting because the

> PS's office did not share any of the new information

> that I gleaned

> from much of my online research with me. They kept

> telling me

> how " happy " I would be, that this was going to be

> one of the best

> decisions I ever made. Two of the PS's staff with

> whom I communicated

> most closely even had implants themselves.

>

> After learning so much about the toxicity and

> insidious effects of

> implants, I view implanted breasts entirely

> differently, and I am

> starting to find beauty in my B-cups that were once

> C-cups but

> somewhat deflated from pregnancy.

>

> How about anyone else? Hoe have your views on

> implants and naturay

> breasts shifted as a result of your newly gained

> knowledge and/or bad

> experience with implants?

>

June 6, 2005

I am so glad you asked this! In fact, I am so blessed and thrilled

to know that your research has made a difference. This is the

response of a sound mind to the information that we are trying to

disseminate! Implants are sooooo not worth the risks. They are way,

way overrated and deceptive in the promises they make but cannot

live up to.

I am speaking tonight to a group of teen moms. The subject matter

of my talk is self esteem, and it is the perfect spring board to

talk about how breast implants changed my view of myself and my view

of my breasts. There is a bottom line, and I hope you won't mind if

I share part of my talk with all of you on the group.

What has to change is our perspective. We need to learn the secret

of contentment and to learn to see ourselves as God sees us. And He

sees us as HIS beautiful creation. He is the author of beauty. We

just choose to get short sighted in our perspective and focus only

on the outside, not the inside. We neglect the spiritual side of

our person, the heart of who we are.

Here is what I will be saying:

I have been invited to speak on the issue of self esteem, and I

cannot think of a more vital and important subject to be able to

speak to you about than this one. Self esteem issues can be a

crippling factor in our ability to succeed in life, and many people

tragically remain crippled by low self esteem even through their

adult years, but I think especially we as women are vulnerable. The

pressures of today's culture on women are overwhelming. I have a

heart for reaching out to women who suffer from low self esteem,

because I did. As a teen, I suffered terribly from low self esteem,

and it was caused by the unkind things that other people said and

did to me. It took me over 26 years to finally be healed of that,

and it happened through learning the secrets contained in God's

Word. The last 5 years of my life have been spent encouraging

hundreds of women who come to my internet support group for help.

My goal is to help women see themselves as God sees them and realize

their incredible worth.

It is my prayer tonight that as I share my story, you will leave

tonight realizing just how much you are loved by God.

Scripture focus: Psalm 139: 14

" I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your

works are wonderful, I know that full well. "

I wonder, do you really believe that you are fearfully and

wonderfully made?

When I was in the 9th grade, I had several experiences that were

forever burned into my memory. It amazes me that even though they

happened more than 30 years ago, I can still picture the events as

clearly as if they happened yesterday. (I'll discuss those....)

This caused me so much pain that I really became very introverted

and shy, and basically unwilling to allow myself to believe that any

boy would be interested in me after that. I did not believe that I

was fearfully and wonderfully made, I believed I was flawed, because

those other kids pointed out my flaws in a very public and

embarrassing way. The problem here was that I was willing to believe

a lie. The lie I let myself believe was that what they said

mattered.

Self esteem issues are all about lies. It is a tragedy of believing

things that other people say, or things that we tell ourselves, that

have nothing to do with the truth. Rick Warren in his phenomenal

book " The Purpose Driven Life " states, " Being controlled by the

opinions of others is a guaranteed way to miss God's purposes for

your life…..What ultimately matters most will not be what others say

about your life, but what God says. "

And what God says is that He cares about our hearts.

