9 THINGS I WISH I KNEW BEFORE GETTING BREAST IMPLANTS

Are you like me and have a pretty short attention span?

Well, I got you… just jump to the section you want to read!

• Mastopexy
• Fat Transfers
• Breast Implants are Expensive
• Explanting
• Educate Yourself!

Are you considering getting breast implants? I got mine 10 years ago and I thought it was the best route to get perfect breasts.

Well… to be perfectly honest, that’s all I considered when it came to “fixing” my breast after losing weight.

Now I’m sure you have your reasons for considering them. Maybe you even have your money saved and an appointment scheduled. And like all of us who got implants… pretty darn excited too.

I couldn’t wait to not wear a bra, wear clothes that were cute, fun, and summery (especially living in Southern California) or I don’t know… look good naked.

Considering Plastic Surgery?

I know if you are getting breast implants, then all these thoughts (or similar ones) have gone through your head.

Right now, you are probably contemplating what we all did, when first thinking about getting breast implants.

Will the surgery hurt? When I wake, up how much pain will I be in? When can I start working out again? Will they look natural? Will they feel natural (for obvious reasons)? How big will they really look? And… Will people know I have breast implants?

Does this sound about right?

Your Body

Well, I can answer all those questions for you, but looking back now… None of those are important! Trust me…

These are the 9 things I wish I knew before getting breast implants. These are also things you should consider before spending your hard-earned money and making that final decision to go under the knife.

9 Things I Wish I Knew….

All 9 points are very important. But I’m going to put them in the order from when I first learned about them.

What is consequential at this point is to understand your options and the best choices for your body. Hopefully, these 9 things to know before you decide on breast implants, saves you time and money… and heartache.

1. Weight Gain

Long story short, I decided to get breast implants because I finally got to my goal weight and my breast looked like all the air had been deflated out of them. I was still wearing the same bra size, but they just weren’t as full and round like they were before.

Just like Goldie Hawn in First Wives Club, when she’s sitting in her plastic surgeon’s chair, and she tells him to “fill them up” when talking about her over plumped lips. Well, just switch lips to deflated breast and you got me 10 years ago. So, the Doc filled them up to 480cc.

Read About: MY DECISION TO GET BREAST IMPLANTS

I’m sure you are wondering what this has to do with weight gain when I’m talking about the weight I lost. Well, like most girls who lose a lot of weight, we don’t want to gain it back. And unfortunately, we are checking that scale too often. We worked hard to get here.

So, when I put on 10 pounds instantly and couldn’t lose that weight, I chalked it up to the weight of my implants. Haha… who has 10-pound implants, really?!

Wanna know a secret? After I had explanted, I dropped 13 pounds in two weeks. Now, how is that possible, you ask?

Inflammation

Your body responds to a foreign object that’s been placed inside your body. Even more so, your body responds to a foreign object you place near all your vital organs.

Think about it for a second… you just placed two large objects made of silicone material near your heart and lungs and you don’t think your body is going to respond?

Inflammation is your body’s immune system responding to an irritant. Unfortunately, placing breast implants in your breast cavity (whether over the muscle or under) is still a foreign object or aka, an irritant.

Your body wants to protect itself. And one of the major signs of inflammation is swelling, which might show up as extra pounds on a scale.

So don’t be confused with the weight of your implants vs inflammation caused by your implants. Ugh… I shoulda known this was red flag #1!

2. Ruptures

Honestly, I know my plastic surgeon told me about a possibility of an implant rupture. I thought… Yeah, that’s not gonna happen to me, and totally spaced him out. Oh boy, was I wrong!

Four years after having my saline breast implants, I woke up to my left implant completely deflated. I freaked out! You don’t think you would react that way until it happens to you. The worst of it all is the process to get that darn thing fixed.

Hopefully, you recognized the implant’s malfunction right away and can replace it, asap.

If you have silicone-filled implants, you probably won’t know until you get sick from the silicone gel seeping into your body. For me, mine was filled with Saline and completely absorbed into my body.

