Booby Trap: A Girlfriend's Guide to Breaking Free & Healing From Breast Implant Illness

By Michelle Moore

Are you living a fraction of the life you were meant to live? Feeling anxious and depressed? Trying to get through your days with no energy, suffering with chronic pain, brain fog, muscle weakness, joint aches, migraines, severe fatigue, stomach issues, urinary tract infections and more. Have you spent your waking hours bouncing around the health care system? Paying for expensive tests, only to be told there's nothing wrong, it's all in your head.

Your symptoms are not in your head. Very likely they are emanating from your breasts. Specifically, your breast implants. Because whether implants are saline or silicone, they all have silicone shells. And, that silicone, made with over 40 toxic chemicals, can make you very sick. This sickness is called breast implant illness. And hundreds of thousands of women suffer as neurotoxic, cytotoxic, and carcinogenic chemicals slowly and chronically poison them from inside their bodies 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Disrupting their endocrine systems, overstimulating their immune systems, and clogging their detoxification pathways.

But there is a solution: breast implant explanation. Often, it's step one to improving your health.

This book is for you if your breast implants are making you sick, or if you had your breast implants removed and you're on the long road to recovery, or even if you don't have breast implants, but you would like to know the risks. I wrote it because my breast implants made me debilitatingly sick, and it took me way too long to figure that out. In it I share the most valuable information I learned through my healing that, no matter where you are on this journey with breast implant illness, can help you heal, too. Practical information that will make a difference. The mind, body and spirit approach that helped me get my life back. Because the heal is real and it's within your reach once you remove the toxic poison from your body.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667859279

Book preview

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© Michelle Moore 2022

ISBN: 978-1-66785-926-2

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66785-927-9

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

PART I- What Is Breast Implant Illness?

1. You are neither alone nor crazy

2. My story

3. My breast implant illness symptoms

4. Things you’ve probably never heard about breast implants

5. Let’s talk about breast implant illness

PART II- Thinking About Removing Your Breast Implants?

6. Are my implants really making me sick?

7. You’ve decided to explore explantation. . . now what?

PART III- You’ve Decided To Explant

8. Choosing the right surgeon for you

9. Examining and adjusting your mindset so you can heal

10. It’s okay if you don’t have a definitive answer; it gives you the

chance to have more faith

PART IV- Process

11. The power of prayer

12. Things to do, buy, download, and create before surgery

13. The explant process

PART V- Healing In The Months Immediately Following Surgery

14. Healing

15. Exercise is an important ingredient to healing

PART VI- Healing For The Long Haul. . . Mental And Other Aspects That Make A Difference

16. Mindset matters so watch your language

17. Resisting the pressure to be perfect

18. Your new normal will be a good normal

19. A word about Botox

20. A word about your monthly cycle

21. Expect that you can

22. Gratitude for the people in your life that expect you to be you

23. Lessons learned along my breast implant illness journey

24. Pay it forward

25. What I love about my new old breasts

26. Quotes for self-acceptance, empowerment, and healing

27. Make your comeback better than your setback

28. The heal is real

PART VII- My Unique Challenges, Supports,

And Gifts

29. My journey to heal my neurologic symptoms

30. Insight into breast implant illness from my husband’s perspective

31. The gift of breast implant illness

The author of this book, Michelle R. Moore, does not dispense medical or other professional health advice or prescribe the use of any technique to diagnose or treat any physical, emotional, or medical condition. The sole intent of the author is to offer information in an anecdotal and general nature that may be useful to you as you navigate your quest for healing. In the event that you or others use any of the information in this book, the author assumes no responsibility for the direct or indirect consequences. The reader should consult her medical, health, or other professionals before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it.

Preface

When it comes to health, there’s a concept called the whisper network. This is that group of people typically outside of the traditional medical professional sphere—patients experiencing disease—that spread ideas and information to each other. Some helpful and effective, some ineffective but benign, some possibly even harmful. Diseases that are not widely understood often have large whisper networks. Patients share their vulnerability to help other patients based on their personal experiences and own research.

