Xplant Surgery
Eeeep, I’m getting nervous + excited for tomorrow’s surgery. Tomorrow I say goodbye to my toxic bags aka breast implants and hello to a new healthy chapter. Though I know it’s going to take some time to heal and get back on track, I’m excited to do it. A few of you have asked why I decided to remove them technically?
Breast Implant Illness
Well, they never felt like “me”. After about 2 years of having them I felt a change in my body and health. Don’t get me started on how uncomfortable it is to sleep. Sleeping on your side is non-existent to me and that’s my go to!
I never really paid too much attention to Breast Implant illness because well, naively I was so excited to have “boobies”! As time has gone by I have felt the below symptoms get significantly worse:
My Breast Implant Illness Symptoms
Low Energy + Fatigue even after a long night sleep
Sleep disturbances
Shoulder/Back/Neck Pain that never seemed to go away
Skin Inflammation
Hair Loss / Thinning
Anxiety & Panic Attacks
Hot Flashes
Hormonal Imbalance
…And the list goes on!
When it comes to my fertility, it just makes sense to remove them as well. This is my personal opinion and decision, please know that you have to be comfortable with whatever decision you make. For me, having implants causes more inflammation in your body. For someone like me who already suffers from two inflammatory diseases, multiple sclerosis and endometriosis, I can’t imagine having these foreign objects in my body is a good thing.
What’s the deal with implants
When an implants are inserted into your chest wall, your body immediately starts to attack it to get it out! It then forms a “capsule” around the implants, which is scar tissue. Inside of that scar tissue, is where your implants hang out…year after year the capsule grows and thickens. This is where toxins from the implants leak out to, chemicals and metals. Which in end result causes more inflammations and your body on overdrive using it’s energy to get rid of these things!
As far as fertility goes, how can my eggies breath with so much inflammation? How can they grow if they’re not getting the attention they need to mature in a healthy environment? This is why I have taken charge of advocating for myself. I’ve tried most of what Western medicine has offered me, and for my case…it didn’t work or get my pregnant. Changing my lifestyle and diet to an anti-inflammatory one to equip my body not only for a higher chance of fertility but also my health.
Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Gluten & Dairy diet
**Met with a holistic doctor to check my hormones, balancing everything out with new supplements to begin taking.
**Implants OUT**
I’m being raw with you because I know so many of my friends on here struggle with getting pregnant and or feel like crap and may not know why ( if you have implants ) it’s something to consider. I’m not a medical professional but I know my body, and we know our bodies best. I hope that if anything, this can kick-start you in the right direction to feeling better and living a life fuller and healthier!!
Best decision I made
Soon to be returning to the itty bitty small committee and proud of it.
The best decision I made this year is removing my breast implants. Post op day 2, and my goodness how much has already changed, I cannot wait to see the transformation. Breast implant illness is real. I want to give a shout out to my amazing Dr. Rotatori who never made me feel guilty for removing them and his expertise. Now it’s time to heal and start new. I will never look back and regret this choice to removing these silicon bags!
The night before surgery
The night before surgery, I drank water all day until I couldn’t. I had to stop all water and food before 12 at night so I made sure to drink up to stay hydrated because I knew for the next day I would feel extremely out of it if I didn’t, plus easier to find a vain for IV placement. I showered that evening with anti-bacterial soap by DIAL, dried my hair, took all jewelry out and didn’t apply any lotion.
And there I went to bed, the last night of having these bags inside of me. Goodnight titties, farewell and good riddance.
Surgery Day
I woke up and brushed my teeth, still thirsty but couldn’t drink anything. We left the house with my mom and husband, arriving at the hospital at 10:30am, surgery was scheduled for 12:45pm.
I got registered, into my gown and room then the jitters started to begin. I nervously joked with the nurses and off the journey started. Thankfully my mom was able to stay and sit in the room during prep so that helped me to calm down. The nurse tried to place my IV but had a hard time finding a vein so then moved to my upper hand area and got in in. Honestly for me, that’s the worst part because after that hurdle…you literally have to just sit there and once they change your “hydration juice” to “sleepy juice”…you’re OUT! T
The Anesthesiologist came in and chatted with me for a bit going through everything and then about an hour later, the nurses came to roll me out.
