196 - Plastic Surgery: I Got My Implants Put Back In

Amy revisits her journey with breast implants, sharing the
unexpected turn of deciding to have them reinserted after
previous removal due to concerns about breast implant illness.
With raw honesty, she explores the intricate balance between
physical appearance and mental health, offering a nuanced
perspective on cosmetic surgery.  


This episode unpacks the emotional and physical layers of her
experiences, reflecting on the influence of societal
expectations, the pursuit of confidence, and the complex
relationship with one's body.


 


Key Takeaways:


Insights into the controversial and personal nature of breast
implant illness.

The reasons behind changing one’s mind on significant health
decisions.

The deep impact of body image on personal relationships and
self-confidence.

The value of community and informed decision-making in
cosmetic surgery.



 


“I ended up having my implants put back in. And, again, I don't
owe anyone, I guess an explanation. But I wanted to come on here
because I feel like there are other people that maybe you've been
on the fence. And I would still suggest this to you, and that is
one, do your homework, go check out breast implant illness, learn
all about it.”  - Amy Ledin


 


Listen to Amy’s previous episode 88 about Breast Implant Illness
with Laura Krosky


 


If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star
rating  and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict,
Podchaser and Castbox.


 


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Check out the Amy Ledin Website

Lean Bodies Consulting Website for coaching

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Join Our Facebook Group For Females 



 


Resources: 


Build Your Health Character with me

5 for 50 Challenge

How to Build Your First Fat-Loss Diet

Amy’s Follow-Through Challenge

5 Common Mistakes Women Over 40 Make That Lead to Belly Fat

Meals over Macros & Structured Flexibility



 


Transcript:


Amy Ledin  0:00  


After my explant, I did try a fat transfer to my boobs. Because
like I said, after I got the explant and realized, oh my gosh,
I'm like so flat that I mean, I just looked like a boy like I'm
so flat that maybe a fat transfer would work. And I'm here to
tell you do not waste your money ladies, if you are listening to
this, it was not only the biggest waste of money, but ended up
costing me more in that. What happened following the fat transfer
is I ended up getting over 22 cysts in my breast.


 


Amy Ledin  0:42  


What are you doing to create your dream life or your best self?
Why do we see some thrive through challenges while others
struggle? Welcome to Epic, a podcast where I talk about the main
apps in my life that have helped me in creating my best self,
faith, family forgiveness, food, fitness, and formula. Hi, my
name is Amy Levine. And most would say that I've had my fair
share of struggles, whether it was placing my baby for adoption
at 18, facing my marriage ending affair or battling stage four
cancer for almost seven years, it's safe to say that I've been
through a lot. Join me as I take you through my story, my
journeys and share with you the tactical strategies every single
week that will help you thrive and overcome anything you face.
That's right, I'm going to show you how to create a future self
that you'll be proud of. So buckle up, get ready for the ride as
I take you through my story and bring other guests on that have
helped me along the way.


 


