Re: pain after explant HELP NEED ANSWERS????

[Guest guest]

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I had a 3 year old and 5 year old when I was explanted, so I know the concerns you will have, although I never had a 30 lb dog! But I found that I was pretty well able to do alot more things than I thought I could. I had bed rest to be sure, but I mostly didn't eat much, so fixing food wasn't a problem. You could probably arrange to have some healthy snacks by the bed before you leave, so that when you come home you will have stuff to eat at your bedside. I remember drinking alot of protein shakes or smoothies, not much else. But you could have things like oranges, bananas, any easy to eat fruit by the bedside as well as maybe some healthy whole grain crackers, and lots of drinks.

I was able to do most things by myself right away, and it took about a week or less to be able to do everything I needed to do on my own. I had a husband there, of course, and my mom and dad had come to be at the house, but they were there mostly to help with the kids, and I just kinda took it easy for awhile. My mom cleaned and cooked for the kids. But I remember feeling bored and didn't want to sit still for too long, I felt good enough to get up and around and even go out pretty quick, which was SO unlike when I was implanted. I remember shopping for bras when I still had stitches in me.

Maybe Daryl has some thoughts to share on the pain issue, as she has fibromyalgia as well and suffered a great deal of pain for years. However, she wrote and said she is feeling alot better now, and it's been about 4 months since her surgery. For the first time in 3 years, she hasn't had to use her pain patches, which is a huge thing for her! I hope she writes soon, she is here in Vegas with me, but is out of town for the weekend. I talked to her last week, and she sounded like she was doing really good. She can tell you how the pain was for explant with fibro.

You sound like you are taking some good vitamins....how about the essential fatty acids, are you taking those?

I had my capsules sent to a pathologist at the time of explant surgery, but it wasn't really done right. I couldn't tell if they only sent a piece of it, or the whole thing, so, I had to depend on my operative report, which says the implants were taken out en bloc, but I got my implants back all washed off and clean without the capsule, so I had no way to know for sure. The pathology report I have really doesn't tell me much of anything. It just says it was a flat, glistening, gray-tan fibromembranous soft tissue fragment, gives dimensions, then says it is negative for neoplasia. I then sent my implants to Dr. Pierre Blais in Canada who examined them, but he really couldn't do much with them because they weren't handled properly. He did say they were contaminated inside with mycoplasma, however. If you decide to have the pathologist look at your implants, make sure you give them specific directions on how they should be handled. There is info posted in the files section on proper handling at explant surgery, and you really need to be on top of that if you want your implants analyzed properly for legal concerns. If you really want to make sure they are handled right, insist upon them putting the implants in a sealed medical container, straight from your body with no washing off. You can then send them to Dr. Pierre Blais. He is a very, very nice man, and you can call him and talk to him personally on the phone. He will give you directions on how to have them properly sent to him for examination. He is an expert on failed medical devices and knows implants inside and out, and for a fee will send you a pretty informative report. He is very reasonable, too.

I don't know if a lawsuit will be forthcoming on these things or not. Dr. Blais said he thinks so, but it is hard to tell. For most of us, there is a statute of limitations that we need to be aware of if we intend to do anything legally, and for most states it is 2-3 years. But almost everyone has signed away their rights to sue when they signed the consent form at implantation. You ladies who had your implants before 1993 are in a much better position to sue, but I believe there is a cutoff date for the Dow lawsuit at some time in the future. If you are going to do anything legally, I would certainly check into it. We had some info posted at one time, phone numbers and such.

Take care, hope this helps!

Patty

----- Original Message -----

From: michelle king

Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 6:05 PM

Subject: pain after explant HELP NEED ANSWERS????

I agree girl (Diane) you give me a lot of hope. You're looking pretty firm in your bathing suit top. Hey I told my doctor as long as breasts can be held inside of a bra and not fall out, thats fine. See I breast fed my girls 2 years each and already was like an 80 year old women. He said my uneven breast size will come back too. Who cares as long as we're healthy.

Now can someone tell me what type of help I'm going to need after explant as i live alone and have a 30 lb. dog. OTher than the obvious help with the dog, but what type of everyday living did you need help with? Feeding yourself, getting out of bed and how soon could you function reasonably well? My doctor is giving me percocet for pain but I'm afraid that is not enough. I have fibromyalgia and my pain sensors are extra sensitive. My surgery will be August 14th and I'm really looking forward to it. What vitamisn did you gals take. I'm taking Spirulina, vitamins and colon cleansers and fiber. Did you write to you pathologist? Does anybody think we'll recover a lawsuit on saline breast implants? I think so. Please respond, I'm new and don't know if anyone will write. I'll help others once I go thru with this. I'm 43 and have had implants 14 years with little local proble ms, but 2 years ago I got Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, and Severe Depression. I'm finally pulling out of it and like some of you others I asked God to heal me and that night I found out that breast implants are correlated with Fibromyalgia and the other disorders I meantioned. I also have irritable bowel bad which goes along with FM and Asthma. Which is also an immune problem, my doctor said that is all part of it. All of these illnesses I developed later in life after my breast implant surgery in 1988. Mine are Saline and Silicone. I will be gettng drains. Do they hurt to come out? Please somebody write. God Bless You All, - Blessed