I certainly think you are generous to come here.

And I agree with you. Your posts are a great asset to this forum.
I know you are busy, but you know, we have a women's health forum here too.
A copy of your posts would be a tremendous asset there.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum41.html

No one likes to hear scary stuff. And when that happens some tend to attack the messenger. I've had reams of those responses myself, not so much here, but elsewhere!

One thing about knee and hip replacement is that typically they are done in older people. Doctors will hesitate to do them in people under 50, unless it is a huge emergency--like major trauma. Older people have weaker immune systems on average, and since it takes TIME to develop autoimmune responses, they may die before any really awful symptoms occur. Then there is the factoid that older people get PN anyway and so this development may not be associated with the knee/hip replacements. A very vigilant person may keep track and notice that after the surgery is when problems came. But if 5 yrs pass, then it becomes harder to attribute.

What is happening with implants is similar to the smoke and mirrors drug companies use to hide negative studies of their drugs they are promoting.
For example Lipitor may affect memory. So if an older patient develops memory issues on it, they might be diagnosed with Alzheimer's and the drug is ignored. This is Dr. Graveline's message:
http://www.spacedoc.net/lipitor.htm

With time however, the data does "will out". Only many may be damaged before that is recognized.

I think women who absolutely want implants should get some counseling before it decided upon. If the reasons are poor self image, that can be corrected. But for others who need implants for their occupation, like actresses, and the like, they may have financial reasons that will drive this decision. I think for example that the tragic life of Anna Nicole Smith --her drug use, pain issues, etc all revolved around the huge implants she had put in. But that is just my opinion. Here we have a person with low self esteem, who made the decision, and what benefits she reaped were short lived for her.
Her implants caused severe back pain, and who know what else, to lead her into drug abuse and other poor decisions. Her own son died as a result of methadone as well. (drug interaction). She is extreme, but she did an extreme thing, and the dominoes fell badly for her.

Right now in my area, are TV commericals advertising breast augmentation.
This really hooks young women, who may think this is a totally easy, affordable benign procedure, and they may not even research it. That bothers me.

Thanks for coming on here. I hope you decide to stay.

Thank you and I will surely check the women's forum.

I agree with everything you had to say here. I do believe that women should not only have therapy but they should have silicone hypersensitivity testing and testing for other genetic factors before making a decision on breast aug. Not only are doctors hiding the truth about possible autoimmune related diseases and disorders from us but they are not testing us properly before doing this procedure. I think that every women should know all the facts before deciding on this. They should have the chemical list in front of them. I had none of that. I wasn't even told that the outer shell was silicone as my goal was to stay away from silicone! Many women are not told.

I can tell you that I had been through therapy most of my life due to depression and self esteem issues. It really didn't help me. When this is bred in you, it is difficult to change the mind set. I can tell you what made me want implants more than anything.....this isn't something that came to mind when I was young like the girls of today. It was something that I started to think about later in life because the magazines and tv blasted me with pictures of what the perfect woman should look like and I can tell you that none of them were flat chested. I do believe that had a huge impact on me. That and hearing over and over again, the term 'safe saline implants'. As many women know, there is nothing safe about them.

As for Anna Nicole Smith...I have heard that she had Lupus from her implants and she knew it. They were her status symbol and she was not willing to get rid of them. That is a tragic story. I have heard many stories about her. At one time I had no time for her but when all this developed and I started reading about her and her life, watching some older interviews, I realized this was a very troubled young lady that would rather die at a young age than get rid of the toxic bags that were really making her ill. She had commented many times that she knew she was going to die young. I don't believe that is a coincidence. I believe she knew she had Lupus from the implants and as you mentioned above about the old people with the hip and knee replacements, in the case of ANS again, there was not a correlation made between her death and the implants. This happens many times.

Another tragic story is that of PJ Brent. All you need to do is google her name. No, she was not famous but she suffered a great deal because of implants. She was not informed and her children also suffered. In her case though, the medical examiner found very high levels of platinum in her brain. I believe this is a big reason why women commit suicide. The chemicals in implants are a contributing factor and can cause severe depression. I already had been suffering with depression most of my life so when the implants made me ill, the depression became so severe, it was very difficult for me and my thoughts started to become erratic. I was not myself at all. I might have suffered from depression but I never had thoughts of suicide. The implants I believe did that.

