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May 5th, 2001 - I knew I had alot more calls that
day. I knew I was going to need some help during recovery, so I wanted to find someone, even though I didn't have
a surgery date set. I also needed laundry done and the apartment cleaned. I was too sick to do it and my boyfriend,
Doug, was too busy with basketball on TV. How do you ask someone to come over and do these things? None of my family
was available and they really didn't realize how bad I was. I had a neighbor that I didn't know before, help me.
Jennifer, my vet's assistant, lived in the same complex. She frantically phoned from work at 9am and said her 12
yr. old daughter, Stephanie, called to tell her that her apartment was leaking from the rainstorm we were having.
She asked if I could go check on her. She lived in the next building, about 1/8th of a block walk. The rain had
let up. I walked over there, holding my breasts with my hands. When I got there I saw buckets full of water coming
from the ceiling. I ran; yes, I RAN (while holding my breasts) to the apartment upstairs and knocked on the door,
and told the residents about the flood downstairs. Their washer hose had broke and they didn't know. Jennifer's
ceiling by now had fallen completely down. Her daughter was a wreck. I called the apartment manager and maintenance.
I took Stephanie and Rebel (dog) home with me. I was in so much pain when I got home. I should have never ran like
that.
The rest of the weekend was spent on the couch in front of the TV, ALONE. Because I did not want to watch basketball.
OPEN MY EYES
May 7th, 2001. Monday - I woke up with a stiff
neck. I thought it might be due to stress as I had stiff necks before. First thing, 9am, I called Dr. Manson's
office. I was sure he'd get me in that day to see him and surgery the next, because he was a doctor that cared
about his patients. There was no way HE would let one of his patients be in this kind of pain. After all, he goes
to foreign countries and does charity surgeries on unfortunate kids, so there's no way he'd let one of his OWN
patients suffer like this. In fact, I thought, since I'd referred so many people to him, he might even waive his
fee for me.
Dr. Manson's assistant told me that Dr. Manson was no longer in the UHC network so he could not do my surgery.
When I questioned "why", they told me he was in UHC last Friday. She said "As of today, he's not
in it anymore, and he's not going to participate in very many insurances in the future." So where did that
leave me? She gave me the name of a plastic surgeons that Dr. Manson recommended.
I called UHC back and told them what happened. They said it was news to them about Manson not being in network.
They told me to call all the plastic surgeons they provided to see which one could get me in now.
This was so unlike me, to just go to a doctor recommended by an insurance company and have surgery. I ALWAYS researched
doctors before they touched me. I was TERRIFIED. I called Paula. She knew alot of medical people in this city.
She went over the list and chose Dr. Quincy because she had heard good things about him.
I called Dr. Quincy's office and told the assistant about my mammo, rupture, pain and my need for emergency surgery.
This is what she told me: "Without saline replacements or a lift, you will be horribly deformed. No one who
has had implants for 16 yrs. should just have them removed without replacements or a lift. The pain is not coming
from the rupture or the implants, so you need to go have other medical tests done to check your gallbladder and
also check for GERD. Dr. Quincy is with UHC, but you'll have to pay up front and let UHC reimburse you." I
explained I already had tests done and only wanted the explant and UHC already approved the explant. I had the
confirmation number from UHC. She gave me the runaround about UHC and how bad insurance companies are in general.
I called UHC back and told them what Dr. Quincy's office said. They faxed the info to Quincy's office. I called
Quincy's office back and they said they were sorry but they STILL would not accept payment from UHC, only payment
from me. I was SO CONFUSED. Since WHEN did a doctor's office NOT accept MONEY regardless of the source? She said
" we won't accept payment from any insurance company for removal of implants (explant only) because IT IS
NOT MEDICALLY NECESSARY TO REMOVE IMPLANTS." I was still confused and this girl talked to me like I was crazy.
I told her, "when a girl is in this kind of severe pain and has had about $30,000 worth of medical tests already
performed on her and the pain is in her chest, then I DO believe it IS medically necessary to REMOVE the ruptured
implants." She calmly, with a very soft voice, said to me: "We at Dr. Quincy's office do not recognize
silicone implants causing any pain, disease or illness. Now we can see you in about 3 months. Will that be enough
time to get your finances in order?" I said, "No. Thank You" and hung up the phone. I just sat there,
looking at the wall. That last statement from Quincy's office kept repeating in my head over and over. I will remember
that statement until the day I die. So many thoughts were racing through my mind that I could not think straight
at this point. My neck had become even more stiff and I could not turn it at all without pain. I thought, a'Could
this, too, be related to the rupture or to the incredible stress I was under?"
