One Mother's Story About Breast Implants and Children

Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 06:24:25 PDT

From:

"Cindy Morrissey"

To:

Hilary is a small child who has problems gaining weight. She complains the swallowing is getting more difficult. I do go to school to cut up her food and try to make sure she eats. She has good days and bad days swallowing. She has good & bad day, period! She is well-behaved and sweet.She is going into the 4th grade this fall.

She was on prelone for a short time which made her gain weight, and she was much less tired, but prelone did nothing for her tissue. She is not currently on medication. No methotrexate or D-pen. She had a skin biopsy 10-31-1996 at the age of 6 which speaks for itself and in volumes. This child does not have just a tiny patch of thickened tissue. This skin disorder is moving all over her body, but the tummy and back is spared.

She complains her skin hurts a lot. This child was born with shiny patches of tissue which grew like crazy in the first winter of her life. This skin presented itself as very, very, dry tissue which would go in different stages. Doctors had a difficult time at first with her skin problems as they could not get past what was in MY medical records.The good doctor needs to remain neutral/objective and keep that open-mind which is vital to medicine, science and mankind!

Doctors do not know everything and there is always space/time in life to learn more as this is not "normal" what this family is going through. I had silicone breast implants for 17 yrs for a congenital deformity of the chest wall from 1976-1993 ending in a mastectomy of both breasts in 1993 at the age of 35. I to date have health concerns: asthma,an atypical connective tissue disease, lesions in my brain-extensive areas of increased signal intensity in periventricular distribution bilaterally, this is most prominently seen adjacent to the occipital horn of the right ventricle but is seen about the entire ventricular system, most consistent with a demyellinating process such as MS.

I did not need this thrown on top of Hilary's problems, plus I have two other daughters with health concerns...Hannah (16) has a poorly defined CTD, positive ANA, positive anticardiolipin antibody, fevers, headaches, tummy problems, allergies, had growth removed from elbow, can not tolerate heat/sun, cold...Haley (13) has severe reaction to DPT shot at 2 months of age (collapsed shock), allergies, seizure disorder, has asthma-uses 2 inhalers and a breathing machine, has growth removed from her elbow, gets purple limbs in the cold, gets headaches.

I did get this family into a fetal cells in Scleroderma study at Christmas 1998 as I personally question genetics (my maternal grandmother and my mother both died from multiple myeloma-both were smokers was their p53 gene damaged from smoking? I will never know, but I do feel that they had a different trigger than my girls and I have been exposed to-our trigger is known, its silicone which exerted our immune response and pulled the trigger in our youth; HLA-typing (research tool or not will help some make a healthful clinical decision by not pulling "the trigger" early on in their youth because of a predisposition and this known environmental factor, a man-made factor yet! Silicone;

I also question the time factor of exposure to this man-made factor; the fibroblastic growth factor type III;Microchimerism (G VHD)-which I did get this family into a fetal cells in scleroderma study so what about fetal cells in cancer-MULTIPLE MYELOMA which my grandmother and my mom died from, or fetal cells in RA, lupus, MS. I could go on but will not.

Hilary has has an "acral bone dysplasia" of the hands/feet. She wears a size 7 infant/toddler shoe, the genetics doctor says that her hands are the size of an 11-15 month old child (could tell by the bone growth x-rays), and that Hilary's hands have indeed fused, meaning that this child's hands will not grow any more. So I question the fibroblastic growth factor type III and the time factor of exposure to this environmental factor which I feel pulled the trigger in our youth.I do hope someone may read this and listen to my plight as my questions are indeed valid ones. And doctors who think that they are "the best of the best" need to remind themselves to listen to their patient no matter what is in their medical history in a neutral/objective manner and keep that open-mind which is vital to medicine, science, and mankind. We have decided to just allow nature to run its course with this family, allow nature to runs its course with Hilary. Hey, I come from a family of seven doctors.

I have lost faith in medicine and really do not know where to turn for help with Hilary and this scleroderma. Now I know how the lab animal feels.But this time it is in human form! Its not fun and those silicone breast implants were NEVER, EVER proven. Not a FDA proven medical device. I, nor my parents when I was 17 yrs old were never, ever informed that silicone exerted the immune response in animal models. Also, I & my parents found out about the ruptures in 1978 in 1992 when I got a copy of my medical records in 1992 and read this for myself for the first time..DO NO HARM? Its really too late for this family will medicine ever learn from their great medical mistakes? How many humans must suffer to prove a point that SILICONE EXERTS THAT IMMUNE RESPONSE WHICH SHOWED UP IN THE ANIMAL MODELS MANY, MANY, MANY YRS AGO WAY BEFORE IT HAPPENED TO THE MORRISSEY FAMILY AND TO MY INNOCENT HILARY AND HER SISTERS this is really sick sick medicine.

Cindy Fuchs-Morrissey