Things started
really going downhill with my health.
Brain fatigue,
vision loss,
feeling like you're dying
on the inside.
I was just
in a lot of pain.
I literally couldn't
get out of bed.
I did ask about my implants.
“No, nothing.
Nothing would be wrong
there.” I'm
Lucia, I'm 32 and my breast
implants made me sick
When I was 18,
I was wild.
It's that funny age
where you're not quite
an adult and you're
very conscious of how you look.
A lot of my friends
had gone under the knife
and got these
beautiful implants
and they looked great.
And that's all I wanted.
I trusted I'd done
enough research.
I trusted the surgeons.
Going about everyday life with these
new implants,
I loved the look of them.
I got a lot
of attention.
They were awesome, I thought,
at the time,
at the time.
It wasn't
until after
I had my first born
that things started really
going downhill
with my health.
I noticed
niggling pains,
especially on my right side.
I couldn't concentrate.
I got a few rashes
and I had bumps
all over my skin
from here.
I was tired
and it wasn't just
a normal tiredness.
I would wake up
and I felt like
I hadn’t slept
and I'd have these big, huge
dark circles under my eyes.
Driving was really hard.
My vision was starting to go a little bit.
I went to my GP.
I remember I did ask about my implants.
“No, nothing.
Nothing would be wrong there.”
I went to the optometrist
and my vision was perfect.
It wasn't a glasses problem.
It was something else.
I was just in
a lot of pain.
I'd have some pretty bad days
where I literally couldn't
get out of bed.
My daughter missed out on a good two years
because I was so sick.
It was bad.
It was really bad.
And I was upset
that I wasn't doing
a good job of mum-ing.
Yeah.
I couldn't find anything online.
But I did find
on Facebook a couple of groups
from women all round the world
that had breast implants,
experiencing
a lot of issues.
All of mine
and some
a whole lot more.
Really bad stuff.
I was reading these women's stories and
before and afters, and I
was getting excited like,
if I can only just get them out.
If I can only just
get them out.
But it's such a lot of money to pay
if it wasn't what was going on.
So it was a big risk.
I talked about it
with my mum and she said, “Yeah,
it is a foreign object
in your body.
You need to get them out”.
I decided very quickly
I wanted them out.
I decided I wanted them out like that.
When I
woke up from surgery,
oh my gosh,
it was so good.
It was a weight lifted off
my chest, literally.
My eyesight,
I could see.
It was amazing.
I can drive,
drive long distance
and I can be a mum.
There's thousands of women
from all around the world
that have these problems,
and they just get dismissed
by the doctors.
They don't even want to really know
because it's all been approved.
This needs to be talked about.
Breast implant
illness is
when your body rejects
your implants.
Medical researchers
call it...
If this story
reaches one person that is going
through this and realising,
oh maybe I do have breast
implant illness,
that might save them.
You’re not alone
and it could be as simple as
going and getting them out.
It's been
two years since
I have had my surgery.
I've changed
and my body's changed.
I love the look of
small boobs now.
I really do.
Now I've got a 15-month-old daughter
and she wakes me up at 5am
and you know what,
I wake up and I'm straight into it.
I'm awake and I feel great
as soon as I wake up.
We get to do a lot more things
now as a family.
I can give it my 100
per cent to them
and the girls are getting
the mum they deserve.