Health IS The New Fake

Rewind to the summer of 2002 when Geri Halliwell was murdering our airwaves with her monotone voice and Eminem was cleaning out his closet… meanwhile JoJo Hurricane — (moi) was scheming on how to get a kahuna enlargement.

Tomboy

You see I always played up to the Tomboy image everyone had of me. I was a vibrant, full of beans, lover of life and I was in the gym 6 days a week (no joke!) I sported a 6 pack and my bee sting breasts, well, they were a myth and more like pecs than anything that resembled feminine lady lumps. Without makeup I looked like a 12 year old boy. At the time I worked in promo with unbelievably glam older woman that I looked up to. At least four of my peers had, had a breast augmentation (official term) and I wanted in! I was sick of working so hard to keep my body fat to an absolute minimum, if I’d ever gained weight it was never on my boobalinas and when my weight increased I felt like a Swedish wrestler and so I decided and almost overnight that I was doing ‘IT’

I remember saying and I quote “if I get the finance Mom it’s a sign I’ll be going ahead with surgery” My poor Mother … I can still envisage the mixture of both horror and intrigue on her boat race, I really put the Duchess (we love a nickname in our fam) through it growing up! She rolled her eyes and said “JoJo if it makes you happy then I’ll support you” It’s possible I punched the air and whooped with delight for I knew if the Duchess supported me then it was 100% going to happen!

The consultation

I booked in with a well-known Birmingham based Surgeon and felt a myriad of emotions during the run up. Whilst I didn’t know what to expect I had high expectations; you know the ridiculous saying “it’s like she’s the only woman to have ever been pregnant” well I felt like the only woman to ever of had breast surgery and I’m not surprised, I was just a kid, what did I know? I was 20 years young and although I would never have admitted it or even been aware of the fact that I was absolutely well and truly f*****g clueless!

The examination

I will remember this moment for the rest of my life and that’s because it both hurt my feelings and felt incredibly incredible in equal measure. After about 30 seconds of looking at my naked boy torso he said “you’re definitely a candidate for breast implants” my head fell off !!! and the look on the Duchess’s face was priceless. He then washed his hands and told me to get dressed…my head fell off again. I was absolutely perplexed, how come he didn’t say “Miss Sedgwick! you don’t need a breast enhancement, you’re perfect as you are”? in less than 5 minutes of meeting this guy I was looking for a get out clause; this is the roller-coaster of emotions you go through when exploring cosmetic elective surgery, you want ‘in’ and then you want ‘out’ and on the turn of a sixpence

Well, before I knew which way was up I was on the operating table and ready for whatever lay ahead…. Or was I?

Fast forward 2 years post-breast surgery

Two years in and I utterly loved my plastic fantastic boobs. They gave me a new found confidence. 22 years old and FINALLY I was feeling and dressing like a woman, as opposed to living in sweats and gym clothes. But something was wrong, whilst I looked like the best version of me, I felt physically like the worst version of myself.

My health had deteriorated and JoJo had well and truly lost her mojo. Everything became an effort and the difference in my persona was apparent to my loved ones. I had seen a T.V. programme on Ch 4 dispatches about women in America who were experiencing symptoms similar to mine as a direct result of breast surgery; enough was enough. I decided to visit the surgeon to discuss things further; the symptoms I experienced then were

Lethargy

Nausea

Migraines

Vertigo

Worsening in asthma symptoms

A general malaise that never went away

The surgeon pretty much laughed me out of his consultation room and said something to the ilk of …”there’s no evidence that links ill health to breast implants and there would be more patients like you with similar concerns, they also use different implants in America” he advised I saw my GP and that was the last I saw of him. True to form I put my positive pants on and went about looking at alternative ways to improve my health. The news was bitter sweet as I needed answers but at least I didn’t have to remove my beloved boobies!