Along my journey, I’ve learned a lot through the breast implant illness (BII) whisper network that I primarily accessed through a Facebook support group. At several points, these other women have been my lifeline. And, as it has pertained to my health, I’ve always taken any information that I’ve learned back to my medical team of healers for a check on medical soundness. Something I strongly believe is essential to keep me from doing more harm than good.

Why else might seeking the counsel of your medical team as you learn from other women’s experiences be a good idea as you move through this journey? Because correlation does not necessarily equal causation. I’ll explain. Ice cream sales typically go up during the warmer summer months, and so do shark attacks. Does eating more ice cream cause the increase in shark attacks. Clearly no. Both are related to other factors yet share commonalities. We are all unique, and the way I experience breast implant illness may not be the way you do. But we have commonalities. Learn from the commonalities, and double check with your medical team as they know your history and body.

Lastly, I’m also a strong believer in growing through what you go through. And, to me, this entails helping others. That desire, and the benefits I found in the whisper network, led to this book. As you read through my experience with breast implant illness, while it may parallel yours, please know that it’s just that. . . my experience. I’m not a medical professional. And, BII is serious stuff. It’s complex and we are all different in how we experience it, how our symptoms express, and how we heal. I cannot stress enough how important it is to work with qualified medical professionals every step of the way. They will be able to guide you through the process safely. Learn from others who’ve walked the path like me. And, take those ideas back to your medical team because if you are experiencing BII, your health is too valuable to do otherwise.

Introduction

Every day, all across the world, there are women (with one thing in common) who are living a fraction of the lives they were meant to live. Feeling anxious, feeling depressed—maybe even suicidal. Trying to get through the days with no energy, suffering with chronic pain, muscle weakness, migraines, severe fatigue, brain fog, stomach issues, urinary tract infections, and much more. They spend their waking hours bouncing around the health-care system. Going to doctor after doctor and paying for expensive tests only to be told, whatever they’re experiencing is in their heads. They are frustrated at the very least and ready to give up at the worst.

My symptoms were not in my head. They were in my breasts. Specifically, in my breast implants. Because whether implants are saline or silicone, they all have silicone shells. And, that silicone, made with over forty chemicals, made me sick. Very sick. This sickness has a name. It’s breast implant illness. And hundreds of thousands of women feel they are reacting negatively to the ingredients that make up their breast implants—devices sitting inside their bodies twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. For me, these chemicals disrupted my endocrine system, overstimulated my immune system, and clogged my detoxification pathways.

But I found an answer: Breast implant explantation. When I removed my implants, it was step one to improving my health. And, thousands upon thousands of women have made and are making this choice. Women of all ages and stages and in all walks of life. Including celebrities for whom looks are one of the tools of the trade.

Though the implant manufacturers and plastic surgeons who perform augmentations believe breast implants are perfectly safe, why did 36,367¹ women in the United States in 2020 elect to have surgery to remove them? And, why do we read about high-profile women² including Mel Robbins, Ashley Tisdale, Clare Crawley, Yolanda Hadid, Crystal Heffner, Stevie Nicks, Melissa Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Mariel Hemmingway, Melissa Rycroft, Angie Everhart, and Danica Patrick, among numerous others having theirs removed despite there being no single test to confirm breast implant illness? I believe it’s because breast implant illness is real.

If you feel your breast implants are making you sick, this book is for you. If you had your breast implants removed and you’re on the long road to recovery and looking for some inspiration, this book is for you. If you don’t have breast implants, but you desperately want them because you think they’ll change your life but you want to make your decision with as much information as possible, this book is for you.

I wrote it because I wish I would’ve known before I got breast implants that they had the potential to steal my life and my identity.

I wrote it because my breast implants made me debilitatingly sick, and it took me way too long to figure that out.

I wrote it because once I had them removed, I started healing and I continue to heal.

My journey has been long and winding and ultimately filled with helpful information and lessons hard won. In this book, I pass what I’ve researched and discovered on to you in the hopes that you will be empowered to make an informed decision knowing the risks, if you were considering them. Or if you already have them and are sick, to take your life back faster and more fully. To get back to the vibrant, energetic woman you once were.

