Why I Am Removing My Breast Implants. Let's Talk Implant Awareness.

Disclaimer: It’s about to get awkward…
I’m going to talk about BOOBS. So if that freaks you out, scroll on sister.

I considered not sharing this journey. Why? Well, it’s embarrassing and it makes me uncomfortable. 

Which is exactly the reason I know I have to share it. 

°°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· deep breath ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°°

At 21 I got breast implants.

I was an immature young adult. Consumed with important things… like vanity, superficial affirmation, and validation based on my looks. Alongside my insecurity, lack of self-confidence, and search for external validation, I was dating someone that continued to mention (however delicately) how I would look “more balanced and proportionate” if I had implants.

Somehow this idea planted itself inside my subcontious and I thought, why not? 

I went in for a breast augmentation consultation, saw how good my T-shirt looked when I put size D plastic bags inside my bra and decided right then and there to do it.

The surgeon didn’t take time to explain the pages (and pages and pages) of legal jargon I had signed... that when you place silicone or saline plastic bags inside your body, you are doing so in front of your most vital organs, your heart and lungs. That you will be going under general anesthesia, and literally risking your life. He didn’t stop to mention that every 8-10 years, you will reinvest another $6,000-$10,000+ to get these plastic bags replaced. He didn’t stop to mention that there are SERIOUS health risks associated with implants ranging from anxiety and depression to BIA-ALCL lymphoma cancer and literally, everything in between.

And you know what?

That’s OK. I don’t blame him now, and I didn’t know any better then. And to be honest, if you had warned me? I don’t think I would’ve cared.

I put down my credit card and I charged $6,000 so that I could “be more balanced” and look just like the Victoria Secret model’s picture I had printed out and brought to the appointment… bless my 21 year old heart.

A few weeks later, the surgeon put me fully under, cut open the fold underneath my breasts, and wedged 350 cc underneath my pectoral muscle, right in front of my heart and my lungs. 

Thankfully, I made it through this invasive surgery and recovered... not an easy recovery I might add.

To be honest, (cause let’s get real that’s with this post is all about) I liked my implants for a few years. Other than the fact that when I worked out and would lift weights, they would be distorted. They felt like aliens. Imposters in my body.

But heck.. at 21-23? I would show them off, go out and party, and for a short burst of time, felt great about my new body.

But as with anything else, self-worth does not come from the outside. 

That guy I was dating? He just found other parts of my body to criticize...  (Don’t worry, I got rid of him and God blessed me with my life love… once I realized my value and learned to love myself, INSIDE and out).

As I grew older, I became self-conscious of my “big boobs”. I started to wear high neck shirts, and I had to wear two sports bras anytime I did high-intensity exercise.

They were heavy, so heavy. Then I had kids....

After gaining 60 pounds with both of my pregnancies, and nursing for two years, the esthetic was quite frankly? Awful. I love my breasts for all of the miracles that they provide, nourishing my children for example… But I hated those huge, heavy, plastic bags.

As I crossed the 10 year mark, I began to experience anxiety attacks. While searching for all natural cures online, I stumbled across a podcast talking about ‘breast implant illness’. Or more realistically, it was divine intervention.

I started to do more and more research, and found that there were tens of thousands of women experiencing illnesses related to having implants. Some of them were mild, like anxiety, drowsiness and some of them were extremely severe. And then found out that the FDA had recently linked a specific type of lymphoma cancer to implants. My heart stopped.

I was sick to my stomach. I called my mom crying and I said I have to get these out of my body. Now.

Not a week later I went in for a removal consultation, and walked out surrounded in peace. I now know that God gave me the obstacles so that I would ultimately find this answer.

Personally, I do not believe I have BII (breast implant illness), but at 13 years I accept that it was only a matter of time and decided to say good riddance to breast implants. FOREVER.

On March 13, I will again, risk my life and go under general anesthesia because of a choice I made at 21…for all the wrong reasons. I will permanently remove these potentially toxic plastic bags from my body, my one and only body. I will also be getting a breast lift because of all the excessive stretching these implants did to my skin. 

My recovery will be no less serious than both of my cesarean sections. I won’t be able to use the restroom alone, tie my shoes, or provide and help my family.

I am crying as I type this because I am so sad for the girl that did this to herself almost 13 years ago. 

But I forgive her, and I love her. 

If you are thinking about altering your body, risking your life to go under the knife, I challenge you to pray on it, and make sure it’s a lifelong commitment that you are willing to make. That you are willing to spend thousands of dollars for revisions and repairs over your lifetime. That you are willing to risk your health and immunity. 