Re-Booking a Second Surgery

So, you have a rupture, you think, ok I’ll just get it fixed. Well, the sucky thing is you must schedule an appointment for the Doc to say… “yep, it’s ruptured” (duh). Then you schedule another surgery.

Oh, and remember your first surgery, well, it’s like that all over again but just on one side, unless you decide to replace both breast implants.

Then you wait till you get it replaced. Most likely you are stuffing one side of your bra and hoping no one notices.

For me, my implant completely drained, and then the little sucker folded itself up like origami and would stab me through my muscle and breast tissue. Talk about painful!

All I am saying is, be prepared to possibly have this happen to you.

Oh, and be prepared to wait for the surgeon to be able to fit you in for another surgery appointment. Then, pay for the extra costs to replace the implant (will talk about this more in #8), go through another surgery, and then have to heal all over again. NO FUN!

3. Breast Implant Illness

Now you have the perfect breast, but you find yourself gaining weight and having other strange symptoms. Your doctor says to chalk it up to getting old. Yikes… you tell yourself, “I didn’t think I was that old”.

But you don’t have any energy, your hair is falling out, you can’t remember anything, let alone hold on a conversation of substance. Then you think… “dang, I AM getting old. I guess now I either try harder to improve my life or borrow my grandma’s walker”. It’s a good thing I had an awesome grandma because I was already exhausted and depressed.

Working With The Right Doctors

It wasn’t until I started seeing a doctor who knew about Breast Implant Illness (BII) and educated me on it.

By this time, I gained over 50 pounds, even though my diet and exercise didn’t change but became more intense.

I couldn’t concentrate and had trouble communicating basic thoughts. I had anxiety, mood swings, hair loss, decreased libido, and joint pain to where just walking became unbearably painful. Oh, and by the way, I was only in my mid-thirties.

What is Breast Implant Illness?

Breast implants are made up of a silicone shell. Regardless of saline, silicone, or gummy bear breast implants, they all have the same outer shell made up of a silicone mixture. The implant is placed inside your body for years and over time begins to form a capsule around it.

Once your body recognizes breast implants and their foreign substances, your immune system sends out antibodies to attack. If you have had your implants in for years, this war of antibodies becomes too much for your body and then responds in either an autoimmune disease or a debilitating disease.

Explanting

Millions and millions of women are having surgery to remove their implants, which is called explanting. They have been sick for so long, with no answers as to why they feel the way they do. They then learn about BII and choose to explant.

Many see positive results instantly and no longer suffer from their previous symptoms.

Breast augmentation is the number one surgery in the world, contributing to billions and billions of dollars. Explant surgery is on the rise and becoming second to breast implant surgery. Why is that? Hmmmm…

4. Toxicity

We just talked about Breast Implant Illness. Wanna know what’s the contributing cause? Toxins.

As I said earlier, all breast implants have an outer silicone shell. This shell is made from a silicone mixture and this mixture is very scary!

The silicone shell contains Methyl ethyl ketone (neurotoxin), Ethylene oxide (carcinogen), Oakite (clean solvent), Bezene (carcinogen/neurotoxin… yep, the same Bezene that causes lymphoma), and what caught my eye… Formaldehyde! The list goes on and on. These are just some of the metals and toxins in the shell alone.

Lymphatic System and Your Liver

What is even scarier than just having a foreign object in your body, is that those toxins from the implants are now being absorbed into your body.

And remember that capsule I was talking about, well it becomes a sponge for all those toxins, which are pushed through your lymphatic system and/or processed through your liver.

I bet now you have a better understanding of why millions of women are talking about Breast Implant Illness. Not only are we seeing similar symptoms with all these women, but now you understand what is causing these symptoms.

We are making ourselves sick, just to have the perfect breasts! Ahhhhh!

SALINE BREAST IMPLANTS: LEAKS, MOLD, AND FUNGI 

5. Saggy Boobs

Ok, we talked about what’s going on inside of your body, now let’s talk about what your implants are doing on the outside of your body.

