Breast Implant Illness
The Hidden Cost of Perfection
I got breast implants when I was twenty-nine. There wasn’t anything wrong with my breasts but I’m a perfectionist and believed that larger breast would balance out my curvy frame. I had the money for the elective procedure and several of my friends had already had it done. According to the medical community, it was safe. Millions of women had done it. In fact, breast augmentation, aka a boob job, remains one of the top five surgical cosmetic procedures in the US.
At the time I had my breast implant surgery, in 2005, silicone-filled implants had been outlawed, and I received saline implants, taking me from a B-cup to a full C-cup. My medical team told me I’d need to have them redone or “touched up” in ten years’ time. That seemed like a lifetime away. I went under the knife in a two-hour outpatient facility in San Antonio and a few hours later, ($8500 dollars poorer) I was perfect! After a few days of rest and recuperation, I was bikini shopping.
Things were fine for four years and then I began to have stomach problems. At first, I’d assumed I had merely eaten something bad, but before long, those sporadic episodes of bloating, gas, and diarrhea turned into weekly and then daily occurrences. After several doctor’s appointments, one gastroenterologist suggested the autoimmune diseases, Celiac could be my…
