WELLBEING - Want breast implants? Listen to this first!

(Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart or TuneIn)

Summary - 

This is my most vulnerable episode yet! This is my breast explant story and my experience having breast implants for 6 years. If you’re considering breast implants or know someone who is, please listen and share this episode first. 

Things I Mention - 

  • My recovery from a potentially-fatal breast implant complication that a lot of people don’t talk about

  • The warning signs & early symptoms of golden staph, breast implant illness and capsular contracture

  • How your immune system plays a huge role in determining your experience/ longevity with breast implants

  • The lessons I’ve learnt from undergoing 2x breast augmentations & 2x explant surgeries

PLUS, how I’ve finally reached a place of self-love, self-acceptance and more body-confident than ever before!

Links & Helpful Resources - 

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on any of my practical tips & tricks and if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

This is my explant story - the good, the bad, the ugly but more importantly, the lessons learnt!! I know I often say that this podcast exists to share the things that I wish I knew or was told when I was younger but my god, if there was just one thing I wish my younger-self was told, it is this episode … let’s start at the very beginning. 

My breast implant story goes back to my early teenage years. I was never blessed with a bust, I was more on the non-existent side of things. Growing up, my girlfriends had great boobs and being overweight for most of my childhood, not having boobs made my look & feel really unbalanced and out of proportion. I told my parents all throughout high school that I was saving every cent I earnt to get breast implants. I remember spending all of my spare time researching surgeons, clinics, hospitals, silicone vs saline, under the muscle vs over the muscle and every possible side effect, so I definitely wasn’t making this decision based on some loose idea that popped into my head one day.

At 19, I decided it was time .. so I booked in to see a range of potential surgeons and decided on the one for me who worked out of a private hospital which was located over an hour away from my home. The day of the surgery arrived and all went well, I stayed in overnight and can’t fault the post-op care, I was treated like a Queen. I went home the very next day and everything was great for the next 72 hours at least … 

3 days into my recovery, I developed a fever and one of my boobs looked slightly red and inflamed. I went to my local GP (purely for convenience because my surgeon was over an hours drive) and was given antibiotics to take for a suspected minor infection. The next day, I became really unwell, my temperature soared, my boob was now bright red, swollen, inflamed and sore to touch. I phoned my surgeon who told me to come in immediately. He took one look at me and before I could even fathom what he said, I was back under the knife for emergency surgery and unable to go home that day.

I remember waking up from my second operation with extended family by my side and I knew straight away that my implants had been removed. My surgeon arrived with the news that I had developed ‘golden staph’ - a potentially fatal bacteria infection. I had to stay in hospital for weeks on IV antibiotics and It would be at least 6 months before I could make the decision to go ahead with a re-implant. After what felt like an eternity, I returned home with a chest that was now not only smaller than what it was originally but it was battered, bruised and deflated as well - needless to say, my confidence was shot! I spent many days following just crying on the floor of my bathroom. 

After many follow-up appts. With my surgeon, I was given the all clear 6 months on. He suggested that if I was to go ahead with a re-implant that I should consider visiting an infectious disease specialist first. I took his advice and was put on a strict antibiotic protocol in the lead up to my third surgery date. At this point, I couldn’t imagine my chest looking any worse than it already did, so I went back into the operating room. This time, my post-op recovery was that of a normal patient. I was an anxious mess for days following the operation but I reached 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 months, 2 months and so on with no signs of infection. You couldn’t wipe the smile of my face. 

Now fast forward 6 years and I began to notice some strange auto-immune type symptoms such as fatigue, loss of energy, persistent cold & flus but more alarmingly, one of my implants was starting to harden, the skin surrounding the implant was darkening and it was becoming difficult to take a deep breath in. Not to mention the fact that I could no longer lift my arms above my head. So back to my surgeon I went ..

