Believe Big Podcast

43-Kathryn Gordon - Breast Implants: Should Women Have Them Removed?

February 07, 2023 Ivelisse Page with Kathryn Gordon Season 1 Episode 43
Believe Big Podcast
43-Kathryn Gordon - Breast Implants: Should Women Have Them Removed?
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Today's episode is about the personal experience of getting and removing breast implants from my friend, Kathryn Gordon.

Kathryn shares openly and honestly about her decision to get breast implants, how it impacted her health, how it impacted her marriage and her decision to have them removed.  She also discusses her challenges finding answers for the health issues she was facing due to her implants.


Connect with Kathryn Gordon on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kathryngordon/?next=%2F

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Ivelisse Page:

Hi, I'm Ivelisse Page and thanks for listening to the Believe Big podcast, the show where we take a deep dive into your healing with health experts, integrative practitioners, biblical faith leaders, and cancer thrivers from around the globe. Welcome to today's episode on the Believe Big podcast. My name is Ivelisse Page, and it's an honor to spend this time with you. Have you been to a doctor's office with nagging symptoms that wouldn't go away and told that they couldn't find anything? Or worse yet that it was all in your head. I am here to encourage you that no one knows your body better than you do, and it's important to keep seeking answers and be your own advocate. It can save your life as it did for my dear friend Kathryn Gordon. Jimmy and I have known Kathryn and her husband Jon for years. She is a businesswoman movie producer, bestselling author of Relationship Grit and the host of the Kathryn for Real podcast. It's a perfect name for her because she is just that. As you will hear today, she is open and honest and isn't afraid to share difficult things in order to help others. Welcome Kathryn to the show.

Kathryn Gordon:

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm really honored to be here and this is very important for us to get this message out to people because I think so many times people are told that it's all in their head. So let's just talk about it.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah, I love it. I'm so glad that you're here. And so before we get into that, our listeners are always curious as to what our guest's favorite health tip is. So what is yours?

Kathryn Gordon:

I have several, but the one that comes to mind is oregano oil capsules. I have used wild organic oregano capsules in my family since I had my children. If someone were starting to feel sick, I give them a capsule at night before bed. You wake up in the morning and you feel great. You know it's an antibacterial, antifungal, and it heats up the body so it kills viruses and bacteria. And anytime I've shared this one little item, the oregano, people will text me and message me and they're like oh my gosh, I had no idea. And and it's just oregano oil. It's a beautiful thing. So that's my favorite.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah, it is great. It really helps with any kind of viral infections and things like that, so that is a great tip for people to look into. So you have an incredible story and I recently found out about it and really felt like I wanted people to hear it so that it can really empower them to make the best decisions for themselves when it comes to medical decisions. It's not a cancer story, but it is a story about being your own advocate and really important for people to realize what you went through and the steps that you did to change your outcome. And can you share just a brief history? People are probably wondering, what are we talking about? And so you wanted to share your story about why you decided to remove your breast implants. And so can you start from a little bit before then why did you get your implants and what led up to that and the symptoms that you started to feel?

Kathryn Gordon:

I grew up in a beach town in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and so there was a lot of bikini wearing and bikini pageants and different contests. And I did a lot of that stuff back then. And one time I was doing a photo shoot for a resort magazine, and the girl I was with had these beautiful breast, to be honest. And I was like, wow. And she goes, yes, I just bought them, blah, blah, blah. And so she gave me the plastic surgeon's number and I went and I set up my surgery time, it was$2,500 and I had no money. I literally went to a bank and I think the guy was so shocked that I had the nerve to actually walk in and ask for$2,500 for breast implants, that he gave me a loan and I paid I think it was like$25 and 75 cents a month for four years. I don't know. We'll have to do the math on that, but by gosh, I got my loan and I got the implants.

Ivelisse Page:

How old were you at the time?

Kathryn Gordon:

So I was 21. Just about to turn 22.

Ivelisse Page:

Okay.

Kathryn Gordon:

So it was 1988, Now I will back up. So another part of that is, the truth be told is I did not need breast implants. I was fine the way I was, and so when I went in there, I had asked him to just give me like a size up, give me a C, like a big C, and I woke up and I was a very large D. And I was shocked. And he actually said to me, patted me on my hips and said, oh, this is good though. I decided that I needed to do them bigger so it would match your hips so you'd be more proportioned. That could have been a lawsuit right then.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes.