Do you know how heavy breast implants are? I know I joked earlier about my implants weighing 10 pounds. But they really weigh 1.5 pounds each. Now think about how soft your breast are and how fragile your tissue is in that area. Now grab the one-pound weight that you work out with or one of your canned foods. Imagine either of those in your breast and tell me that’s not gonna put some weight on those puppies.

The Weight Of It All…

One thing they don’t tell you when you are considering implants is the impact they have on your breast and how they contribute to sagging. Because of the size of the implant, they begin to weigh down your soft tissue. This doesn’t matter on the implant placement, whether in front or behind the muscle.

When I had gone to see my first plastic surgeon, I had a bilateral subpectoral augmentation mammoplasty and a bilateral crescent mastopexy with Allergan implants. That’s a fancy way of saying I got a boob job with a lift and removal of excess skin.

Over the years, the weight of the 480cc not only dropped my breast halfway down my chest but my areolas were extremely elongated as well.

Not Recognizing the Changes

I knew my breast had gotten larger and didn’t look as high but didn’t know that the implants were the cause. My new plastic surgeon had told me (and showed me) that this is a side effect of breast implants. He said many surgeons don’t tell their patients that over time the weight will weigh down their breasts and make them saggy.

This is very frustrating because we want what we paid for to last. And eventually, you are going to have to end up having the pulled, nipped, and tucked. This leads me to my next point.

6. Mastopexy (Breast Lift) Without Implants

This might not be for everyone, but I do wish someone would have recommended it to me 10 years ago.

Many girls are talked into breast implants when they don’t need them. Plastic surgeons can add another 5-10 thousand dollars to your procedure. They convince you; you need implants to get the look you are wanting. But, if you have enough breast tissue, a lift can be enough. I have seen beautiful results with just a mastopexy (a breast lift) and the right surgeon.

Knowing the Right Procedures For Your Breast

What you don’t want is to have the lift done from the areola, this will put too much stress on that area. If you want baloney for areolas, then this could be an option for you. Which I don’t think you do.

Over time this procedure stretches the nipple area and elongates them, so you end up having oval-shaped areolas. Think of taking dough and holding it at one point and seeing what gravity ends up doing. This is your breast… this is your breast on… ummm the wrong kinda outdated lift?

If you are looking for natural, then go with an anchor breast lift. This is what is highly recommended among most surgeons. Mainly because the results are fuller breasts that hold up over time.

Recommended Procedure

The anchor mastopexy is where the surgeon will remove excess tissue and pins your muscles up higher onto your chest. In this case, your nipple is moved up higher on the breast. Your areola is reduced to keep them in proportion to the newly shaped breast. I wanna say my nipple was moved up about 4-5 inches higher and reduced significantly.

At first, your breast will be sitting up around your neck but eventually will ease down and look very natural. The best part is this type of lift gives you the fullness that most women want. I thought this look was only achievable with implants.

The anchor lift seems a bit intimidating. The scars will fade and what doesn’t, your plastic surgeon will fix after the scaring is settled. My favorite part was I got to pick my areola size too! No more baloney nipples but cute appropriately sized ones to fit my new breast.

Ok… so you don’t have a lot of breast tissue, but you want a bigger breast. Well, breast implants aren’t the only option. Take a chapter out of the Kardashian’s book and move things around a bit.

7. Fat Transfer Breast Augmentation

After a while, there is something about feeling your breast implants in your body that becomes unsettling. Maybe it was understanding that they were making me sick. Or maybe it was just having something foreign in my body and wanting them out.

Don’t forget the PTSD of constantly feeling to make sure they were still full and not ruptured. I got to a point with my implants that I just didn’t like feeling them in my body… maybe that’s just me.

The more I started looking up plastic surgeons to explant, the more I saw on their websites about fat transfers. I thought to myself, I didn’t think that was possible. Well, more and more women are moving fat into their breasts. And what’s even more exciting, is the results are fabulous and sticking.

The More Fat To Transfer, the Bigger You Can Increase Your Breast!

