Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 12:42:39 -0700

Dear Ilena,

Karen asked that we share her email with the group.

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Hello..... 

I can't tell you how much I appreciated seeing your website !! On July 17^th of this year I went in to "revise" my breast "augmentation". I was told my surgery would be 1 1/2 hrs. 4 1/2 hours later in the recovery room I was notified that my silicone gel implants had "ruptured" over the years and the surgeon had spent hours trying to remove a substantial amount of the gel. I hadn't thought much about it until my friend that had taken me in for surgery brought it up to me as she had over heard the dr.speaking with me about it. 

When all the controversy had started my mother had asked me about it. I had told her not to worry as I was sure my implants were saline. I'm sure the Dr. of the time had told me they were gel but for some reason I had in my head they were saline. At any rate , when I finally was able to redo my breasts' I called the original surgeons' office for information and was floored when I saw on my fax copy that they were gel. I fortunately am finally at a job that allowed for me to get them removed "before any of those problems occurred". And then I realized...... maybe I did need to look into this and today really began researching on the web and I found you and all this information.

Thank you.....I now realize I am not crazy. That my aching fingers, elbows, knees and even toes aren't a figment of my imagination. That the excessive fatigue I feel , especially in the week before that little precursor " nervous" rash breaks out, and that horrible body ache that comes along with it are not hallucinations, histrionics, menopause, stress, overwork etc, etc. I had at one physical exam mentioned to my Dr. about the "rash" , fatigue ,ache, breakout syndrome and he had me take a blood test for rheumatoid arthritis as those are symptoms of it. We didn't find the tests to indicate it at that time.

I will reset an appointment to do so again. I am still exhausted ...have now been having constant aches , exhaustion and rashes. I will be 42 years old on Tuesday and did my surgery 18 years ago. I did the surgery for not a purely ego reason but in an attempt to compensate for what some people , including myself, considered a deformity...in retrospect, perhaps I should have remained deformed. At that time I wasn't told these would be a health hazard nor, I'm sure, was my surgeon. He was enthralled that they had this wonderful, groundbreaking new implant...no more silicone shots that made your breasts' hard and plastic looking. At any rate, thank you for letting me share.....need to get to bed for my " beauty" sleep. 

Sincere Regards, 

Karen Scharer