Kathryn Gordon:

I'm 21, I didn't know any better. Anyway, off I went and it's fine to have that size when you're young and you're in bikinis all the time. I didn't have a lot of symptoms that I knew of early on. Now, in hindsight, when I look back, I could probably say that that was the issue. But at the time, you know, it wasn't anything extreme. Fast forward, about nine years later, almost 10 years later, and I got pregnant with my daughter. And by the way, I had looked into getting them reduced, like probably year five. But the doctor had told me you're gonna have children, if you're gonna have children, just wait. And then that way you can get a new pair and also address some sagging, get a lift. I got pregnant with my daughter and the big thing for me was that I wanted to be able to breastfeed. And by the way I gained so much weight with my pregnancy. I was a 38 or a 40 F. very uncomfortable. I did start breastfeeding, but very soon into that I started having issues. I starting having chills, and then I would get like a tingling up my neck. And then as this continued through the first month and the second month, and by the way, I did quit br breastfeeding my daughter because I had got mastitis, on the left side. I think I was about two weeks, three weeks in. And so I ended up weaning my daughter. And of course that was very depressing because I had planned on breastfeeding until she was two. And I kept getting sicker and sicker. I was achy all over. It started to be really hard for me to open jars even screw on the the bottle. I was achy and I started getting a really bad burning in my chest. It was almost like an asthma. I started reacting to everything. I started to get it. these things were coming out of my chest. It was almost like these pus things. And now you gotta remember this whole time, I'm going to all these doctors. I'm going to a rheumatologist. I'm going to a neurologist, because I started slurring my words.

Ivelisse Page:

What did they say to you?

Kathryn Gordon:

Oh, they all would run a couple tests. The rheumatologist said I had some slight arthritic type of things. The neurologist said there was nothing wrong with me. I had so many things done at the neurologist. I did all this testing and nothing was really coming up, nothing remarkable. Now my blood work would show that my white blood cells were elevated, but they always said, you are, you're postpartum. You're depressed. You have fibromyalgia. That was like the big term at the time. You have fibromyalgia. And I kept saying, no, something's wrong with me. I was a very healthy woman before I had my daughter and had these symptoms. Something's wrong. And so this continued for a while. I felt like I was itching, my chest. It was like itching from the inside out, if that makes sense. I would almost have to beat my chest. Well, as I would later find out that was a fungal infection, but there's a whole thing there, and so it was going down my arm and I finally got to the point where I couldn't lift my head. Now, this whole time, my young husband, we were young, didn't believe me because every time I would come back from the doctor, I would have no diagnosis. I had several bottles of Oxycontin because they all just prescribed me Oxycontin and just said, go home, take this, you know you'll be okay. And intuitively, and I thank God for this, I didn't ever take the Oxycontin because I think I wouldn't be here today, for sure. And so it was like I started to lose hope.

Ivelisse Page:

And I know that Jon now feels really terrible about how he responded during those times. In those days, you know when you're going to a practitioner and you're going one after the other, and they're all saying nothing's wrong. I'm sure it was really hard for him to hear what they're saying and to see you and you know trying to probably figure out for himself, is it postpartum or is it something more? What was he thinking at the time?

Kathryn Gordon:

I understand why he was coming from the place he was. He was a, a young father. He was in law school at the time, and I kept saying to him, please stay home today. I have another doctor's appointment, and he would stay home with our baby. And then I would come home and again, have no definitive answer for why I was feeling the way I was. And so it did, he did start to think, you know what? I think you might be losing it. And believe me, there were times I would stop and go, am I losing it? But then that other part of me would be, no, there's something wrong with you.

Ivelisse Page:

How long was this period, Kathryn? Of trying to figure this out.

Kathryn Gordon:

The whole ordeal before I got my implants out was about 10 months, but, definitely those months, five, six, and seven were getting really bad and he was not very nice to me. And I can say that now because he's the most amazing, loving, wonderful husband and he just didn't know what was going on. And what happened was I ended up deciding that I didn't wanna live anymore. And I knew with that decision, I had gotten to a place where I had finally lost hope. And it's really hard to explain, but I know it's so well when I hear somebody who's depressed or I remember that feeling like I always, no matter what, felt hopeful, and I had finally gotten to this place of where like I can't go on. And so I ended up, one night I prayed to God and I just said, God, please forgive me for what I'm gonna do and please take care of my new baby. And, I just can't go on. And my plan was to wake up in the morning when Jon left for law school and take those bottles of Oxycontin. And that night, in my dream, I heard a voice as loud as anything I've ever heard before. And it said, your implants are making you sick. You need to get your implants out. It was like a,

Ivelisse Page:

I have chills.