Fast forward another 2 years — False Economy

I’m now working for a cosmetic surgery provider, ironically selling surgery and mainly kahunas to girls /women just like me. I could write a whole blog about this colourful, crazy part of my life; actually I will do this for the comedy factor but for now I’ve got a message to share. I met some PHENOMENAL surgeons who taught me a lot about the weird and wonderful world of cosmetic surgery. There was one surgeon in particular who struck the deepest chord within me, a wise, calm man who said what he meant and meant what he said. I rated him wholly and after 3 years of knowing him, I chose him to perform my second surgery — my breast re-augmentation (To go bigger ..ridiculous I know!) To this day I have the utmost of respect for him and I always will, anyone who is fortunate enough to be in his presence will for sure feel the same. Shortly after this surgery I recaptured my mojo as interestingly my health improved somewhat. I lost weight, headaches vanished, asthma was good, the malaise disappeared, my new additions gave me a new lease of life… or so I thought!

Fast forward to 2018 SHIT GETS REAL.

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a real ‘self helper’ when it comes to my health, I will do everything in my power to be ‘healthy’. But despite my healthy vegetarian diet, drinking gallons of Evian water on a daily basis *other brands are also available* my health deteriorated and worryingly so. The following is a list of symptoms I have been living with for years.

Lethargy

INTENSE back and hip ache

Recurrent Sinusitis

Cysts on ovaries

Difficultly losing weight

Difficulty sleeping /insomnia

Frequent skin breakouts

Hormones out of whack

Pins and needles during the night in arms and hands

Anxiety

Breathing issues/ worsening of asthma (one of, if not the scariest)

Tinnitus

Sight deterioration

Headaches

Brain Fog

FRUSTRATION

The list goes on

You see the common denominator is inflammation. From the jump my body was trying to detoxify from these FABULOUS foreign bodies. My liver & kidneys have worked frantically from the off trying to detoxify from from cyto & neuro toxins breast implants emit, resulting in adrenal fatigue… in turn all of my organs became inflamed; I pieced this together with some extraordinary Naturopath’s I have been seeing and my history of treatment and lengthy discussions pointed to the same thing… my MAGNIFICENT silicone boobs! A real bitter pill to swallow I can tell you.

Following on from the above, teamed with lots of introspection, stacks of research, exchanges with surgeons I know and using my shit hot intuition, I decided it was time to remove the common denominator. I decided to choose a surgeon I didn’t know at all and booked my consultation. This was possibly the most enlightening consultation I have ever been present in and I’ve sat in on 100’s!; For this was the first time I’d ever known a surgeon entertain such claims, he told me that he recognised breast implant illness (again bitter/sweet!) and in the last 18 months he has explanted near to 200 from others all saying the same or similar as I. For obvious reasons he wasn’t able to tell me how I would or could respond… but it didn’t matter, the deal was done! He was the man for the boob removal, and so with a heavy heart I booked my breast explantation surgery.

Fast forward to the present day and one week post breast ‘en bloc’ -explantation surgery.

HALLELUJAH

I haven’t needed my steroid inhaler since my explantation, my breathing is 100% better and in turn I feel a lot calmer, I have no anxiety at all and I am not suffering with the horrendous relentless air thirst that had become so normal to me prior to explantation.

NO back pain

NO headaches

NO tinnitus

NO pins and needles in hands and arms during the night

NO brain fog, feel much sharper cognitively

NO dull ache in chest area (although they are obviously uncomfortable being only 7 days post op)

FINALLY … I am so OPTIMISTIC about my health!

Footnote. This was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make and luckily one of my favorite human beings in my power circle is also a bad ass health coach and truly helped me gain perspective on it all, which made my post op body issues a lot easier to contend with.

My blog is not about blame and surgeons are not magicians. I am NOT slamming Cosmetic Surgery. Cosmetic surgery IS elective; no one holds a gun to anyone’s head (at least I hope not) therefore there absolutely IS an onus on the person undergoing surgery to either look at ALL the eventualities or recognise the ‘signs’; there are so many forums readily available to support this topic. Peace out kids and have yourselves a healthy, happy New Year