Dr. Todd called me personally to say he was sorry for the treatment I got from his nurse Angie. She was a temp-nurse
while Kimberly was out on surgery leave. He did not get any of my messages the week before. I told him what was
going on. He was totally shocked. He said "Honestly Anna, I did see your implant surgery listed on your forms,
but never would have connected that to the kind of pain you're having. All the medical literature I've been given
says silicone does not cause pain. I have never had a patient that had a rupture either. I will definitely do research
on this." I believed him then and still do. He had me come in for a shot of Toradol to relieve the neck pain.
May 8th, 2001 - I slept for about 6 hours straight, with help from the Toredol shot. I woke up with my
neck stiffer than ever and could not turn it at all. I was also starting to have trouble turning my waist, like
I was becoming paralyzed. I knew I had to get back on the phone and make an appointment somewhere. Upon the advice
of Paula, I called Dr. Ladd's office. He had no openings for 3 months, BUT one of his partners, Dr. Marks, could
see me the next day at 10 am. Jennifer drove me to the hospital to get my mammos, tests and other x-rays to take
along the next day. Paula drove me to Dr. Todd's office for another shot of Toredol, as my neck and waist were
paralyzed with pain, in addition to all the other severe pain. I was still taking 10 (7.5) Lortabs.
May 9th, 2001 - My body, from the waist up. was in excruciating pain. I still could not turn my neck and
my waist had limited movement, too. Doug's sister-in-law, Mary, took me to Dr. Marks office. We discussed what
I had been through. I made it clear to him upfront, that I did NOT want ANY replacements or any additional surgery
like a lift. I just wanted these things OUT of me. He looked at my mammos and verified "something was going
on." Dr. Marks is a man of very "few" words. He subtlety said something to the effect of, "Implants
at 16 years carry a rupture rate of 70%. We're going see alot more of these in the future." He advised me
that my skin was good and it looked like I had good breast tissue. He said if I wanted to do a lift, I could always
wait until later, after the explant because I may not even need one. He recommended I have surgery the next day
at 11:30 am. I asked him about my neck pain and he said it was totally unrelated to the rupture. He said that he
got them alot and that the anesthesia the next day would help. He also asked if I had been going through all the
other symptoms that other women had complained about. I asked "What symptoms?" He said , "like joint
and muscle pain?" I told him I had been in a car accident years before and had numbness in my left hand, but
that must have been from the car accident. He asked if I had any other health issues. I was in so much pain while
he was asking this that I never dreamed of telling him about all my sinus infections, allergies,etc. He told me
his assistant would go over some things with me and he would see me at the hospital in the morning. He said the
surgery should take about 45 minutes.
His assistant took some "before" pix, went over the procedure and recovery process and gave me some papers
to take home and read. I asked her if she had any problem with UHC and she said "no". She got their fax
and everything was cool. I told her what happened with Quincy and the payment issue and she advised me to call
UHC and inform them because this was a violation.
I went home and started making arrangements for people to stay with me. Doug didn't understand WHY I needed someone
to stay with me for a few days. He told me that I always said I was an independent person. He said if it would
have been him going through this, he'd want to be alone to heal. This is the ONLY time I will ever say this: I
wish he COULD go through this and see for himself. He said he would drive me to the hospital the next day, drop
me off and then I could page him when I was done. I knew right then I did not want to ever see this man again,
but I didn't have the strength or energy to have that conversation right then. We had dated for a year and talked
of marriage, but this clearly, was NOT the man for me. In addition to that, he smoked way too much dope. Need I
say more?
Paula took me to Dr. Todd's office for another Toredol shot to help me get some sleep. Jennifer came over, cleaned
my apartment and helped me get things in order so I would be comfortable after surgery. Doug did do one good thing
for me. His mom gave me a beautiful leather recliner to sleep on and he brought it over that night.
The rest of the evening, I looked over the papers Mark's office gave me. It was then, while reading the "list
of symptoms", that I started to get real scared. Sudden Allergies, infections, loss of hair, numbness, unusual
fatigue, were just a few. I HAD those. I thought to myself, "Could all those stories about silicone implants
in the early 90's be true? Did Dr. Manson lie to me? Was there something in the news I missed?" And the thought
that still bothers me to this date is, "Man, I wish I would have paid more attention to what everyone was
saying instead of relying on ONE doctors opinion." But what still baffled me was, "Why didn't my P/S
tell me about these symptoms before? He took the time to call about those stupid exercises. I think this is more
important. And if women were having problems, then why didn't the doctors or the manufacturers send out questionnaires
to ask women who had these things if we had these symptoms? They took Seldane off the market. Surely MORE women
with implants had problems than people using Seldane. These thoughts I pondered over, the night before surgery.
