Symptoms Update as of 9/19/19

Wow!! I can’t believe how many of my symptoms have disappeared in just 2 months!! There are a few red check marks that I would like to see turn green sooner than later, but I am so happy with the progress. As a reminder, the green check marks are symptoms that I had with breast implants that have completely disappeared since explant. Completely; some of which were gone immediately. The yellow check marks are symptoms that I have once or twice a month. I’m just amazed at the progress. My body is still detoxing and will be for quite a while, which brings on waves of symptoms that I am learning to be patient with, but it brings back all those old feelings of never feeling better again.

Let’s talk about those yellow check marks. Lots of progress there, even if it doesn’t look like it since there are more than before. Most of these were red, meaning I was dealing with symptoms daily or weekly. My migraines have decreased from multiple times a week to a couple of times a month. Not fun, but so much better. I had a couple of days straight of vertigo in the form of severe room spins that was pretty scary but passed on its own. Any pain or weakness still marked as yellow is really just the result of still recovering from major surgery.

There have also been a couple of improvements that I hadn’t expected were related at all to my implants. One of which is cherry angiomas. I had never seen one before I had my implants put in, but the very next week a large one popped up right between my breasts. When I talked to my plastic surgeon about it, his response was, “You probably had that before but just didn’t notice it since you didn’t have boobs. Just ignore it. No one is going to notice it now that you have boobs.” I was sure it wasn’t there before, and we had before photos to prove it, so I pressed him to do something about it, and he finally burned it off. Over the years, I got hundreds of them across my breasts, my abdomen, and down my legs. I spoke to many doctors over the years that said they were normal and there was nothing I could do to prevent them. Just 2 months after explant and most of them have completely disappeared or changed to a light brown and now just look like any other freckle. Even moles are now disappearing.

The other improvement is that I can tolerate far more pressure during massages. To give you an idea, before I explanted, I had horrible shoulder and neck pain that needed to be massaged frequently, but I rarely let anyone touch me since it hurt so much. My boyfriend is a licensed massage therapist and was so very gentle with me while he would massage tight muscles or try to release trigger points. It was very painful though. Now, when he massages my shoulders, he is amazed by just how hard he can rub on my shoulders or trigger points. To me, it feels like the same amount of pressure as before, but he assures me that it is so much more.

I’ve still got a long road ahead of me, but the outlook is good.