Description of Event or Problem · 0
I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH BREAST CANCER IN (B)(6) 2012 AND HAD A BILATERAL MASTECTOMY WITH DELAYED BREAST IMPLANT RECONSTRUCTION IN (B)(6) 2013. TISSUE EXPANDERS WERE PLACED AT THE TIME OF MY MASTECTOMY AND THOSE WERE REPLACED WITH SILICONE IMPLANTS (ALLERGAN NATRELLE STYLE 20 600CC) IN (B)(6) 2013. ABOUT MID-2014, 1 YEAR AFTER THE IMPLANTS WERE PLACED, I BEGAN HAVING SYMPTOMS OF ILLNESS THAT I SOUGHT MEDICAL CARE FROM MY ONCOLOGIST FOR: HEADACHES, NAUSEA, FATIGUE, JOINT PAIN, AND MORE. AT THAT TIME I HAD COMPLETED MY BREAST CANCER TREATMENT OF CHEMOTHERAPY AND HERCEPTIN INFUSIONS, BUT WAS STILL UNDERGOING HORMONE THERAPY WITH TAMOXIFEN AND TRANSITIONING TO LETROZOLE AFTER A HYSTERECTOMY/OOPHORECTOMY IN (B)(6) 2013. I WAS ATTRIBUTING MY SYMPTOMS TO SIDE EFFECTS OF THE AI DRUG I WAS TAKING. IN THE MEANTIME, I LEARNED I HAD A BENIGN PINEAL MASS IN (B)(6) 2016 AND HAD A CRANIOTOMY IN (B)(6) 2016 TO HAVE IT REMOVED FROM MY MID-BRAIN BECAUSE IT WAS CAUSING ME SYMPTOMS OF HEADACHES, DOUBLE VISION, BALANCE ISSUES, AND FAINTING. AFTER MY BRAIN SURGERY I EXPERIENCED SOME ISSUES WITH SHORT-TERM MEMORY LOSS AND WORD RECALL, BUT WAS LARGELY ABLE TO COPE BY THE USE OF TOOLS SUCH AS IPHONE REMINDERS, CALENDAR NOTIFICATIONS, LISTS, ETC.. I DISCONTINUED TAKING LETROZOLE IN 2017 AT THE ADVICE OF MY ONCOLOGIST AFTER 4.5 YEARS OF HORMONE THERAPY. FAST-FORWARD TO 2018, I BEGAN EXPERIENCING PAIN FROM MY BREAST IMPLANTS AND CONTACTED THE PLASTIC SURGEON WHO PUT THEM IN BACK IN 2013. I REQUESTED AN MRI TO CHECK FOR SILENT RUPTURE, CITING THE MANUFACTURER RECOMMENDATIONS, AND THE FACT THAT I'D NEVER HAD ANY IMAGING DONE ON THEM. THE ORIGINAL PS DECLINED TO ORDER AN MRI SO I SOUGHT ANOTHER PS FOR EVALUATION. HE DID SEE ME AND ORDERED AN ULTRASOUND INSTEAD OF AN MRI, WHICH THE ULTRASOUND CAME BACK 'NORMAL' AND HE SAID THAT MY IMPLANTS STILL HAD A 'FEW YEARS LEFT' BEFORE THEY NEEDED TO BE EXCHANGED OUT. AT THAT 2018 VISIT I HAD JUST BEGUN LEARNING ABOUT BREAST IMPLANT ILLNESS AND ASKED THIS PLASTIC SURGEON QUESTIONS ABOUT SOME OF THE SYMPTOMS I WAS HAVING COULD BE RELATED TO MY IMPLANTS AND HE DIDN'T SEEM TO THINK THERE WAS ANY RELATION. I LEFT THE APPT, MOVED ON BUT STILL HAVING ISSUES AND WITHOUT ANSWERS. MY ONCOLOGIST AND PRIMARY CARE DOC WERE RUNNING LABS AND SCANS, SENDING ME TO SPECIALISTS (RHEUMATOLOGIST, ORTHOPEDIST, NEUROLOGIST, SPINAL SPECIALIST, MEMORY/SPEECH PATHOLOGIST) AND WE WERE GETTING NOWHERE WITH THE SYMPTOMS I WAS EXPERIENCING AND GETTING WORSE FROM 2019 THROUGH 2022, MUCH OF THAT TIME I WAS DEALING WITH ON MY OWN DURING THE PANDEMIC WHEN I COULD NOT SEEK CARE. NO DEFINITIVE ANSWERS, DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT OR RELIEF TO THE PERSISTENT HEADACHES, INCREASING SPINE/BACK PAIN, JOINT PAIN, NAGGING DRY COUGH, EXTREMELY INCREASED MEMORY FOG AND DIFFICULTY WITH WORD RECALL, TROUBLE WITH CONCENTRATION AND FOCUS WHICH IMPACTS MY WORK AND COMPLETION OF DAILY TASKS, HAIR LOSS, EXTREME INSOMNIA, AND MORE. HAVING RULED OUT ALL OTHER POSSIBILITIES OVER THE YEARS, AND HAVING SEEN IMPROVEMENT IN SOME OF THESE AREAS IMMEDIATELY POST-CHEMO AND AGAIN POST-BRAIN SURGERY, THEN TO HAVE A DECLINE AGAIN A FEW YEARS LATER AFTER BOTH, I AM INCLINED TO BELIEVE THAT MY SYMPTOMS ARE VERY LIKELY RELATED TO MY SILICONE BREAST IMPLANTS. I BELIEVE THAT MY BODY IS CONTINUING TO MOUNT AN AUTO-IMMUNE RESPONSE TO MY IMPLANTS AND AS THE IMPLANTS CONTINUE TO AGE AND DETERIORATE INSIDE MY BODY, MY IMMUNE SYSTEM IS CONTINUING TO RESPOND AND FIGHT BACK, RESULTING IN A MYRIAD OF SYMPTOMS OF ILLNESS THAT IS GETTING WORSE OVER TIME. MY RED BLOOD CELLS HAVE NEVER BEEN ELEVATED UNTIL I HAD BREAST IMPLANTS, AND THEY HAVE SINCE BEEN ELEVATED FROM ABOUT 8-MONTHS POST IMPLANT PLACEMENT. MY LIVER ENZYMES HAVE ALSO NEVER BEEN ELEVATED UNTIL I HAD IMPLANTS, AND THEY HAVE BEEN UP AND DOWN SINCE AS WELL. I HAD SURGERY TO REMOVE MY IMPLANTS ON (B)(6) 2022 AND MY SURGEON SENT THE CAPSULES FOR PATHOLOGY, STILL PENDING RESULTS. I HAVE HAD 27 CBC LAB TESTS RUN FROM (B)(6) 2014 TO (B)(6) 2022, AND MY RBC RANGES FROM 4.87 TO 5.29 DURING THAT TIME FRAME. OF THE 27 RESULTS, 23 WERE ABOVE 5.0 M/UL AND CONSIDERED 'HIGH'. MY SILICONE BREAST IMPLANTS WERE PLACED IN (B)(6) 2013. I HAVE HAD 31 COMPLETE METABOLIC PANEL (CMP) LAB TESTS RUN FROM (B)(6) 2013 THROUGH (B)(6) 2022, AND MY ALT LIVER ENZYMES RANGE FROM 15 TO 181 DURING THAT TIME FRAME. OF THE 31 TOTAL RESULTS, 20 WERE ABOVE 56 U/L AND CONSIDERED 'HIGH'. FDA SAFETY REPORT ID# (B)(4).