Mum thought she was having heart attack after breast implants made her ill
'I would wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I was being stabbed in the eye'.
A mum-of-three says she felt she was dying because of complications she suffered from her breast implants.
Fitness instructor Robin Eldridge Dayer, 45, paid £4,200 in 2008 for saline breast implants to take her from a 34A to a 36C.
She was hoping it would help her regain her confidence but, almost immediately after surgery she began feeling unwell and was later diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.
Robin’s health took a turn for the worse when the saline implants were replaced with silicone implants in 2019.
She went on to develop more than 20 symptoms, including fatigue, hair loss, numb hands and feet, brain fog, weight loss and loss of balance – and twice went to hospital with chest pains in fear that she was having a heart attack.
Robin, from Arkansas, in the US, said: ‘My boobs were pitiful because I’d nursed three children (Georgia, 22, Drew, 17, and Thomas, 16).
‘It was a different time in 2008 and that’s what people did. All my mum’s friends had their babies then went and got their boobs back. In 2019 I went to my surgeon because the 2008 implants have a lifespan, and he recommended silicone implants.
‘That’s when the trouble really started. My energy levels were so low I couldn’t even press down on a pair of nail clippers.
‘I had such severe chest pains that I went to hospital twice thinking I was having a heart attack. I felt like I was dying.
‘I would wake up in the middle of the night once every few months feeling like I was being stabbed in the eye and then my eye would be swollen shut.
‘I had bags under my eyes, my hands and feet would turn purple, my brain felt like it was filled with dirt and I would vibrate internally.’
Silicone implants can pose more of a health risk if they rupture because they contain entirely silicone rubber, whereas saline implants are filled with sterile salt water.
Robin believed she was suffering from Breast Implant Illness, a multi-symptom condition, and in November 2020 arranged a consultation with a surgeon to have the implants taken out.
She said: ‘Within 24 hours of having them removed I felt better. The bags under my eyes were gone, my skin was glowing, my eyes were crystal clear, I got my balance back and all the other symptoms went.
‘My friends would say I looked like I’d been to the spa. I feel like a different woman.
‘They’re back to my original size and I’m so happy with them how they look now. They look better than with the implants in.’
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