With fat grafting, you can increase your breast volume by at least one cup size. Sometimes 2 cups sizes or more can be obtained if you have enough available fat. Might wanna rethink eating that cheeseburger… do it for your new breast!

Great thing is, this technology is becoming more advanced and again if done right, the breast will look amazing. When the fat cells are moved, after a month those that are remaining will stay there permanently.

Fat grafting starts at about $4000 (depending on the plastic surgeon). Make sure you add this price on top of the fee if you are considering a lift too. But it’s not a bad price if you don’t need a lift and just considering plumping up your breast.

Plus, who wouldn’t want to remove fat from another part of your body and put it exactly where you do want it!

If you are looking for a more natural, less expensive route, fat grafting is definitely an option. Because as we all know, plastic surgery can get very very expensive!

8. Breast Implants are Expensive

If I knew I would spend $12,000 for a breast augmentation and another $3,000 for a ruptured implant, I might have been ok with that. But for my journey, it didn’t end at $15,000. If you go on to Breast Implant Illness and Healing by Nicole on Facebook, there are over 100,000s women whose journey didn’t end there either.

After years of going to different doctors, trying different diets, buying anything to help with hair loss and caffeine (just to stay awake), I can honestly say, I spent a small fortune. I could be retired and living in Fiji by now! Oh, let’s not forget, if you decide to have an explant, that’s another $10,000 or more right there. Yikes!

Multiple Surgeries

Whether deciding if breast implants are for you, and you don’t think you will have the same issues as me, just consider the cost. You may very likely not have a rupture.

As the FDA says, these are not lifetime devices. You will have to replace your implants and the costs may be more than you are willing to pay. This could result in your health.

Again, you may not believe in Breast Implant Illness and won’t have added doctor costs to find out why you feel so terrible all the time.

But did you know that the capsule surrounding your implant eventually sticks to your ribs? I didn’t know that! And the longer the plastic surgeon is inside your chest, removing scar tissue, the more your own health is at risk.

Any surgery is dangerous but the longer you are opened the more you are prone to infection, necrosis, or maybe even worse things.

In my case, explanting almost cost me my right breast and at one point, possibly my life.

9. Breast Implant- Explant

The first time I met a woman who told me she had her implants removed because of BII, I was like why would you do that?! I had no idea implants would make someone sick. Even more so, I paid so much for my implants, why would I take them out.

I had never heard of explanting, and it never crossed my mind to take my implants out, when I was considering putting them in. I figured, a one-time surgery… wham bam, thank you, ma’am.

The more I learned how connected my implants were to my mental and physical health; explanting became very relevant.

I had my explant scheduled for the end of September and was looking forward to being ‘au naturele’ again. Well apart from propping those babies back up, nice, and high. I decided on a mastopexy, with an anchor lift and explant and capsule removal.

Complications- Like Wound Dehiscence

Explanting breast implants is a very complicated surgery. Many go in and come out just fine. Unfortunately, my surgery didn’t go as well as planned (more posts on that later). You need to take into consideration an additional surgery on your breast. The healing process and possible complications.

These complications can result in a lack of blood to your breast tissue causing necrosis (the death of your tissues or cells). And/or wound dehiscence, which happens to about 10% of women who have had breast surgery.

This is when your sutures separate or rupture, caused by infection or increased pressure inside your breast. With the possibility of these complications, you put yourself at risk of open wounds and the difficulties of wound care. All of which can result in loss of nipple, breast, or even your life.

Educate Yourself Before Getting Breast Implants

If I knew all this 10 years ago, I would be a different person, guaranteed. I have learned so much along the way and I am grateful for that.

But if I could do it all over again… I totally would! This is why I am writing, the 9 Things I Wish I Knew Before Getting Breast Implants. Because if I can help you make the best decision for you and your body, I will save you time, money, and a lot of pain.

Hey, I’m all one for plastic surgery. If it makes you feel good and look good, why not? But when it comes to putting your life in danger, it’s just not worth it!

If you have or had breast implants… please comment below and let me know (and others) what you would add to this list!