Kathryn Gordon:

A boom. Yes, it makes me, every time I think about it, and I woke up and I turned to Jon and I told him about my dream and for the first time he looked over at me and he goes, you know what? I believe you, I will second mortgage our home to get my wife back. We were poor as church mice we didn't have a lot of money but he's like, I will do whatever it takes to get you healthy again. So I ended up going to this plastic surgeon who, when I told my friend this, she goes, oh yeah, I think a friend of ours went. Then you start finding out these little stories were happening, but no one was really talking about'em. So I went to this doctor and she goes, oh yes, you're about the hundredth person that's come in and said this to me. It sounds like one of'em is infected or there's an issue. Let's open you up, clean you out, and then we'll put some new ones back in. And I said, you open me up and you clean me out, and you close me back up cuz I don't wanna do this. And the other thing I do need to say is, back in those days, the doctors never told you that you had to get him replaced.

Ivelisse Page:

No.

Kathryn Gordon:

You had'em forever. So no one had ever said to me, oh, by the way, you need to get these replaced in 10 years.

Ivelisse Page:

They actually just put out a law. Kathryn, I was researching last night and it said that the FDA announced a series of changes in October of 2021, that they are established new labeling requirements for breast implant manufacturers, including boxed warnings. They're also updating the recommendations designed to detect leaks in the implants. And they are also releasing updated information on breast implant post-approval studies to better inform patients. So they're now, all these years later, I think because of stories like yourself, they're adding these things in so that to protect the future, individuals.

Kathryn Gordon:

That's interesting. Remind me to tell you about the plastic surgeon that actually put him in, because I did contact him. But so what ended up happening is when this doctor opened me up, she could not believe what she saw. So much so that she had them go get a video camera. And I still have that tape by the way. My implants, both of them were black and you could literally see some kind of, it almost looked like fingers in the solution, which is supposed to be a clear solution. So now here's the interesting thing. I didn't have any leaks. They weren't leaking. They were completely sealed. So what happened? We still don't know. And luckily they hadn't leaked because when my implants were sent off to be tested, I got a call from the doctor, the researcher that actually tested my implant. His name is Dr. Pierre Blais, and he was French and he said, young lady, I just had to hear your voice. He said I have never met a living human being that had aspergillus niger just living in their body with them alive. He said, if you had ruptured your implant, either one, at any point in a car accident, anything, there is no medicine in the world that would've saved your life is what he said to me.

Ivelisse Page:

Wow.

Kathryn Gordon:

And that was back then. And last words he said, young lady, you have won the lottery.

Ivelisse Page:

I would just say that God knew that we needed you here much longer and you're doing great things for him as well and sharing with people so much hope. And so I really feel your purposes here are not over and there's much more for you to do.

Kathryn Gordon:

Well, it's funny you say that because one of the things that I did was I made a deal with God. So after I got my breast implants out and I started to heal, back then the internet was just getting going, but I was able to find some groups. There was a woman out in San Diego who had a breast implant illness support group. There were several. It was hard to find them, but once you found'em and got in these groups there were a lot. And so I was asked to do a lot of shows, a lot of magazine articles, documentaries, and my promise to God was that if he would just get me healthy enough to take care of my baby, where I could function, I would be sure to just get this message out for free to anybody who needed to hear it. And that's what I've done as much as I can.

Ivelisse Page:

Amazing. So circle back to that doctor who put them in. What happened when you told him?

Kathryn Gordon:

I ended up, after I got all the test results back, and one of the things that looked like there was some kind of additional liquid that was put in as well into the saline that it seemed to be popping up. They didn't know what that was. And so anyway, I called his office and I asked the nurses like, hey, this happened to me. Have you heard about this happening to anybody else? And of course, the nurse was kinda like, we've gotten some calls. So the nurse alluded to me that I wasn't the only one. And shortly after that, that doctor retired.