Amy Ledin  1:35  


So you might have read the title and thought what the heck, I
thought Amy did an entire podcast, all about breast implant
illness, having an explant, and you know, the end. And you know
what? You're right. I did do an entire podcast on that. And I
would still encourage anyone to go back and listen to that. And
honestly, I really debated even doing this episode because it is
my personal life. And I know that there will be some judgment, I
know that there will be some questions. But I have always said
from day one that I want to be an open book, I want to share
everything with you and be as authentic as possible. So with that
is sharing this part of my life. And yes, I did get my implants
put back in. So let's talk all about it, why I did this. Because
I know that for some of you that have followed me, maybe you went
down this path. I've had people that have DM-ed me about getting
an explant and hey, I'll be the first to say that I went down
that rabbit hole and I do believe that there is such a thing as
breast implant illness. I don't think I was one of those people
that was affected by it. So, let's just dive into it. Let me just
kind of rewind a little bit. So if you are new to the podcast,
welcome. My name is Amy Ledin. I am a 10-year cancer survivor. I
am a birth mother, I am a divorcee, second marriage, I am a
blended family mom. Like those are some of my and I am a fitness
coach. And so if you've been along for the journey I've kind of
touched on every single topic on here including breast implant
illness. Now, I had implants for over, gosh,. 19 years I had two
different sets. I got my first set after losing 90 pounds. I was
probably a double A if that I had no breast tissue, had my, got
my first set in and honestly did it for just my own confidence. I
just wanted to feel good in my clothes. I wanted to feel and I
really don't like using this word all the time. But I wanted to
feel womanly. I wanted to feel feminine. I wanted to feel sexy in
my own body. And I looked like a you know, 12-year-old pubescent
boy or pubescent girl, maybe. And so I had decided to get
implants, I really never had any issues. And I like to say that
because now that we know with my chemo and the effects of that,
that really was what was causing some of my issues. As we saw
once you know, I got my implants taken out. So I had my first set
for almost 10 years. And then you know, as most people know, with
implants, they should be replaced, eventually. I was going in to
have a tummy tuck. I've been very open about this. You know, so
what, 10 years of having implants. You know, I'd made a goal that
if I was able to keep my weight off for you know, five-plus years
that I would treat myself to a tummy tuck I had more than a
five-inch you know, in length like down a huge piece of skin that
I could basically roll up in my pants, and it was just paper
thin, you know, stretch marks, all that. And, you know, it was a
personal decision that I wanted to save my money and have a tummy
tuck. So while they were in there, we knew that we were going to
replace the implants. And my biggest mistake, I will be honest,
was then going a little bit bigger. So I went from having, you
know, like 285, maybe 300 CCs, I think, is what I had the first
time to 550. Now, let me just say, I didn't know that they were
550 CCs, they were actually, on my card, 450 but when I got my
explant, they weighed my implants, and they had been overfilled
to 550. So I had those in for about five years, maybe six years.
And then I started hearing about breast implant illness. Now, as
I said, at the beginning, I know that it is a real thing. There
are 150,000 plus people in a group on Facebook called breast
implant illness that many of these women share their stories. And
as I started to read through some of the symptoms, and as I said,
in my last podcast, I really did not have any symptoms other than
neuropathy. didn't sleep very well at night. But keep in mind, I
also was on a lot of compounds, including chemotherapy and
chemotherapy, one of the biggest ones with that is having
neuropathy. But with me getting ready to have lung surgery, back
in 2021, I believe it was, I knew that if I was going to be going
in to have this big lung surgery, this might be the time since
I'm already going to be put under anesthesia, I would just get
the explant and just do it all at once. And you know, I didn't
want to have all these symptoms and deal with all the things that
others were dealing with, in addition to honestly, my implants
just felt so big, you know, and really just, you know, they
weren't, they weren't serving me anymore. And I knew that I did
want to at least eliminate what I thought was neuropathy from the
implants. Now keep in mind, about a week prior to my surgery, I
ended up finding out that I was in remission, like nothing short
of a miracle. And so they stopped my chemo then, about about a
week before my surgery. Now keep in mind these things, you know,
can stay in your system. And you can have, you can actually even
have neuropathy long term from chemo even after you stopped
taking it. But I got taken off the chemo. And the reason why I
mentioned this is because now looking back, I'm sure as I was
getting the explant, in addition to like, also removing all of
these, you know, compounds from my body, of course, I woke up
from surgery feeling amazing. And I did, you know, I slept well
for, gosh, that first week afterwards, it was like I was, you
know, in heaven feeling so good and I really had no regrets. And
honestly, if I had the symptoms that so many people have had, I
would definitely suggest that you go and get it checked out and
consider getting an explant.  


 


