BEWARE IN BOSTON

[Guest guest]

After surgery last week with the wonderful Dr. Kolb in Atlanta, I

returned home to Boston. I went to Massachusetts General

Hospital...a place I am very familiar with because of all the ER

visits and the doctors who labeled me a " medical mystery " (AKA a

mental case). I went to have my drains and stitches out. The chief

of plastic surgery was over an hour late and then decided to give me

a lecture on saline implants.

He asked me all about the surgery and if I had them out because of

contracture or rupture. I said no...I've been extremely sick. Then

I threw out the old... " I know the medical community says the evidence

is not conclusive enough to show that implants make you sick...BLAH

BLAH BLAH " just to let him know that I was not there to try and put

him out of business or start a war. Plus...he was going to pull out

my drains (OUCH...it hurt more than the other stuff) so I did not

want to make him mad.

He gave me the eye roll and said... " Actually the evidence IS

conclusive and it definitively shows that implants do not make

ANYBODY sick. SILICONE AND SALINE are completely safe. " Can you

believe it? He actually said the words " silicone is safe. " Then he

said...if you have been sick it is because you would have gotten sick

anyway and it has nothing to do with your implants. (I've never

heard of an epidemic of neurological and autoimmune diseases in young

healthy women in my lifetime...until now. By the way...none of even

my oldest relatives has either.)

Rather than argue with him I just said OK fine now just take these

things out please. He went on to talk poorly of Dr. Kolb saying that

if she was a good surgeon she would have called him ahead of time and

faxed over my charts and pictures. I told him that I never asked her

to, that his office told me not to bring in anything, and Dr. Kolb is

too busy trying to save the world from doctors like him. So...he

blamed it on his secretary.

The worst thing is that he had a student with him learning the ways

of the plastic surgeon's world where you lie to people. You

know...any doctor who says that ALL the evidence is in and everything

is conclusive about ANYTHING in such an adamant way scares me. It

just convinces me that he is hiding something. All people should be

able to admit that we do not know everything. History tells us that

people are often wrong (i.e. silicone implants, asbestos, cigarettes,

drugs causing birth defects, etc.) The list goes on. If any HUMAN

tells me all the evidence is in when the studies are still going on

and that 99% of women do not have a bad reaction when so many stories

of sickness are coming out everyday...it makes me want to remind him

that people used to think the world was flat. Besides I've always

learned that " ALWAYS " and " NEVER " should be used very cautiously

since they create rash generalizations.

So...here's to you Dr. Warren, Chief of Plastic Surgery, MGH in

Boston...in about ten years when MORE of the evidence is in, I will

remember you well enough to put your face on a poster with the

quote " It's conclusive...all implants are safe. "

Have a great day ladies. Watch out for anyone trying to make you

think that it was YOU who got sick and the implants are innocent.

Christy