Ivelisse Page:

Wow. And there are many listening that have had implants, and especially with Believe Big, that have had to get or have put them in due to a mastectomy. And I firmly believe, as I know you do, that every woman needs to make the best medical decisions for themselves. We all need to weigh the risks of every medical decision personally. But for those who choose to keep and use implants, I would like to empower you who are listening with information that you might not know, and the new recommendations for women with silicone or saline implants is to receive an MRI screening for a silent rupture three years after the implant surgery, and then every two years after that. I've never heard that. And then also, Dr. Connealy, who is one of the top 50 integrative practitioners in the United States and specializes in oncology, just recently shared the following, after several patients asked about what to do after breast cancer and she shares this:"I usually discuss using fat from other parts of the body for reconstruction, but of course, work with your doctor and it's not medical advice that she is sharing. A breast implant, whether it's saline or silicone, is a foreign body. What happens when you put a foreign substance into your body? Your body mounts this incredible inflammatory reaction." Dr. Connealy has seen in some of her own staff when they've had their breast implants removed, that there is this encasement of inflammatory layers because of the implants. You have all these inflammatory cells that are going in and trying to protect you. Dr. Connealy recommends that you really think twice about putting any foreign body into your system. And so I thought, that was great advice from a medical professional, but also makes sense with cancer especially, you're trying to reduce inflammation in your body and actually for all diseases. And I was also surprised about that inflammatory response that again, many people probably aren't told or don't even know. And so I'd like to ask you, how long after the implants were removed did you start to feel better?

Kathryn Gordon:

Because I had been sick for so long and I did have a systemic fungal infection and a systemic bacterial infection, so it was in fact attacking my brain and organs, and that was part of the reason I was slurring my words. So I was on a lot of heavy antifungals and a, a very strong antibiotic. I already had a very irritated stomach, almost like an ulcer. And then when I got my breast implants out and I started to have to take those medications, it actually made me super, super sick until I realized that it was probably the antifungal and it's the medication. I started to do Aloe vera water. George's Aloe Vera Water to coat my stomach. So I tried to do some things. So then after that, I wanna say I really started to feel better fairly quickly. Like within a month I was starting to feel like myself again. I did wanna go back because, one of the things that we were talking about with women that have had breast cancer and certainly are wanting to get back to feeling as normal as they can. It makes sense why they would want to get breast implants, absolutely. But it was always a question that I had in my mind, like you're talking about, well, gosh, you know, we're removing the breast to take away the cancer. This implant is a foreign body like you said. Your body's natural response is to attack it. It's foreign.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes.

Kathryn Gordon:

And I have found more so now than back 20 years ago when this happened to me, and this is all of what your podcast is all about. We're at a different time, and so many people now have all these allergies, all these different sensitivities and allergies are popping up. Our food supply, all the additives, all the chemicals in the water, in the air, all the fragrances, there's so many assaults on our body. And then you go and put something like a breast implant in and it can be a recipe for disaster. And so it is good to know that they are coming up with ways that can restore a woman's natural breast shape without having to put a foreign body. I was just contacted by a nurse who had breast implants. She had breast implant illness and got her implants out and now she works for a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills and they specialize in taking out implants. I'm actually getting ready to have them on my podcast.

Ivelisse Page:

Fantastic.

Kathryn Gordon:

The awareness is there and it's starting to happen. And another thing I wanna point on that you said is when you're talking about the foreign body it's called a capsule. And, a lot of doctors don't know that after you remove the implant that you need to remove the capsule. So that's another piece that the capsule was being left in women as well, and it would have remnants of silicone because even if you have saline implants, the shell is silicone.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes.

Kathryn Gordon:

So you still have silicone, right?

Ivelisse Page:

Yes.

Kathryn Gordon:

Yeah. So I think we're on our way to better education and a better way of doing things.

Ivelisse Page:

And so what advice would you give to someone who is listening and have felt like they have, been to numerous doctors and they still don't have answers?

