Hello. Today (March 15th) is day 13 post my operation and I am drain free!! I'm so happy!!
I already feel so much better and I can't wait for that to continue. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. AND ALL of encouragement, it has really meant a lot to me in this process. Hard to believe that tomorrow will be two weeks since my surgery.
Many of you have asked about my journey, how long did I have implants for, what type of implants…So I just thought I would make a video for you and I will keep answering questions as they come in into my DMs and inbox. The first time I put in my implants was in 2011 in March. And then I had surgery again in 2015 and put in a new set. Overall I've had implants for 11 years. When I first thought about putting implants. I didn’t even think to do research on “the effect that implants have on the body.”
I had Smooth Round Moderate Plus Silicone Implants 450 CC Filled with Cohesive Gel
the questions I didn't know to ask
I looked up the best surgeons, I had multiple consultations with different doctors in the Toronto area. And that was really my focus was finding the best surgeon, which I did. He's in Yorkville and I still stand by results he produces in plastic surgery. He is the incredible.
BUT I didn't know to ask questions around: what does the impact of having plastic in your body do? I think many women, when you think of implants, you think it's one of the most performed procedures on the planet today. It's FDA approved and if it's FDA approved, then obviously it must be safe (right?! NOT).
I know much more now than I did back then. I also live a much more chemical free, toxic, free life than I did 11 years ago. Even though I was still very natural health conscious, since then I have evolved and I know much more now.
After my first surgery, I developed these red dots in an umbrella shape above where the top part of my implants would be. I showed my best friend and she asked me if that was normal, is that an okay thing? And responded and told her that it was just my body adjusting to the implants. And at the time she kept her comments to herself and didn't say anything to me.
As the years went on, I never had severe symptoms to the point that I started looking at my implants as the cause for things going on in my body. If you do the research into what Breast Implant Illness is (BII) — which is a whole other topic that I will cover at another time —all women that have implants will have some form of symptoms. It is inevitable. The severity of those symptoms can and will be be dramatically different from woman to woman.
Some women have way more severe symptoms like developing autoimmune disorder to developing migraines, dizziness, nausea, mood swings, unexplained depression or anxiety, chronic fatigue, rashes, weight gain… the list keeps going.
Unless you know to chart how you feel before implants and track how you feel post implants, it’s not always going to be an obvious correlation. For some women, their symptoms don't develop until years and years later.
The body is so incredible; when your implants go in your body goes into a protection mode. It recognizes that you’ve inserted a foreign object that your body knows shouldn't be there. It is not natural to your body, and therefore your body formulates this capsule around the implant to try to protect the rest of your body from these foreign objects. The implants NEVER become compatible with your body, but rather your body learns to tolerate them and forms a capsule around the implant.
The implants NEVER become compatible with your body, but rather your body learns to tolerate them.
With my story, my symptoms weren’t obvious enough for me to even consider pointing towards my implants. About 4-5 years ago I started to develop red spots that would sporadically, but consistently, appear all over my body. The majority of cluster spots would appear underneath my breasts and on my stomach and then I would get individual spots on my arms, legs, back, even on my face from time to time.
I developed rosacea only on the right side of my face and I started getting some spots as well. Initially I was certain it was from stress. I work in a fast past industry so I attributed these flare ups towards stress. What could I be doing to eliminate that? Introducing meditation into my daily routines was a start.
At the same time, I started doing a deep dive into what I was eating. I went to my naturopath, we started doing all kinds of testings, eliminations, I got an allergy test done. I got blood work done. I went to one of Toronto’s top dermatologists for them to test my spots when I had these flare ups to see what they thought was on my body. And nobody could tell me what this was.
In this quest to get to the root of what was going on at no point did I think it could be because of my implants. I did not make that connection. My best girlfriend sent me an article on implants and the side effects they can have and she again asked me, “do you think it could be because of your implants?”