I also want you to know, your self-worth comes from inside your soul. Not outside your body. And, no one else has the power to tell you what you should look like, or set the bar on your self-worth.

And for those of you that already have implants and love them? Rock on sister. Each person gets to make the choices for their life, and there is nothing wrong with that!

I am ready to love myself. Small breasts and all. I am ready to give my body the respect it deserves, I am ready to remove these plastic bags in front of my heart and lungs and hug my babies without any barriers. Heart to heart.

I ask for your prayers on my journey to my truest self. This year’s word is ‘authentic’ so here we go. Honesty and my truth, all of it. The good, the bad and the… awkward.

If you are curious, need support, or want more info I recommend one FB group in particular. It is open minded and open hearted "breast implant removal support"

https://www.facebook.com/groups/101398033722775/

If you know someone thinking about getting breast implants or suffering from breast implant illness, share this podcast episode with her. I refuse to be quiet about the things I believe in, and no one should suffer in silence. 

If I can talk about this, so can you.

Love and light,
Stef
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Stats:

More than 364,000 women will get implants this year, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery; that's an increase of nearly 40% from just five years ago. 

Moderate to hard scarring called capsular contracture happens in 8 -41% of saline implants and 36-81% percent of silicone ones. 

About 10-18% of women have no nipple sensation up to 5 years after surgery 

On February 6, 2019 the FDA wrote a letter to healthcare providers called “Breast Implant Associated-Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (BIA-ALCL)” warning about the link of implants to this type of cancer. 

“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants to increase awareness about an association between all breast implants, regardless of filling or texture, and Breast Implant Associated- Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (BIA-ALCL). The FDA received reports indicating that patients with breast implants have an increased risk of developing this disease within the scar capsule adjacent to the implant.”

https://www.fda.gov/medicaldevices/productsandmedicalprocedures/implantsandprosthetics/breastimplants/ucm239995.htm

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Full transcription available at the bottom of this blog post. ​​

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Show Notes:

For breast implant removal support, visit: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/101398033722775/

For the FDA article regarding Breast Implant Associated-Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (BIA-ALCL click here.

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

Hey mama. So I cannot believe I'm actually sitting down in front of this microphone to share this super awkward and vulnerable topic with all of you. I've probably deleted the beginning of this five times already, because it's just so hard sometimes to share your truth. I wouldn't be the woman that I am and I wouldn't be where I am. If so many of you and so many people throughout my lifetime, hadn't shared their hard truths and their stories and the seasons that helped them to grow and to become better, to share the mistakes that they made along the way. So as hard as this is, I'm here, I'm showing up and I'm going to talk to you guys today about something that's really hard for me to share. I just hope and pray that through sharing this message, I can help one woman. I feel that if God has led me to this platform, he has led me to this solution for what this show is all about today, which is removing my almost 13 year old breast implants. Then there's a reason for that. And I hope that I can help one other woman out there. And if so, this pain right now will be worth it. And thanks for joining me. This is episode 40 of The Mompreneur Mastermind Show.

What's up, mama boss. Welcome back to the mompreneur mastermind show. I'm Stephanie gas, success strategist, and passive income queen creator. If you're ready to step into your God, led potential, create profit from your passions and capture the success that is already yours. This podcast was made for you as always. You can find out more and connect with me over at stefaniegass.com. So grab that cup of coffee or fill up that glass of wine and let's dig in to today's show.

All right, guys, now this is a business podcast and it's a balanced podcast, but this is also a life podcast and it's it's mine and it's my brand, and this is my message to the world. So why am I talking to you guys today about why I'm removing my breast implants? I'm sharing this with you because I don't feel like it's a right to hide a message that I feel so insanely passionate about nor do I think that it's right, that we should hide behind the things that we're scared to talk about because the things that we are afraid to talk about are the things that people need from us. The reasons we are uncomfortable to go out there and open our mouths about, about things we're passionate about, like, let's say faith or politics or your body or struggles you've had in your past or abusive or eating disorders.

I mean, all the things that people are sweeping underneath the rug are the things that the world needs. We can't grow and heal ourselves and become incredible women. If we are hiding from the truth and from things that other women are struggling with, I am sitting here behind this microphone, and I think this message is going to be one of the hardest messages that I've ever shared before, but I've decided that I'm going to do it. Okay. And this episode is going to be really not about breast implants necessarily. And yes, I'm talking about a lot, a lot of breast implants. We're going to talk about boobies. Kay. So get over it that's what's happening. But at the same time, my message is more geared at self-love and fierce empowerment of loving yourself to the absolute fullest extent, because I think that getting breast breast implants for the wrong reasons is so common.