The Bible states in 1 16: 7:

" The Lord does not look at things man looks at. Man looks at the

outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Man looks at the outward appearance. God does not. God cares more

about our hearts and how we relate to him and each other. It is

obvious that there are two opposing viewpoints at play here, one

wordly, one Godly. Man, in our small, tunnel-visioned view, makes

judgements based on outward appearances, and these can be very

painful judgements about one another that cause us to do things that

are extreme in nature and sometimes very harmful. We are so focused

on the things of this world that we neglect God's truth, that we are

His treasured possession. We are all HIS! We are of such great

worth to Him that He sent His own Son to redeem us, and bring us

back to Him. Romans 8:17 says that we will be joint heirs with

Christ. And who is Christ? Is He not a KING? We have an

inheritance in the Kingdom of God. Yes, there is a kingdom waiting

for you and me. Please hang onto that thought because we will come

back to it. God completely loves and accepts us, and yet, we take

it upon ourselves to try to change and morph our bodies to conform

to a transient and fleeting, artificial standard that man creates

because our eyes are too focused on our outward appearances rather

than seeing the beauty within.

After the birth of my first son, my body was left in worse shape

than when I started. My breasts had exploded with milk, leaving

stretchmarks, which I also got on my stomach. As a result, my self

esteem took another beating. In May 1982 I gave my life to Christ,

and I can testify that God took care of me in totally amazing ways,

but there was still one small problem….my self esteem. I had

become pretty good at pretending that I had it all together, but the

truth was, I was still struggling with my self image.

Fast forward to the Plastic surgery boom.

2 3: 1-4

" But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come; For

men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,

blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving,

unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of

good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than

lovers of God. "

Our culture is obsessed with two things, well, 3 actually. Sex,

beauty and money. This focus has become very, very complicated, and

damaging, as it has increased the level of insecurity women feel.

If any of you have seen the MTV show " I Want a Famous Face " , I

wonder if you are as astounded as I have been at the amount of money

that already beautiful women have spent to look like celebrities

like Britney Spears. I watched as a perfectly gorgeous woman spent

over $18,000 for a nose job, boob job, and liposuction. I don't

normally watch MTV, but my interest in that show is due to the fact

that about 6 of the girls on my support group have been featured as

the negative focus of plastic surgery. (In fact, tomorrow night, one

of our girls, Colleen McKenzie, will tell her sad story.)

We have been led to believe by marketers and manufacturers that we

can fix all of our flaws with a bit of cash and a little bit of

surgery. We are doing more invasive surgery than ever before, and

are making decisions that last a lifetime, sometimes in impulsive

moments. Americans spent over 9 Billion dollars on cosmetic

procedures ALONE in 2003, and that does NOT include the fees for

anesthesia, surgical facilities and other miscellaneous expenses

associated with surgery. That's just physicians fees for things like

nose jobs, liposuction, tummy tucks and breast augmentation. It

shows no signs of slowing down, and is actually increasing. To me,

it is very alarming.

And it all points to this problem of Self Esteem. We pursue plastic

surgery mainly for three reasons.

1) We care about, and are controlled by, the opinions of

others, (which we learned is a guaranteed way to miss God's purposes

for your life)

2) we are not content, and

3) We do not see ourselves as God sees us.

The struggle I had with my self image that began in my teen years

led me to the door of a plastic surgeon. God had blessed me with a

loving husband, enough money to pay for the surgery, and so after I

had given birth to my 4th child and finished breast feeding, I beat

a path to the plastic surgeons door, and signed up for breast

implants, believing it was the last and final thing I needed to do

in my life to be content with myself, and stop feeling so self

conscious about my body in front of my husband. I wish Rick Warren

had written his book earlier. Maybe I could have been spared my

suffering, but suffering is the road I traveled. And it was because

I believed in a lie that said I could easily fix the flaws in my

body. In the end, it proved to be a huge lie that sent me and my

whole family down a dark path that could have destroyed us. All

because I was focused on my outward appearance and did not

understand God's truth about my worth.

(I'll tell my story of getting implants, getting sick.)

Symptoms of illness that made me unable to function:

Cognitive difficulty

Vision disturbances

Muscle twitching

Numbness and tingling

Chronic fatigue and lack of energy

Short term memory loss

General poisoned feeling

So, where was God?