Amy Ledin  8:16  


Now fast forward. And I've shared this on our social media, you
know, probably about a year ago, I had posted a kind of post an
annual post, just like on the anniversary of my explant just
talking about it, just putting more, you know, awareness around
it. And someone had posted saying, hey, you really should check
out this other group. I know you're in the Breast Implant Illness
group, but check out this other group called Breast
Implant-Explant Regret. So I decided to check it out because, you
know, full disclosure, and I like I said, I always want to be
completely open and honest with you, I had a really hard time
going from having implants for you know, 19 years or just having
boobs, to going back to not just like nothing, I'm talking, I was
flat as a pancake, like no breast tissue, because when they did
that explant, they also did a lift took off any excess skin. So I
really had nothing like I couldn't even you know, bralettes were
loose on me. You know, I started buying actually in the little
girl section, you know, I started wearing Leilani's bras and she
was like 10 years old. And those were fitting me and it just
started to, you know, bug me and weigh on me and again, like this
is an elective surgery. So it's not like I'm just going to jump
into doing it. But it had been at the back of my mind for a while
especially because my neuropathy was back, you know, as back on
chemotherapy and all of those what I thought were breast implant
illness symptoms, were no longer you know, I didn't have implants
anymore. I'd had the en bloc I'd had everything taken care of and
I still was having the exact same things that I was having before
and now I was left with no boobs. And hey, I get it, you might be
listening to me going, what's the big deal? You know, I don't
even know why you would risk doing that. And hey, I respect your
opinions. And I appreciate that. And you know what, for other
people, it's like, I'd say, h ey, you, you have to live with what
you, you know, decide. And I do too. And so we just got back from
a vacation this last year. And again, I just was like, man, I
just, it's making me self-conscious. You know, Erik and I, we've
always kind of bragged about how amazing our sex life is. And it
still was amazing but I was getting to a place where I wouldn't
take, I hadn't taken my shirt off since the explant, I wouldn't
let Erik touch me there. I really liked either to keep my T-shirt
or my bra on because it just didn't, you know, feel confident
anymore and it was taking a toll. Really more on me. I mean, Erik
has always said to me, hey, listen, I am not, I'm not a boob guy.
Like it doesn't, you know, it doesn't faze me. You can have huge
boobs, no boobs, I love you the way you are, in fact, over these
last couple of years, he's always made me feel so attractive.
He's said, hey, I love the athletic look, you know, but he made a
point to say to me, Listen, you do what makes you feel best.
Like, I can sit here and I can tell you how amazing you look. And
I don't even notice that you don't have boobs or whatever. But
it's really going to come back to you. But I just kind of left
that in the back of my mind.  


 