And it's really what happened to me. And I think that, I know, I know that there are certain people who will get breast implants for the right reasons. And I do want to disclaimer this entire episode by saying, if you have implants, if you end up getting breast implants, that is 1000% your choice. And I don't want, I am not here to shame anybody. I am not here to fearmonger you, because I also think there's a big movement happening right now about fearing women into removing their breast implants, which I also don't think is a right. However, I'm here to spread awareness on self-love and I'm also here to provide some truth behind why people are removing their breast implants and why there is such a huge movement in this entire industry. There are doctors that are specializing in only breast implant removals. Right now, they are no longer doing this surgery.

And there are very valid reasons for that. But I do want to disclaimer and say, if you have breast implants and you love them rock on sister, I just want to create some awareness and make sure that before women do this to their bodies, before we go under the knife and, and place these plastic bags within our body, over our most vital organs, our heart and our lungs, that we are fully educated on what that means for the rest of our lives, the investments, the health implications, really to tell women that you do not need to do this to feel beautiful. That's really my bottom line. So let me, let me rewind back roughly 13 years, almost at 21 years old, y'all I got breast implants. And as I typed out that sentence, as I was prepping for this episode, it just made me super sad.

And I, I almost considered not sharing this story at all because it just makes me uncomfortable. And I know that's exactly the reason why I have to share it because at the ripe old age of 21, what are we focused on? At least for me, I was still really finding myself. I really didn't know who I was. I was lacking self-confidence I thought that vanity and self-worth came from Victoria's secret models and looking balanced and proportionate and having the perfect booty and, and size D boobs. Really. That's what I thought when along with insecurity and this search and this, you know, seek for, for external validation, I was dating someone a good decade older than me almost at the time. I feel like I was armed handy for him, but he would mention really casually and carefully that I would look so much more proportionate if I had hat, if I had breast implants.

And I know you guys are like, Oh my gosh, screw him. But y'all, you know, we all grow and change. And so I'm not angry with him. I don't blame him for anything, but I do think that him mentioning that and noticing women that were really balanced, it started to affect my subconscious. And I started to feel like I would be valued more and I would be more beautiful if I was proportionate, I had this great booty. I've always been, had a booty. So thank you God, for that, I've had some, you know, thick, strong thighs, which is great, but I had a smaller upper body and I, before breast implants, you know, I was a very full, a small BB. So it wasn't like I was flat-chested, but I definitely wasn't Victoria secret model proportionate. Okay. Quote unquote. I was like, well, I'll go for a consultation.

Let's see what happens. Went in. And I saw how good my t-shirt looked when I put in these plastic bags inside my bra, which is actually what they have you do and thought, Hey, why not? I had no responsibilities at the time I was 21. I went out, partied, hung out with my friends. We all wore, you know, the revealing clothing. We went clubbing. And I didn't ha I don't know. I think when you're in your early twenties, what matters to you? Okay. I don't want to put everyone in this bucket, but what, what mattered to me was so superficial. I was all about going to the gym and looking hot and getting attention. I literally didn't even think about it. I just saw how good I looked in the mirror and met with the surgeon. He didn't take any time at all to explain to me like the real inherent risks of getting breast implants.

He didn't say, Hey, when you put these plastic bags and there's two options there, saline breast implants, which is what I ended up getting. And there are silicone implants. There are textured silicone. There are high profile implants. There are so many options. And people do not explain the differences nor the risks in getting these different types of breast implants. And so I figured, well, Celine, those are safe, right? I didn't even think twice and little did. I know that even saline, breast implants are inside of a silicone shell and that when you put silicone and other toxic products inside your body, you are going to have issues. Your body is going to react and defend itself. Nothing was said about that. Nothing was said about going under general anesthesia and literally risking your life. He didn't stop and mention that every eight to 10 years, I was going to have to re-invest another five to $10,000 to get these plastic bags replaced, removed, or whatever else might happen to me.