So sorry for my long posts and spelling errors. I'm very passionate about this issue and try to educate as many women on the dangers as I possibly can.

Thank you and I'll check out the women's forum.

I decided to have a look so I went to see you site. You have been doing
a lot of work and helped many as many who have been brought or
wondered on you site..I like Mrs D. think you would be a help to our womwn's
concern site..

Im one of the one's who asked for more details on what Drs. You might of
seen,what test's so forth..My mom had a rare form of brest cancer,and
she was in her 80's. Since she felt no pain and even through she lived
by a older sister who had a brest removed,in her 80's.. (they felt my Aunt
didn't need chemo,or radiation.) By the time Mom Cancer was found,she
had as much of the brest removed as they could,she passed away
3 yrs. later,Mom had been diagnosed with PN first..her sister 91 just 2 years
ago was diagnosed and has a third in a nursing home has PN she's in her
80's but was in her 70's when Diagnosed..I'm 61, had major truma sugery
on both legs among other surgery's. I believe it was Mrs.D.who said they
don't like to do reconstructive on people unless truly needed before 50.
They just don't last and you may end up with repeats..

I feel there has to be genetic problems in my family,there's why i'm so courious. I have a 61 year old cousin who had knee surgery young,we
both stared dance lessens at the age of 4. And she had breaast Surgery
20 years ago and had them removed not long ago,she's ill very much like
Yorkiemom. I could write a book on why dance lessons at 4 is just wrong.

I'm not that computer savy as we all know,but how could I have gotten the
music off when the other women were talking..We are all so different and
I have just really messed up my nose falling..But I think after some research
I may have to do it to breath. I noticed you have had a great deal of trouble falling,perhaps a cane..I hope you do come back,but your busy be proud of
what your doing ,just don't over do. And another LTI thing like our Kmeb.
Billye I was disg. with my SS just before my leg problems,but wow..And Mrs d
somebody fussed at ya naaa...J. Sorry about all that adding to falling...
Hugs and blessings to all.. Beth I must say your a lovely young woman...Sue

Hi Sue,

Thanks for checking out my site. It is alot of work but I feel as though I'm doing what I have to do. I was not informed about these dangers. I also at that time back in the early nineties could not find anything on saline filled implants. Everything was about silicone and all I knew was to stay away from silicone. Believe it or not, my first PS consultation was in 1992. Shortly after that, they banned silicone gel implants and that completely changed my mind about the entire breast implant thing. It scared the hell out of me. Then the damn breast implant manufacturer's started promoting what they called 'safe saline' implants. That combined with the media, magazine photos of what the perfect women should look like, I started my research again. I searched for a long time and finally became confident that this was the answer for me. How foolish I was. My PS basically told me what he knew I wanted to hear. It wasn't until 1996 that I actually felt that I did enough research to go through with it.

Biggest mistake of my life and I would do anything to go back in time. I now do not like fake boobs and think they are just too much for most people. Too hard looking and too round.

Anyway, I'm very sorry to hear about your Mother. It does sound like you have some genetic factors in your family that would make you more likely to have problems. My uncle just had knee replacement surgery a few months ago. He is very active at 83 years old and found that he couldn't play golf because of his knee so he decided to have it done. He had no idea about me and what I've gone through. He knows I'm sick but he doesn't know why. Should I have told him? I don't know. He is thrilled now and back to playing golf. He is a bit stubborn and set in his ways of thinking so I doubt that he would really have listened anyway.

My forum becomes very busy at times so I will stop by and contribute when I can. It seems to get so busy at times that I can't keep up and then it will slow down and that is when I like to catch up and post info on other websites and blogs to raise awareness.

BTW.....my PN was killing me last night. I was thinking of this website. I normally don't complain about the pain on my own forum. LOL Last night was a killer. I haven't had it that bad in a while but we had a front moving in and it gets me everytime. The fall is usually a bad time for me because the temperature changes frequently. I'm not sure if anyone else experiences PN like this. It really feels like someone is chipping away at the bones on my shins.

Have a great day everyone!