In fact, I had said to myself when I first got sick that " God

wouldn't let this happen to me. He loves me too much! " That was

true! Yes, God did love me too much—too much to let me keep

traveling down the wrong path I was on. As I struggled the last 7

years through my autoimmune illness, my suffering led me to a

greater understanding of God's great love for me, and about His

incredible power and mercy in my life. I had to learn that it was

because He loved me so much that He allowed me to be brought down to

my knees to see my total need for Christ. He was mercifully

bringing me back to him, and tenderly, lovingly wiping away my

mistake which was rooted in not realizing the truth in Psalm 139:14

that I was fearfully and wonderfully made. My expensive breast

implants had to go. Today, over 7 and a half years since explant, I

am wonderfully healed. I have scars to remind me of this battle. I

wish I didn't have to go through what I did, but I know God used

this suffering to teach me things I couldn't have learned any other

way.

My prayer is that you will learn from my mistakes and not pay the

same price.

What lessons were learned?

I learned to be Content. I had to come to a place of self-

acceptance, and I had to learn to love myself, knowing that God

loves me already very, very much. Contentment is a learned response.

In ians 4: 11, says " I have learned to be content

whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I

know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being

content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry,

whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through

him who gives me strength. "

The only way I could have avoided my breast implant experience

altogether was to have learned the secret of contentment, which is

to be grounded in Christ, to know that my self esteem had it's

foundation in Christ's love for me, and not in the opinions of

others. This feeling does not come naturally to us! It is a

process, and the sooner we recognize it is a process, the sooner we

can learn to live it out. If any of you struggle with issues of self

image now, please heed my call to find yourself in Christ. I pray

that you experience a hunger for Christ that overtakes you. When we

learn of Him, and fall in love with Christ, we will feel complete in

Him. I had to learn this, and my scars are my battle wounds.

How did I learn to be content? I learned that Christ has made me

beautiful.

God's word is so amazing. Let me share with you a couple more

verses that I pray will sink into your soul and take root there, as

they have for me. God gave us His word for our benefit. There are

so many truths there, that if we would only grab hold of them and

live them out, our joy would know no bounds.

Ecclesiastes 3: 11 says, " He has made everything beautiful in its

time. "

Beauty is more than just skin deep. We need to learn to see true

beauty in others, and recognize that God is the author of all

beauty. He has made us and in His sight, we are His beautiful

creation, whom he adores. True eternal beauty comes from having a

personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which was God's plan for

us. God specializes in making people beautiful on the inside which

then radiates outward. He transforms hearts and our inner beauty

will shine forth. This is one of the greatest things you can do

with your life to bring Glory to the Lord.

He has made everything, not just some things, but everything

beautiful in its time.

These are promises to you and me. Man's promises to pursue outward

beauty fall flat and pale in comparison to the true beauty we

experience when we come to Christ. You are beautiful to Christ!

And finally, I'd like to show you just how beautiful you are to

Christ. Remember when I asked you to hold that thought about God's

Kingdom? The Bible has painted some amazing visions for us about

the Kingdom of heaven that is waiting for us.

Do you think you are too old to believe in things like Princes and

Princesses and happy endings? Even though I am 45 years old, I

still love the thrill of romance, and through God's Word, I am

confident of what awaits those of us who have given our lives to

Christ. It is the greatest love story of all time, and we are in

it, we are the main focus of it. That same scripture in Ecclesiates

3:11 also says that He, (God) has set eternity in the hearts of

men. God has put Happy Ever After in our hearts as a promise. He

has also promised us that Jesus Christ is our coming King. In

Revelation 19: 11 we have been given a vision of the majesty of

Christ, who waits for us. Picture this with me:

" Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who

sat on him was called Faithful and True….and on His head were many

crowns. " We know that this is a vision of Jesus, because it says

he was clothed in a scarlet robe, and His name is called The Word of

God.