He didn't mention that there are health risks associated with placing foreign objects inside your body. So close to your vital organs. None of it. It was, yeah, they look good. That's great sign here. You know, even now, if you were to ask a plastic surgeon, Hey, do you think there are a lot of risks with this health risks and cancer risks? The FDA has come out with a really crazy statement that textured silicone implants leads to certain types of cancers. Guys. There's no publicity about this and you know what that's okay. It really is. I don't blame him now. And I didn't know any better back then, to be honest, you guys, I don't even think if he had warned me that I would have cared. I think I would've still gotten the breast implants. I really do. It's so that's how crazy and how much of a different person I was back then is I still would have done it.

So I put down my credit card. I remember I had a brand new little Southwest credit card and I'm like, I'll just charge it $6,000 right there so that I could get these breast implants and become a Victoria's secret model. Apparently in my dreams, my mom found the package y'all that I took into my very first consult. It has a picture of one of the Victoria's secret models. And I said, I would like to look like her. Like, what world was I living in? Where I thought getting plastic surgery was going to make me this woman. And like, it almost makes me so emotional because why do we think that looking like a Victoria secret model makes us any better of a person than who we are, who God created us to be. That is so sad to me that we are living in this society.

And we were living in this world where we believe that beauty comes from the outside and comes from having a certain size body part, like screw that no beauty comes from whatever body you are placed inside of your soul is what's beautiful. Your spirit, your laughter, your smile, the qualities that God gave you to go out and change the world. I don't care if you are short, tall, white, black from the United States, from somewhere across the world. I don't care if you are rich, poor, you are beautiful just as you are. And just as you were created, we need to take control of this message that we are putting into the world and that we are sharing with our children. And I think we've got to start showing up just as we are and saying, I'm going to step into who I am. I'm going to claim it.

And I'm going to say, and scream from the rooftops that I am freaking beautiful, perfect, and worthy because God created me to be this way and I don't have to change anything. I don't care if we're old young children or beautiful people that are 80 or beautiful. Like, do you guys agree with me? I just, just want to shut it down right now and say that altering, who you were created to be and how perfectly you were created as a child is exactly how you should be though. It's just makes me sad to look back and say, gosh, you took this picture in and thought that is what would define me. Yell. Sorry about that. Sidebar just happened there. I got on my soap box real quick. Woo. Okay. Anyways, let me get back to my story. So a few weeks later, this surgeon put me fully under, which is definitely, you know, a risk cut, open the fold underneath my breasts and wedged 350 CCS of saline implants underneath my pectoral muscle, right in front of my heart and my lungs, which are my most vital organs in my body is not sand so insane to me right now.

It sounds crazy. So thankfully surgery went okay. I recovered and it was not an easy recovery. You know, you're on pain meds. It was a couple of weeks for the first few days. Couldn't go to the restroom by myself. My mom said I was a hot mess. Like I don't remember much from this time to be honest, I really liked my implants for a few years, other than the fact that whenever I would work out, you could feel them moving inside your body. And when you would do, you know, chest workouts or pull-ups, or push-ups, the breast implants would move and get distorted. And it was super creepy. And especially because they were under my muscle, I could feel them like just moving everywhere. And it was so foreign. It's like you have this foreign alien living inside of your chest breezy. Very, very creepy.

But I liked how they looked as far as in sh in clothes and obviously naked. I felt more confident at the time as with anything else self-worth does not come from the outside. And I think that that was really short-lived that burst of, Oh, I'm all of a sudden I'm, I'm hot because I have, you know, size D boobs and the guy I was dating. Oh yeah. He just found other things to criticize about me, my clothes, my hair, you know, his goal was to have arm candy and for me to be perfect, which nobody's perfect, let's get real. And he was far from it. Disclaimer, don't worry. I got rid of that guy, met the love of my life. Once I found my value and started to love myself from the inside and out, God said, now she's ready to find a man. That's going to give her as much worth as she's giving herself.

I think that's an important thing to say to you guys that are struggling to find relationships and friendships, where you are valued and loved. And I ask you to ask yourself, are you valuing and loving yourself as you are in all your weirdness in all your strange clothing choices? Like I would die. Now, if my husband said, please don't wear that hat. You're embarrassing me. Like screw you, yo like I lack me some weird hats. I like to wear gym clothes. I like to not wear makeup every day. Like I like to wear mismatched, extra large pajamas at night and not look hot and wear laundry every night. Like this, just get over yourself. So if you're finding that you're in these kind of emotionally abusive relationships, or you continue to attract the wrong types of people, challenge yourself enough to look in the mirror and tell yourself, I love you every single day.