May 10th, 2001, 10:30 AM - Paula took me to the hospital. The surgery that was supposed to take 45 minutes,
ended up taking 2 hours 45 minutes. Paula sat in the waiting area very worried. She thought perhaps I was in recovery.
The assistant came out after 1 1/2 hrs to let her know it was a little more difficult than they expected and would
be a little longer. The doctor came out and told Paula, "We can never get 100% of the silicone out. We got
almost all of it and had to work on the right axilla area to 'clean' the lymph nodes."
I went home at 6pm that night. I had 2 drainage tubes in me that I had to empty and measure over the next few days.
Mary stayed with me that night. A friend, Carla, stayed with me the next night. Doug was going to stay the 3rd
night. He brought over his laundry to do and picked up videos he wanted to see. He got freaked out when he saw
the drains and said not to even ask him to go near those. I asked him if he would rub my back, but he said his
hands were really hurting that day. Funny, I never knew him to have problems with his hands before. He started
a deep conversation with me about "where our relationship was heading." I told him this was the wrong
time to talk about that. Well one word led to another and I told him to get out of my life NOW. Actually, I screamed
so loud that I'm sure every neighbor now knew I was a single woman again. I said to him, "I'd rather be in
heaven alone, than in hell with you."
CAN'T YOU SEE THE REAL ME DOCTOR
My explant turned out well. My breasts looked better than I expected. I think Dr. Marks did a good job, even if
he doesn't agree with me on what silicone does to our bodies. I told him how much my allergies have improved and
that I've had no sinus infections since before surgery. My left hand, (the last 3 fingers) which was numb since
the car accident in 1993, was getting feeling back. He said it was a placebo effect. 30% of the women get better
for a year, then their (problems) conditions return; 30% never get better, and 30% get better and stay that way.
I wonder what happens to the other 10%? ."ISN'T THIS FUZZY MATH?"
I still have pain on the right side of my right breast and in my underarm area. My post-op report says, "May
have left a remnant in right axilla area." Maybe that is why I have the pain and the numbness in that area.
I checked with 2 P/S's and both refuse to do a MRI to see if anything is there. They both insist I see a physical
therapist because they think I have a pinched nerve. They both now say, UHC will not pay for a MRI because it's
related to cosmetic surgery , and it's not really "medically necessary." UHC told me they'd rather I
have a MRI to see if there IS anything there and yes, they will pay for it because of the pain. The "pain
factor" makes it medically necessary.
I don't believe these P/S are trying THAT game again with me!
WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN
If you have come this far to read this long story; and you have not yet been explanted, please go to a doctor who
does MORE explants than implants. Everything I've read about Dr. Feng and Dr. Huang look very good. I'm sure there
are others too. Search the support group sites and ASK.
And if you're STILL thinking about getting implants, ask yourself this: Are you 100% sure that you will not
have the same reactions/problems that all of us have gone through? And please don't give me some lame excuse
that no one can ever be 100% sure of any surgery because I will tell you; You're right, but can you recall, where
after ANY other surgery, this many (previously healthy) people developed these symptoms and illnesses? I can only
recall one type of surgery that was like this. The ones performed in the concentration camps in the Nazi Hospitals.
There are so many other ways you can improve your appearance. Why not put your money into your teeth? Or by new
clothes? Get facial/massages every 2 weeks? Buy a Ferrari! God knows, with the money you'll save on having to go
to doctors for all your aches and pains, you'd be able to afford one! Or perhaps you'll end up like me: not believing
anything people say about the implants, and giving all your hard earned money to doctors.
But most of all, it's taken me 42 years to be happy with myself, just the way I am. I hope I have
another 42 years to enjoy the real me.
Anna after being explanted
As for the plastic surgeon who said they would not accept payment from my insurance company because "it was
not medically necessary": I now understand WHY. they said this because if the plastic surgeons ADMIT to the
insurance companies that it IS medically necessary, then they're ADMITTING that there is a problem. And the last
thing the plastic surgeons want, is to admit there's a problem with breast implants.
So ask this question before getting breast implants: Is it REALLY medically necessary?
NOTE: ALL THE DOCTORS' NAMES IN THIS STORY HAVE BEEN CHANGED; WITH THE EXCEPTION OF DR. ERICKSON,
MY VET. WHO TREATED HIS PATIENTS MORE HUMANELY THAN THE DOCTOR'S WHO TREATED ME.
Anna 's title and subtitles are taken from her favorite songs, which she related to.
To see a list of credits, CLICK HERE.
EMAIL ANNA
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