It is 1976. My father lay dying in an ICU. His surgeon was speaking to the family in the midst of a crowded waiting room when my mother pointed to me and asked the doctor, “Can you do anything about her breasts?”  Stunned and embarrassed, I laughed along with everyone…at least on the outside.  My husband had teased me about getting treatment for acne, wondering if my “breasts would go away too.”

I contemplated breast augmentation and sought out a physician. He assured me that the implants he would use were safe and would last a lifetime. I opted for the surgery. I was 28 years old and that is the last time I was pain free. I am now 59.

First, let me encourage any woman out there considering implants…STOP.  Learn to love your body as it is, and mentally trash any teasing or popular advertising campaigns about what makes a woman womanly.

From the time I received the implants I began to suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, arthritic pain in my body and extreme fatigue. The implants ruptured and now I have silicone in every tissue and organ of my body. Renegade blobs of silicone make their way through my skin and become ulcerative lesions that scar when they eventually heal.

I am in a great deal of pain every moment of every day.  Turning over in bed at night is painful and difficult.  My body cannot move well…it hurts too much.

The implant manufacturer executives knew their product caused problems…or would cause problems, but they jumped on the revenue bandwagon anyway.  Now thousands of women like me pay the price.  When many implant recipients sued the manufacturer, they essentially said, “Na-na-na-na-na—-naaa,” and filed bankruptcy.

Some will say, well, you got what you deserved for being vain. My response to that is: no we didn’t get what we deserved…we deserved a safe medical product that would not steal our lives from us and exact its price in chronic, unrelenting pain and poor health. No, that we did not deserve.

Young woman…love the body you’ve got. Don’t listen to anyone’s misguided opinion about what you SHOULD look like.  You should look like the healthy, wondrous woman you were born to be.