Tuesday Block 1

Tuesday Block 1

Ahead on fox 24 news now.

>> hundreds of thousands of people get breast implant as many every year, but there's a little-known disease that affects some recipients.

It's called bii.

And to help us understand what this is is lynn, breast illness advocate and author, and good to see you, lynn.

>> let's talk about what breast implant illness is.

And someone who has received breast implants, from what i understand in reading your journey, you woke up one day and started not feeling well.

And that was kind of a gradual feeling of not being yourself anymore.

And can you talk more about that?

>> yeah, i mean the operative word being gradual.

It's something that does come upon you over time, you don't go oh, i'm not feeling well.

But the symptoms, they sort of easy in and one-by-one, and you get sicker and sicker and you go oh, my gosh, what's happening with me?

And them you go to the doctor and he tells you you're fine, and you know you're not, and it's just basically the process of elimination.

Everything else that is eliminated, it's probably your implants.

>> which is a very time-consuming process, i can imagine and i want to talk about that.

But can you television when you received your breast implants?

>> yes, it was 1991.

And i was in my early 30s back then.

And it just seemed like the thing to do, and oh, boy.

>> it was not for a medical reason, you just wanted to approve the way you felt about yourself and how you looked.

>> yes, it was vanity over sanity.

>> that's okay, people do it every single day, and it's a personal choice.

But when would you say you started feeling >> i had my implants for 30 years, so i would say the roundabout, give or take at the 15-year point, i started going downhill with the gut issued gun first, and then the mental and the brain fog, forgetting things, and i was early dementia, and the muscle and joint pain and the migraines, and you name it, i got it.

You know?

And it was just -- that's how it all started.

>> let me ask you, did you have silicone implants or saline?

>> mine were silicone, under muscle, 525cc under muscle.

>> and so you made the decision time to have them taken out and what was that just emotionally for you like?

>> become, i mean i -- it's kind of strange because i had no idea what it was, what breast implant illness meant until one day i was watching botch.

And there was a lady on, and she was talking about her friend's journey with breast implant illness, and she was telling the doctors that she thought she had it as well.

And long story short, they both did it, and they had them removed and both got better.

And actually, i was watching it last year on my birthday, november 15th, 2019, and i was sick as a dog, and depressed and sitting there on my couch with my dog, and i literally jumped out of my chair and i said that's what i have.

>> i want to learn more about that process and the realization.

>> we have been talking about breast implant illness with lynn harps cohen, a breast implant advocated.

And she talks about the story of when she decided to have the implants taken out and lynn, when you did take them out, was there any sign of leakage?

>> yeah, the surgeon found double ruptured.

And both of them had been ruptured for quite some time.

And the silicone had leaked into my body and he had to do a lot of scraping on the ribs and caughterization to get -- the capsules why stuck, and it grows around the implants, and it protects what you have got.

If you have implants, it's going to leak through, and implants are made of so many harmful and terrible chemicals and heavy metals, and it's a matter of time.

It's bound to happen.

>> of course, and is there any way to detect if you have a leak believe the doctor has to go in there on to find it?

>> unfortunately not, sometimes they can find it by mri.

But it's not very reliable.

It's mostly just when the surgeon goes in actually and finds t.

>> you've become an advocate in this field.

And it sounds like bii is not something that's wholeheartedly being noticed or taken seriously and so what are you hoping with your advocacy that you accomplish in the years to come?

>> we're very much trying to get the fda and big pharma and the medical community as a whole to recognizes it's an actual condition.

It's not a disease like the normal thing, and they all tend to to have a little bit because it's an elective type of thing, it's our choice, and we did it to ourselves and a lot of women beat themselves up, and i have to tell them, we all did 2, you're not alone, don't punish yourself, it does no good whatever.

My surgeon said go have a good time with your new boobs and that's that and we want people to be forewarned.

And we want the medical community to recognize t i was at the doctor's office all the time.

I had 32 breast implant illness symptoms, and over the course, didn't even consider it to be the implants.

>> lynn, that's overwhelming.

32, and you wrote a book about it.

And you're in the works to write another book to get other women's experiences on paper.

I want to thank you for sharing all of this information and i know our viewers will be fascinated, where should they go?

>> healing breast implant illness.com.