Stafford woman got ‘sicker and sicker’ after having breast implants – Fredericksburg.com

Amanda Brady wont deny it: She absolutely loved the way breast implants made her look.

How they eventually made her feel was another matter, but the Stafford County woman didnt associate them with the numerous health problems she experienced for nine years.

I became sicker and sicker, she said, and doctors couldnt understand why my body was failing me when I was so healthy previously.

Brady is among a legion of women whove had surgery to augment the size or shape of their breasts, or to reconstruct them after cancer, then developed problems which theyve come to call breast implant illness.

By 2018, more than 50,000 women had posted on Facebook a litany of symptoms, many similar to problemschronic fatigue and joint pain, brain fog and hormonal imbalancesfaced by those with autoimmune disorders.

This March, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration addressed some of those concerns, including the incidence of a rare cancer called breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma. There have been more than 450 cases of the cancer in the United States and nine deaths, according to the FDA.

Brady wanted to tell others how, as an active mom and beauty-pageant participant and judge, she chose implants because she felt insecure about her body. Then, she had them removed when research showed they may be making her deathly ill.

If a woman hadnt shared her story with me, I would still be living my life with no answers, suffering and getting sicker and sicker, she said.

Within six months of getting breast implants in spring 2010, Brady said her health deteriorated. She couldnt eat anything without running to the bathroom and she lost so much blood through her stools that she needed regular infusions of iron.

Her hair fell out. She suffered from vision and memory loss, severe joint pain and brain fog, and the fatigue was unrelenting, no matter how much she slept.

It was to the point it was hard for me to get out of bed, Brady said. I thought I was just tired from being busy with children.

Now 33, Brady eventually was diagnosed with three autoimmune disorders that shed never had symptoms of before: Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis, which cause chronic inflammation in the digestive tract, and Lyme disease, even though shed never had a tick bite.

A dinner with girlfriends changed her health in ways she could never have imagined.

It was April 2018, and someone asked Brady how she was feeling. As she listed her ongoing issues, a woman seated next to her posed a personal question.

Do you have breast implants? she asked.

When Brady said she did, the other woman said she had experienced the same symptoms until she had her implants removedand all her health problems went away with them.

It was as if a light bulb went off over Bradys head.

I never put two and two together, she said. It never occurred to me because I never knew they could cause an issue.

DEBATE SWIRLS

The FDA requires implant manufacturers to provide information about possible side effects, but a study done last year by the National Center for Health Research concluded that a number of women werent given those warnings.

Debate swirls over the risks of breast implants, states the National Center for Health Research report, and physicians and patients are justifiably confused by the conflicting information available.

When the FDA convened an advisory panel in 1988 to look into the risks, an FDA official raised concerns about breakage; leakage; the painful tightening of scar tissue around the implant; immune disorders; and cancer.

Thirty years later, the report states, these are still the issues of greatest concern.

The FDA said this summer it wouldnt take action to ban breast implants, but will increase efforts to distribute information about possible risks. Each year, about 400,000 women in the United States get implants, including 100,000 women who have breast reconstruction after mastectomies.

A SHIFT IN MY BODY

Brady did her own research after that April dinner and scheduled whats called explant surgery in January. She went to Aqua Plastic Surgery in Jupiter, Fla., to have the surgery done by Dr. David Rankin because of Rankins reputation.

As soon as she awakened from anesthesia, she said she felt as if a weight had been removed from her chest.

I can breathe, she told her husband, James, and demonstrated by inhaling deeply, over and over. I could immediately feel a shift in my body.

Jeff Rose, the patient concierge who follows cases at Aqua, said hes seen women react as Brady did again and again. The surgical group expects to perform about 800 explant surgeries this year, and Rankin has stopped putting in implants so he can focus on taking them out.

The FDA says breast implants arent lifetime devicesand that anyone who has them eventually will need to replace or remove them. Rose said problems result from the silicone shell that holds the implants which look like clear, round bean bags filled with fluid.

There are more than 40 chemicals in the shells, including ones such as formaldehyde and paint thinners, Rose said, and when they break down, the scar tissue around them absorbs them like a sponge.

The explanation he gives is that chemicals then spread through the body. Women develop inflammation, which leads to joint pain, and they look like theyre being poisoned by chemicals, Rose said.

When the chemicals are out of them, he added, their eyes are brighter and brighter.

A MAGICAL FEELING

Photos before and after Bradys implants were removed show a dramatic change to her complexion. People tell her how much more radiant she looks, and she no longer has the symptoms that plagued her for nine years.

Shes up at 5:30 each morning to get her three sons ready for school, then she works regularly as a substitute teacher in Stafford County. After work, theres dinner, sports, homework and bedtime routinesand Brady loves being a part of it, as well as weekends water skiing.

Its like a magical feeling to be able to do all these things, she said.

She kept the implants as a reminder that she doesnt need them to be satisfied with her looks. About four weeks after her surgery, she posted a photo of herself on Facebook, smiling as she wore a lacy bralette and held an implant in each hand.

The photo started a lot of conversations with other women who are having the same kinds of problems, and Brady is thrilled to reach out to them.

Its been a complete 180 for her, said her best friend Melissa Bramblett, who remembered when Brady felt so awful that she regularly cried that she couldnt keep living that way. She feels a million times better.

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Stafford woman got 'sicker and sicker' after having breast implants - Fredericksburg.com