Kathryn Gordon:

This is what I always tell people because to this day I still have waves of people reaching out to me and, it's really hard, I understand, for a woman to spend the money and go through this surgery to remove their implants when they can't pinpoint if that was the reason or is the reason they're sick. And I can't give them that answer, and I don't think the doctors really can. But here's my thing, from a logical perspective, it's still gonna make you healthier if you get the implants out and you're still having symptoms, you at least have done one part to help yourself and your immune system get balanced. And I'll be honest, I haven't met so far, one woman who has told me that removing her implants was a mistake. No one's ever said that to me. Now, do women worry about what they're gonna look like after implants? Absolutely. And that is why so many won't get them out. So I have something that I did, again, I think it's a God thing. And I really think it, it helped me a lot and I shared this with a couple women and then I had one other woman say, yes, it worked. So it's this, once I got my implants out, I think it was about a month out. And they wrap you really tight with the ACE bandage. If you think about it like this, it's common sense. You're taking this implant out and so now there's the empty space and this, it's now gonna be tissue to tissue so that it fuses together. So the tendency is for it to lay flat, right? Because it's got that what was something large in there. So I ended up seeing a Chinese cupping, he was a Chinese doctor, and, a friend of mine had brought him in from China. You don't even have to do this now. Now you can get cupping up the street. You can do it yourself. This is way back when it was like taboo. But he actually did cupping around my breast, and like almost pulled up the tissue in a way, broke it up and broke up the scar tissue that it ended up making me look normal, like it wasn't so flat to my chest. So I always recommend women do that. So that's a little trick. I can't give you any scientific studies. It kind of makes sense, right?

Ivelisse Page:

It really does. And I know the benefits of cupping for health reasons, and it does add blood flow into the area. I think Michael Phelps made it popular before his Olympic trials. You see all the octopus marks all over his back, but it really helps with blood flow and actually lymph drainage and all of those things. So that really makes sense. I also wanna encourage people with what you said, you just kept searching for answers. I also like that you sought God for help. And and for those of us who are believers, we have the spirit of the living God living inside of us. It says we have the mind of Christ. So if we have the mind of Christ, he has the answers for us. We just have to ask. And so many times we try and do it all ourselves and meanwhile He's waiting patiently, and he answers us every time. And so I just didn't want that aspect to slip by someone because that was so powerful. And like you, for myself as well, before I was diagnosed with cancer, I had all these weird symptoms too. They thought I had fibromyalgia, they thought I had MS. I had all these scans, tingling along my back, and all those things led to the testing, which ended up finding that I actually had cancer. But you know, it is so important, I encourage people who are listening for preventing illness or disease, listen to what many people say is your gut or the Holy Spirit to listen to what your body is telling you on your healing journey and on your health journey. Don't ignore it. And so I would love you to close our podcast with what did this medical issue teach you about yourself?

Kathryn Gordon:

Well, I think it boils down to loving yourself. I learned a lot. There's really not one specific thing. But I think if I had to just close it all up, is that, love yourself and love the way God made you. And so you don't have to do these now. In the event that you have a mastectomy and you are wanting to get some natural shape. I understand that. And I do think, now with all these new procedures and the fat transfer, there are ways to make that happen. In general, it's listening to yourself. Your body does tell you, and like you said, it's the body of Christ. He's with us. Normally the message we're being given the message and you have to just pay attention to it.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. I agree. Thank you so much, Kathryn, for being on, for being transparent, for sharing your story. And I know that those are listening, really gained some incredible insight because of your story. And so really thank you for sharing it with us today.

Kathryn Gordon:

Oh, I wanna add something. I did something called Monsters Inside Me. So there is an episode if somebody would want to go watch it. And funny enough, you can't find any advertising for the US part, but the English one is still up. But I'll tell you this, it's Monsters Inside Me and that's on the, it was the Discovery Channel. And it's the name of the episode is called Something's Eating My Son Inside Out. But my story is in there and it's season three, episode two. And so I know you can still find it. Anybody is welcome to reach out to me if they have questions. My Instagram handle is@KathrynGordon. It's k a t h r y n g o r d o n. And I would be glad to answer any questions or direct you to somebody if I could possibly provide a resource for you, for free. I would gladly do it.

Ivelisse Page:

Thank you so much. Yes, we will add all of those links to your website, to your books, so that people can get in touch with you and the resources that you just shared. So thank you so much.

Kathryn Gordon:

Thank you for having me.

Ivelisse Page:

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What is your favorite health tip?
Can you share your story of removing your breast implants?
How was your husband responding to your lack of a diagnosis?
How long did this "no diagnosis" period last?
Kathryn speaks to the doctor who put her implants in initially.
How long after the implants were removed did you begin to feel better?
What advice do you offer someone who has seen several doctors and still has no answers?
What did this medical issue teach you about yourself?