At that time I brushed it off. And I said I would read the article (and truthfully I cannot recall if I actually did or not) I told her that I did not think it was because of my implants. I told her that I have an amazing surgeon and I've got a great product. —Again, it’s a product, not natural. —My BFF left it at that and said she promised she wouldn’t bring it up again, as she could tell I was agitated to have that discussion.
Around that same time, (2018) you might remember breast implants, specifically, textured ones were getting massively recalled across Canada and the United States. I remember I contacted my surgeon to confirm that my implants were fine and that I didn’t have anything to worry about. I was told, “you have smooth implants, and the Doctor has never used textured implants in his practice.”
So I had nothing to worry about.
I just continued to move forward.
Nothing got resolved with my skin; still in 2022 I got these red dots. I've not had one doctor point towards my implants BUT I've also not had any doctor's point away from my implants.
It's hard to say, are my implants the cause?
Same thing with migraines. I get really, really wicked migraines, but I've had headaches and migraines since before putting in implants. So my implants aren't the cause of my migraines, but could they be contributing to the intensity of them? Or the length of them?
I now sometimes get migraines for three days, five days, seven days at a time. And it wipes me out. It's possible. It's definitely possible.
I found out literally the day before my surgery, that my breast implants were leaking. How long had they been leaking for? No one will know.
I found out literally the day before my surgery, that my breast implants were leaking.
How long had they been leaking for? No one will know.
What this means is that I had the silicone gel seeping into the capsule.
Is that why I had these red dots? When the gel was like seeping through into my bloodstream is that when I would have these flare ups or really bad migraines?
I really don't know.
In the last 4-5 years, I have researched a lot, learned a lot, and I have made a lot of changes. I am constantly on this path to pursue health. I have this desire and passion to live a healthy optimized life, as much as possible.
Little by little, I make changes and I make upgrades in my daily living patterns to remove chemicals and toxins from my entire life:
from my water: the quality of my water, what is in the water, what level of PH are you drinking, is it bottled in plastic or glass?
from my food: where is my food sourced from, what kind of soil are they growing in, what’s being sprayed on them, and what are the animals eating. What is the quality of their food. It’s not just, “you are what you eat.” RATHER “you are what they eat”
from my makeup, skin + hair products: what are the ingredients, are they gluten free, chemical free
from my kitchen containers: what are you storing your food in? BPA Free + Glass
from air fresheners in my house: I only use diffusers, no chemical releasing fragrances
The list goes on.
In the fall of 2021, I got COVID, which attacked my kidney and gave me a horrible kidney infection that also resulted in nerve damage around my kidney. During the 8 weeks I was dealing with the infection and tremendous pain from the nerve damage I had this heart to heart with myself. What else could I be doing right now to improve my health, what could I optimize?
What else could I be doing right now to improve my health, what could I optimize?
This became the first time that I actually started to look into what is BII (Breast Implant Illness) was, and if my breast implants could be contributing to this pain in my body.
It’s a rabbit hole. Let me tell you. When I started going down this path women started to come into my life that happened to have implants, they started to share with me their stories of having implants, their symptoms, how they felt pre and post implants.
All said, the decision to explant was the best decision they made.
Ironic? No.
I had many emotional days, and many, many tears. No one can say for certain if my implants were the sole driving cause. But I can say for certain that my implants were a contributor, they were adding to the toxic load in my body.
So I made the simple hard decision to explant.
So I made the simple hard decision to explant.
11 years of looking a certain way and loving my body the way I looked. Knowing it was or could drastically change was not an easy thought.
But, I was willing. For the sake of my health, the decision was simple decision. Even though it was extremely hard.
This is my story, so far. I'm sure there's questions and pieces that I've forgotten to put include here. Feel free to ask away. I'm happy to share.
One of the most common questions I keep getting asked is about my surgeon, why I chose him, what my experience was like, what are the differences between a U-Flap and fat transfer and more.
Stay tuned. I will share these details!
If you do have a specific question, put in the comments below, or flip me a DM on Instagram @ShaeInvidiata
I look forward to answering your questions!
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