41 Yr. Old, Removing 11 Yr. Silicone Implants placed submuscular, Hoping for Normalcy! - Cleveland, OH

Ladies, you have brought me so much hope with your stories. I cannot express enough how grateful I am to each and everyone of you courages women. I am sure my story mirrors yours one way or another. In 2004, a month before I turned 30 yrs old, I decided to give myself a gift, a change and to live the vida loca. I had just ended a long relationship at that time to and was a single mom, young and very independent. So, to celebrate all of those changes, without any thought at all, I went to get breast implants. My life did change alright but not for the better. My health started to deteriorate the very same week of having them in. I told my family that I wanted them out but they thought that I should give myself time to get use to them. That never happened. I was perfectly healthy prior to the implants. Since then I've spend thousands of dollars trying to figure out what was happening to me. I suffered so many symptoms from TMJ, headaches, chest pains, shortness of breath, irregular hearbeats, muscle and joint pains, etc. the list is long. I've seen all sorts of specialist, cardiologist, pulmonologist, neurologist, and many more gists....all test came out normal. I was eventually diagnosed with myofascial syndrome and fibromalyia. 

Since diagnosed I spend a lot of time doing research on both and just trying to feel better. The symptoms never went away but I just learned to bear the pain and dealt with every other symptom. I also had visited two plastic surgeons and both discouraged me from getting my implants removed. Telling me that I would look like I have breast of a 90 year old woman or a woman that have had 10 kids. The second surgeon also give me a prescription for Lyrica and told me all will be fine. I never took Lyrica, I don't like to take meds really. In other words, stay with your beautiful breast and here are meds so you can deal with the pain. I felt so lost not knowing where to go and what to do. So I continued to live like this and then in November 2014, I was play tennis and when I got home that night my right breast hurt so bad. It was almost unbearable. That's when I started my research again to get my implants removed and came across this site. Because I live on an island, St. Croix, USVI, there is just one plastic surgeon here and lets just say I'm probably better of having surgery elsewhere. I've had skype consultations and have emailed my pictures and spoken to one surgeon that way. Wish I could have seen them in person but I cannot afford to travel for a consult. 

I eventually decided to go with Dr. Feng since she has done many explantations. I would have love to go like yesterday to get these damn balloons out but I have two kids, a 19 and a 7 year old. My 7 year old is still at school and that ends in June. My hubby will be staying to care for him. And my lovely mother will be traveling with me on her birthday, Monday, 6/15. I then see Dr. Kahn on 6/16 for my ultrasound and then I see Dr. Feng for my pre-op. Surgery is set for Wed. 6/17 at 6:15 a.m. I'm nervous for many reasons, 1. I've never spoken to Dr. Feng, like I have with other doctors, so I'm praying that she is a great doctors and will work miracles with what I have. 2. I was planning on a lift but many reviews on here said that its better to wait until everything settles, so I am very scared of how I will look. Yet hopeful since I've seen some great before and afters. I told my husband to say goodbye because he will not see them in a long time. 3. I pray that all of my symptoms go away immediately and I want my health to go back to pre-implant or better. That's what scares me the most, the "what if" I don't feel better. But I'm trying to stay positive. God is great and he will help me through this all. I will keep you posted on my journey and thank you for sharing yours. You all have been a blessing and I wish you the very best. HUGS!!!