Amy Ledin  11:41  


Now, fast forward, after my explant, I did try a fat transfer to
my boobs, because like I said, you know, after I got the explant
and realized, oh my gosh, I'm like so flat that I mean, I just
looked like a boy like I'm so flat, that maybe a fat transfer
would work. And I'm here to tell you do not waste your money.
Ladies, if you are listening to this, it was not only the biggest
waste of money, but ended up costing me more in that what
happened following the fat transfer is I ended up getting over 22
cysts in my breasts. Now this comes as a blessing in disguise,
because here's the thing, we initially thought that all these
cysts were from the fat transfer. And so, it forced us to go in
and do testing. And we ended up needing to do biopsy because I
ended up having three of the 22 cysts that actually were not the
same as the other. So what they gather now is that 19 of those
cysts were from fat transfer, they were clear, we didn't have
blooded in them, no issues. The other three, honestly as finding
them, were kind of the blessing in disguise in that, hey, if it
wasn't for the fat transfer, I probably wouldn't have had this on
alert in terms of getting a mammogram, getting ultrasounds,
getting an MRI, like I wouldn't have even thought to do the due
diligence there without that fat transfer. Now, I get CT scans,
and I get PET scans all the time. So I wasn't really worried
about cancer, per se. But I did wonder why I had, you know, these
lumps in my chest. So we knew that we were getting to a point
where I was going to have them removed, because there were three
of them specifically that were rather large. And they were
showing through like even my shirts, and you know, because again,
I have no chest and I'm rather lean. So you can pretty much see
the lumps in my chest. So we already knew that that was going to
be a surgery coming up. And so I had just mentioned it to Erik
that I was like, hey, you know, I really would like to consider
getting my implants put back in, I'm not sure what that will look
like. And I'll be you know, I even said I'm like, man, I feel
like a phony that I've been, you know, I've promoted breast
implant illness. And I have, you know, talked to several ladies
about this and here I am wanting you know, to get them back in.
Of course Erik was like, hey, you know what, you know, you and
you know what you feel like and you are the one that has to live
with it. So that is totally up to you. I will fully support that
if you want to do that they're going to be going in for surgery
to remove these. If we can coordinate it with a plastic surgeon
like I'm 100% on board for you. You know, and I said to him, I'm
like, here's the deal. If I do do it this time there is going to
be you know, I'm not going to go as big I'm not looking to have
like these implant-looking boobs. I just want to have a little
something, you know, in my chest just to even fill out my sports
bras. And so I had decided to go down that path I met with a few
doctors, because we knew that we were going to be dealing with
also working with my oncologist, even though they were not cancer
as they were just working together to coordinate me having the
cyst removed. And so long story short, about eight weeks ago, I
ended up having my implants put back in. And, again, I don't owe
anyone, I guess an explanation. But I wanted to come on here
because I feel like there are other people that maybe you've been
on the fence, and I would still suggest this to you. And that is
one, do your homework, go check out breast implant illness, learn
all about it. What I have learned through this because I've gone
down the deep rabbit hole of of seeing this because they do
polls, not in the breast implant illness group, but other groups
where they've asked, hey, after you had these taken out, did your
symptoms go away? And what they have found more times than not
that this has actually been on hormonal, it's right around that
perimenopause, menopause phase of life. And in addition to that,
so that's one reason why some of these people have these elevated
symptoms. But the other would be that you have autoimmune issues,
if you already have autoimmune issues. For some reason, this
tends to trigger a lot of these other symptoms by having a
foreign object in your body. Now fortunately, for me, like I
said, you know, my neuropathy, and things we found out was really
from my chemotherapy, I didn't have any of the other issues or
symptoms. So that's why I decided to re-implant. Now this time, I
went much smaller, I have 265 CC, so I'm probably a maybe a full
B now but hey, it is better than nothing. And again, this is not
to judge anyone that has gotten them taken out. And, you know,
they feel like it is the best decision for them, hey, I, more
power to you, I think that's great, I fully support you. But this
I wanted to do this episode, because there are still people that
are maybe on the fence, or maybe you have implants, and you're
thinking that's going to be the smoking gun or the solution to
solve all of your other issues. I'm here to say do your homework,
maybe it will be the solution for you. Maybe it will help you and
maybe it won't. I just don't want you to go down the path I did,
which was doing all these things, spending the money on having an
explant to only end up with the same I had the neuropathy, still.
I still had all the other you know, I really not other big
symptoms other than really the neuropathy. And they still all
came back about two weeks post explant. So maybe this episode
more than anything is just going to be you listening to me go,
okay, this has no, you know, I cannot relate to this at all. Or
maybe you're like, hey, I have a friend that's considering it.
Or, hey, Amy, I'm just happy that you're honest with me and share
this with me because maybe down the path down the road, this will
be something I want to share with others. And like I said, please
still go listen to my breast implant illness one, all on that
because the guests that I had on, she had legit issues that did
go away and has not come back since having her explant. So I hope
this just helps you. This is just something that has been, it's
been heavy on me. Because I'm like, I want to share this. I don't
want people to you know, see me on social media and go did she or
didn't she I swear she was flat before now she's got some boobs.
I mean, people I swear y'all, y'all pay attention to everything.
I can have a book in the background of a video, a 10-second video
and I will get a DM and go, hey, what's the name of that book
there? Or hey, did you? You know. So I get it. We're all nosy. We
all like to know everybody's business. So I just wanted to put
this out there. And then of course, if you have any questions for
me, shoot me an email, send me a DM. I am an open book. I am more
than you know, willing to share the ups, the downs, but just most
importantly, I just wanted to be really honest with my audience
in sharing this with you today.  


 


Amy Ledin  19:31  


Okay, I'm on a mission. As you know, if you've been following
along, I have a goal to be at top 100 podcasts. And it's less
about that top 100 and more about I want to make an impact. I
want more people to hear F* It! and learn from all of the
mistakes that I've made, along with me bringing on really special
guests for you. So my ask here is this. I want you to screenshot
this episode today and share it on your social media, share it
with a friend, you know, tag me in it. Go give me a review, of
course, if you're really feeling it, and rate me. You know, this
is the only way things are gonna get seen here. And in a big
world of tons and tons of podcasts, I'm hoping that you're going
to choose mine and help me on my mission.


#5for50 #5for50FamilyEdition #AmyLedin #AmyLedin.com #ErikLedin
#LeanBodiesConsulting #LBC #Kamele #KamelePerez


 


 


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