So this is the continuation story of my previvor journey. I decided to continue my story because so much has happened since my last Entry and I feel like I need to update to let everybody know what’s been going on for the past 10 years. The last time I spoke to you I was on surgery number three where I had gotten my expanders taken out and my allergan 410 gummy bear cohesive gel implants put in. That was in March 2012. After my honeymoon in September 2012 (more about that later) I had to go to the doctors due to severe pain in my which they did not know why, I was given antibiotics and it went away. For a few years after that I grew to love my new foobs. No real complaints, I did have one more reoccurrence of insane pain but again, it disappeared on its own, this time with out antibiotics. They were just really hard and always really cold. In the summer of June 2016 I was at a wedding and thought that I come down with some type of G.I. bug. When I went home (we were down the shore at the time) I went to bed early. In the middle of the night I woke up freezing And in so much pain I felt like I had had a mastectomy all over again. Finally in the morning when everyone was awake, I took my temperature and it was 104° I had no idea what was going on I was so scared and I didn’t want to end up in a New Jersey hospital. I called my plastic surgeon who told me to drive back to Pennsylvania thankfully that would be Brian who did that and go straight to the emergency room. After being in the emergency room I was admitted to a hospital bed and stayed there for a few days. Dr. B my surgeon, Said maybe it would be a better idea if we took these implants out and switched them with another set of implants because they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me and they thought maybe it was the implants. I agreed to do so and in August 2016 I had my Allergan 410 implants replaced with mentor silicone gel implants. 
The allergens that he removed, we found out later on to have bacteria on the lab slides! Everything was good for a little bit but then I just started not feeling like myself anymore I started getting phantom pains all the time memory fog I started developing new allergies to medication‘s I’ve never had an allergy to a medication in my life besides one and now I had 3 more introduced to me. Constant ringing in my ears, inflammation, swelling, I gained 15 pds in a year! Chronic fatigue, headaches, sinusitis, cognitive dysfunctions, started seeing a chiropractor for back and neck pain, started seeing a GI doctor for digestive issues, had my first colonoscopy at 36, Multiple UTIs, the list goes on and on.went as far to get a medical marijuana card in hopes of some relief. Yeah, that didn’t work… just made me feel anxious, paranoid, I definitely couldn’t keep this up and was unable to live and function in a normal life. It was then when an article was written that they were recalling certain types of breast implants!
In July 2019, Allergan recalled its Biocell textured breast implants after the FDA had linked them to a rare cancer called breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma, or BIA-ALCL. Most of Allergan’s recalled textured breast implants were sold under the Natrelle brand. The FDA advises women with BIA-ALCL to have their implants removed. This made me start to do more research. These were the implants that I had removed in 2016! I couldn’t believe it! Then I read that since most of my capsules were removed but not all I started thinking more and more. I did more research, I read not only were my old implants recalled but also my expanders that I had prior to the implants! I then started leaning towards having my implants taken out for good! I went to see my original surgeon, he thought it would be a good idea to remove the mentor implants and replace them yet again with another implant type (smooth not textured) there were articles now stating that textured implants could be causing problems now too! I had textured implants. I mean, when you really think about it your body doesn’t think that foreign objects should be in there so what do they do? They start to attack it. I felt like my body was just attacking me from the inside I had to get these out. Maybe I wasn’t explaining myself right to my original surgeon ( Don’t get me wrong, I loved Dr. B!) but I felt like my needs were just not being met I decided to look for a second opinion. I found a doctor about 15 mins away from me at fox chase cancer center.
Dr. Sameer Patel, this man performs a type of surgery that many other doctors do not. Well the others, do like 40 a year, where this surgeon does like 4 a week! It was Pretty Covid at the time so I was listening to a lot of podcasts. I found Tthe Breast Podcast Ever hosted by
Dr. Tiwari and Dr. Kocak Around the same time I stumbled upon a Facebook group called Breast Implant Illness and Healing by Nicole I started typing in my symptoms and more and more things came up with people who were just like me. One person in particular was an admin of the group and at the same time listing to this podcast she was actually a guest speaker! I thought for sure this was definitely a sign that I was going in the right direction. And guess who her surgeon was!?! Patel! Oh it gets better as I am listening to the 2 Doctors podcast he also was a guest speaker on a different episode! I ended up canceling my august procedure with Dr. B, and began my search for a surgeon that would be willing to do the DIEP FLAP procedure. I made an appointment with Patel, but it wasn’t for a few months. I did go for another opinion in the meantime but all they recommended again, was to swap out old implants for new implants. I was so sick of hearing this over and over. I wanted my old life back. I wanted to not start falling asleep before my childrens bedtimes, I wanted to not be in pain. I just wanted to be happy again. I met with Patel finally and we scheduled my Explant with DIEP FLAP procedure for September 2020! Below is a list I printed out of common symptoms of breast implant illness and all the things at that time that I also related too.
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