" And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,

followed Him on white horses. And He has on His robe and on His

thigh a name written:

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. "

I don't know about you, but that vision just fills me with awe and

excitement. Have you ever dreamed of being a princess…did you ever

dream that someday a prince on a white horse would ride into your

life, sweep you off your feet, and when he looks at you, you just

know in that moment that you take his breath away?

Do you know that you do that to Christ?

We read in Psalm 45: 11, which is another scripture verse with

symbolism that points to the day of our coming King,

" The king is enthralled with your beauty; honor him for he is your

Lord. "

Enthralled means: 1) to be captivated or charmed; spellbound.

Spellbound: to be held by or as if by a spell;

enchanted.

The King Version says Desire: desire, incline, covet,

wait longingly, wish, sigh, want

You may leave here tonight, and go home to the same troubles that

you had when you came, and tomorrow probably won't be all different

in routine than today, I know how difficult life is as a single

mom. But I want you to know that when you give your life to Christ,

you become His Princess, and you become royalty. There is a king

waiting for you. (Passing out tiara's to the girls) In those

moments when you feel down, and those moments will come, I want you

to put this tiara on your head to remind you that there is one who

is enthralled with your beauty. You take his breath away.

Fall in love with Jesus, for He is in love with you!

--- In , " divapoet " <divapoet@y...>

wrote:

> I had a post detailing about how I almost went undet the knife to

get

> saline implants. It was actually scheduled to occur next Friday. I

> canceled it because I discovered new information about SALINE

implants

> that I had not been privy to before. It was really jolting because

the

> PS's office did not share any of the new information that I

gleaned

> from much of my online research with me. They kept telling me

> how " happy " I would be, that this was going to be one of the best

> decisions I ever made. Two of the PS's staff with whom I

communicated

> most closely even had implants themselves.

>

> After learning so much about the toxicity and insidious effects of

> implants, I view implanted breasts entirely differently, and I am

> starting to find beauty in my B-cups that were once C-cups but

> somewhat deflated from pregnancy.

>

> How about anyone else? Hoe have your views on implants and naturay

> breasts shifted as a result of your newly gained knowledge and/or

bad

> experience with implants?

June 6, 2005

Like you, I nearly got implants as well. I had a surgery date in April and cancelled it after researching saline implants. I saw two plastic surgeons for consults and they both told me how wonderful I’d look and that implants are “inert”. I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that there was more to the story. I have learned never to ignore my intuition.

Kenda

I had a post detailing about how I almost went undet the knife to get

saline implants. It was actually scheduled to occur next Friday. I

canceled it because I discovered new information about SALINE implants

that I had not been privy to before. It was really jolting because the

PS's office did not share any of the new information that I gleaned

from much of my online research with me. They kept telling me

how " happy " I would be, that this was going to be one of the best

decisions I ever made. Two of the PS's staff with whom I communicated

most closely even had implants themselves.

After learning so much about the toxicity and insidious effects of

implants, I view implanted breasts entirely differently, and I am

starting to find beauty in my B-cups that were once C-cups but

somewhat deflated from pregnancy.

How about anyone else? Hoe have your views on implants and naturay

breasts shifted as a result of your newly gained knowledge and/or bad

experience with implants?

Opinions expressed are NOT meant to take the place of advice given by licensed health care professionals. Consult your physician or licensed health care professional before commencing any medical treatment.

" Do not let either the medical authorities or the politicians mislead you. Find out what the facts are, and make your own decisions about how to live a happy life and how to work for a better world. " - Linus ing, two-time Nobel Prize Winner (1954, Chemistry; 1963, Peace)

June 6, 2005

Hi,

I have one suggestion to add to your talk tonight. I know a lot of young people are turned off by the mention of God. You might add something about honoring and accepting their bodies the perfect way they were built. Like you, I believe in God and that we are all beautiful but I know not everyone shares the belief. Just a suggestion so some kids don’t turn a deaf ear.