This time though, he told me that I had developed Capsular Contracture which was a response from my immune system to the foreign objects in my body. When you place a foreign object in a human body, the body creates scar tissue around the object to protect the body from the object. Depending on how strong your immune system is, depends on how long it will take for your body to attack and how intensely your body will react. My body was trying so hard to get rid of my implants, that it was essentially suffocating the implants with scar tissue which can lead to all sorts of problems including a rupture of the implant. 

As for the auto-immune symptoms, they were occurring as a result of developing Breast Implant Illness - again another way in which my body was suffering from the introduction of a foreign object. One of the best videos I’ve ever watched on Breast Implant Illness (which unfortunately for me, was posted well and truly after my breast implant journey) is by Karissa Pukas. I’ll leave a link to this one, in the show notes if you’re interested to know more - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdrnkhiNF6M

So here I was, having to book in my fourth and final operation to have my implants removed. I had just had my first child and not only did I now need to seriously consider my own health as a priority, I also had to consider the fact that I needed to be around for my daughter's sake and going through all of this for a more balanced physical body, just wasn’t worth it. This certainly explains though why I now do what I do and why I am so passionate about teaching other women how to use clothes & accessories to balance the look of the body’s proportions as opposed to soul-destroying cosmetic surgery. 

It has been 5 years since my explant and I’m not going to lie, I locked myself in the bathroom for a week after that final op knowing that I had to try and accept what I was now left with for the long-term. Removing the bandages for the first time was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, tears streamed down my face. Simon kept asking me to let him come into the bathroom but I didn’t want him to see me like this. If I couldn’t stand the sight of my own body, how could anyone else?! It took a good two years from that very day to love and appreciate that there is so much more to me than just my looks and I can now confidently say that I’ve finally reached a place of true acceptance but my god, there were some real lessons learnt, some of which are this - 

It takes an incredible amount of energy for your body to fight every single day - the human body is not designed to do that for extended periods of time and at the end of the day  … the human body doesn’t recognise a pair of plastic bags so it will undoubtedly do everything it can to protect you which takes a ridiculous amount of energy! I truly believe that depending on how strong your immune system is will depend on how soon you see symptoms develop. For me, it took 6 years but that’s not to say my body wasn’t fighting its biggest fight for years in the lead up to my final operation. Imagine how different those 6 years may have been if my body had all that extra energy to divert elsewhere?!

I also think that women whether intentional or not, dismiss the fact that breast implants are temporary, they are not meant to be permanent. You either have to get them taken out or replaced every 10 years which comes at a huge physical, mental and financial cost.

If I were to be really honest with myself and the reasons why I wanted implants in the first place, there’s no denying I wanted them to be prettier, sexier, happier, more feminine, more confident, more liked, more loved. I can tell you right now though that I feel 10x prettier, sexier, happier, more feminine, more confident - all of those things, without them but the best part, now I also get to feel comfortable, energised, more approachable, more accepted and more relatable, none of which I ever felt with implants. No one treated me any better with bigger boobs and if you were to ask my husband which body he prefers, he’d say the one I have now. 

It blows me away how much your values & beliefs can change when your health is on the line. Within what felt like a split second, wanting to be more liked didn’t matter anymore ...  I thought changing my appearance would miraculously change everything for me but it didn’t. I woke up from my first operation and yes, I felt excited initially but you know what, I was surprised at how quickly that feeling started to fade and I was left just feeling like my old self again, just blissfully unaware of the health implications I’d be facing in the years to follow.

I am so much happier now than I ever was with implants. You honestly couldn’t pay me enough to get them put back in and I’m really grateful that I did get them taken out at an age where skin elasticity was still on my side which helped the skin on my chest bounce back better than what it would have if I were in my 30s or 40s. Removing my breast implants was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I just wish I had been able to make the decision myself, not have the decision made for me. 

Elisha CasagrandeFEEL BE LOOK, Brisbane Health Coach, Breast Implant Illness, Breast Augmentation, Breast Implants, Breast Explant Surgery, Womens Confidence, Capsular Contracture, Karissa Pukas