Time For Surgery
“I love you mom, see you on the other side” …as I nervously said my goodbye, by the time I heard the nurse changing my IV tube to something different, I knew I’d be out soon…last thing I remember is barely seeing a new surgery room and a mask getting placed on my nose and GOODBYE, HELLO SLEEPY TIME!
Literally what felt like a blink later, I was up and talking gibberish. I felt a nurse feeding me a cup with ice andmy husband Lucas’s voice and my mother speaking to me. They rolled me out to the car, and I was pretty drugged up and a little nauseous. And off to home I went, and straight into bed.
How long my surgery took
My surgery took around almost 2 hours. I had a capsulectomy en bloc done with implant removal. My implants were 300cc’s on each side, silicon by Mentor. I was a double A prior to implants and a small C with implants. The scar tissue was removed, as you can see below. Warning, if you get grossed out scroll by fast, haha.
Post OP Day 1-5
After Surgery
After surgery initially you’re going to just sleep a lot, elevated with this handy pillow I found on amazon. It truly helped, otherwise I’d have to stick about 30 pillows underneath me to prop myself up. I highly recommend purchasing if you’re going to get an ex-plant surgery. Have your antibiotics and pain medication ready to take when you’re allowed, you will need it for the first day and possibly second but by post op day 3 I was only taking 2 Advils to take care of the pain. I can’t believe these were on my chest. Almost weighing in at 2 lbs all together! Wild!
Comfort Gear!
After Surgery & Healing
Take it easy, literally relax and binge watch Netflix…now is the time to CHILL, and allow your body to heal. Drink tons of water to re-hydrate and try to nap if you can. Healing happens when you sleep! Eat a lot of protein and greens, DO NOT detox just yet…your body needs nutrition. Ask someone to be with you for the first 3 days particularly because you will still be lightheaded, and sort of off balance when standing to go pee, etc. Since anesthesia can make you constipated, I’d recommend on day 2 taking something like Metamucil to get things going!
I started taking fun trips around my living room on day 3, nothing crazy…I literally walked to my office, to the kitchen and back to my bed. It’s important to move your body a tiny bit for circulation. From a scale to 1-10 of pain I would say the ex-plant surgery is like a solid 5/6. It doesn’t hurt as bad as breast augmentation but it’s also not extremely enjoyable BUT it’s tolerable and heck, SO WORTH IT!
One thing I can say to warn you, if you take a peak at your breast after surgery or the following days after…try not to if you can wait about 5 days and if you do, please know it will be a shock and you will get emotional. Or maybe you don’t but I sure did. My breasts definitely look different, smaller and deflated …one even has a dent in it. I cried, and had a few meltdowns after…just because of the change and emotions. And a wave of guilt came that said “Andi, why did you do this to yourself”…
Still having a hard time making the decision?
This is my thought process with this and what I’m reminding myself as I hope it can for you too is…
Your worth and beauty does NOT lie in your breast. Sure, your breasts may look different now but you have decided to be brave and choose the route of health and remove the toxic bags. Give yourself grace and time for your chest to fill out and don’t beat yourself up over the initial decision you made in getting implants. We are all human, we make mistakes and its not the end of the world. Yes, I understand the confidence that implants might have given you but think/remember the sadness and danger the implants brought to your life….and NOW THOSE ARE OUT! Let’s celebrate, small boobs, flat chest, who cares.. health is so important and I’m way more than the size or look of my breast. My truth and beauty comes from God and not man made SILICONE! Mic drop.
I’m looking forward to starting my new life and health journey. I can officially say that my shoulder pain/tendinitis is completely gone and its been only 5 days! The whites of my eyes are so much brighter. I wake up feeling zero brain fog, achy body, and just that fatigue feeling is GONE! I also haven’t had one hot flash, I was having hot flashes daily and nightly prior to surgery! The heal is real, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Please be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions and I’m here to help! Follow my journey and more on instagram at @andimans
Thank you for coming to my TED TALK. Ha!
Love and God Bless you on your journey! Don’t be afraid! The Good News: Take your fears to the Lord and He will transform your life.