Part 1 explores the intricacies of what I’ve discovered through my experience with breast implant illness. I share both my story and symptoms plus the definitions from various medically established organizations as well as the symptoms hundreds of thousands of women report experiencing. Part 2 includes concerns I had (and I know others shared through online support groups) when I started to think about removing my implants, as well as the things you need to know before you meet with prospective plastic surgeons. Part 3 gives helpful advice for how to find the right surgeon for you and ways to adjust your mindset so you can be in a headspace conducive to healing. Part 4 includes how to prepare for surgery plus I’ll walk you through my days leading up to surgery, as well as the day of surgery to help you visualize what to expect. Part 5 shares my insight into healing and the steps I found necessary to do just that in the few months following surgery. And this goes hand in hand with Part 6 that includes what I’ve discovered in healing over the long haul. Then it wraps up in Part 7 with my unique challenges given my neurologic symptoms as well as my husband’s thoughts experiencing breast implant illness with me.

I hope this book helps you find your path to return to being you. You. . . better, stronger, wiser, and surer. You. . . filled with gratitude as your health starts to return. You. . . how God intended you to be.

Know that no matter where you are in your relationship with breast implant illness, the heal is real. And, as a woman who is living it, it has been within my reach once I removed the implants from my body.

PART I

What Is Breast Implant Illness?

CHAPTER ONE

You are neither alone nor crazy

This world can make you think you’re crazy if the answers to your questions aren’t easy or you don’t fit nicely into their boxes. It can make you feel like you’re alone if you go up against its ‘science’. You are neither. There are others walking your path. You just have to find them.

Hello. Welcome to the book you never wanted to be reading. Let me start by saying I’m truly sorry you’re going through mysterious health issues that are at their very least annoying, possibly debilitating, and, at their worst, deadly.

You are not alone.

You are not crazy.

If you have breast implants and mystery symptoms, there’s a chance those breast implants are making you sick.

Mine did.

I’m not a doctor. I don’t even play one on TV. But I am a woman who feels I was poisoned by silicone gel breast implants and is healing from breast implant illness. A woman who has made it to the lighter side.

I know from experience that at this stage in your journey you probably feel like you’re the only one trapped in this living nightmare of strange symptoms—robbing you of the full, vibrant life you used to know—as you bounce from doctor to doctor only to come up clueless.

It’s a common drill. . . odd symptoms pop up, and you and your family try to chase them away. You complain to friends something’s just not right. At first, they’re all sympathetic. But then you don’t get better and three more problems pop up. After a while, you suspect they’re wondering if you are crazy—if you manifested these illnesses in your life by dwelling on them, and if an antidepressant is really what you need. Eventually, you don’t even have the energy to seek support. You secretly wonder if they are right and you are crazy.

Or, there’s this scenario. Your illnesses have been given names. Scary ones. Like lupus, multiple sclerosis (MS), Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Lyme, or autoimmune disease to mention a few. And, you’re trying hard to retain your sense of identity, but you’re hanging on with everything you’ve got to not become the illness on your medical chart.

Would it surprise you to know that many women with breast implants—both silicone and saline—have heard those same diagnoses, have experienced mystery symptoms, and have seen their health improve after getting their implants (and capsules) properly removed? When I realized this—when I read the stories of other women who went through every one of the symptoms I went through—I felt a huge sense of relief. A big fear lifted. And, I had a renewed energy to see myself through to the other side.

There’s so much power in knowing you’re not alone. That the things that don’t make sense actually do make sense in the right context. Believe me, there are never as pure of tears cried as those shed in relief of understanding you’re not crazy.

That’s why I wrote this book. I was not alone. And, I want you to know you are not alone either. We are part of a group of hundreds of thousands of women³ who made the choice to get breast implants, because we thought they were safe, only to fall sick.

I wrote this book to let you know there’s hope. You can get your life back. It requires hard work. And patience. And persistence. It may not be a linear journey. There are plenty