And to remind yourself that you are so worthy of love exactly as you are. I don't care if you are like the strangest human being on this entire planet, you are still a perfect human being. So claim that ish. And I believe that God will lead you to the people that you need, that you are destined to be with. But only once you recognize that you're worthy of that fast forward, further down the journey. Remember these implants are 13 years old, almost at this point a couple more months and we'll cross 13 years, like almost half of my life. You know, I'm 33. So you do the math, but living with breast implants for this long. And it's crazy because I gained as y'all know, 60 pounds with both of my pregnancies nursed for two years and the aesthetic at this point, y'all quite frankly, it's awful.

I love my breasts for all of the miracles that they provided, you know, feeding my children and nourishing my children for example. But I very quickly came to hate these very heavy breasts and the plastic bags inside of them. As I crossed that 10 year Mark, I started to experience anxiety attacks and I was searching for all natural cures online because I felt like I don't want to mask these, this anxiety with medication. I don't want to go down that road. I want to cure it. I want to understand what is causing this anxiety for me. And I've never had issues with it before. And it's horrible. Like it's just absolutely horrible. I'm actually doing an episode on anxiety soon in the next couple of months. So keep your eyes out for that guys. But anyways, stumbled across a podcast that was talking about breast implant illness.

Yes. Illness. And I believe now it was divine intervention. I actually know it was divine intervention. I don't think anything happens by chance, but I started to do more research and I found that there were tens of thousands of women that were experiencing illnesses related to having breast implants. Some of them are mild like anxiety or drowsiness or their was falling out skin issues, you know, rosacea, things like that. And then some of these illnesses were extremely severe. Hashimoto's thyroid problems, fibroid cancers, all of these crazy, crazy illnesses, Lyme's disease, Lyme disease. And they were attributed. These women believed to having breast implants. Then I found an FDA article and let me just get the actual title for you. I have it right here. The FDA reports, new cases of cancer linked to textured silicone breast implants what the, at that point. And I knew I had Celine, but I also recognize that my saline breast implants were in cased in silicone shells and silicone and silicone and silicone.

Like I don't care which way you slice it and dice it. At the end of the day, I had silicone in my body. I was sick to my stomach. I was driving home and it all just came crashing down upon me. And I called my mom crying and I said, I have to get these out of my body right now. Like I was just totally freaked out. I've since calmed down. And I'm part of lots of different support groups. And I don't believe that I personally have any breast implant related illnesses, but I also recognize that that is a very, very real thing. And so many women do. And I didn't want to wait for the day for that to happen to me. And the older that these implants were getting, the more, the higher chance there was that I was going to have some type of illness related to these implants.

So not a week later, I went in for my removal con consultation and I found peace. Like I now know that God gave me so many obstacles, like anxiety and like whatever he needed to give me to lead me to this answer of removing my breast implants on March 13th of this year. And a couple of weeks, I will again, risk my life and go under general anesthesia because of a choice that I made at 21 for all the wrong reasons. I will permanently remove these potentially toxic plastic bags from my one and only gift from God, which is my body, the one and only body that I have that I, I couldn't walk without these legs. I couldn't breathe without these lungs. I couldn't live without my heartbeat. I will also be getting a breast lift because of all the excessive weight and stretching that carrying around 300 CCS of saline for 13 years, along with the weight gain and nursing, my children has done to my body and my recovery ladies.

It's going to be no less serious than both of my Syrian sections. I won't be able to use the restroom by myself at first time shoes provide and help my family. I was literally just bawling as I typed out this episode and I'm choking back the tears now because I'm so sad for the girl that did this to herself 12 years ago. But I want you to know that I forgive myself and I love myself and we have all done something in the past that we're like, dang, yo, like, why did I do that? That was silly of me, but we wouldn't be who we are. I first want to just, just say that you wouldn't be who you are. If you didn't make the mistakes that you made, you wouldn't be who you are because you wouldn't have had the lessons to grow from.

I wouldn't be able to get on this platform and hopefully empower women to not get the breast implants in the first place and empower those women that are suffering from breast implant illness potentially, or they don't know about it. What about that? What about educating women on breast implant awareness in general, I couldn't do this if I hadn't been through that journey myself. So I want you to consider something. If you are thinking about altering your body and going under the knife, first of all, as with any major life altering decision, pray on it first, make sure that this literally, literally, okay, it's a lifetime commitment that you are willing to make because every eight to 10, if you're lucky, you'll make it 13 years like me, but probably without conflict, not without complication or illnesses, because the older they get, obviously the more risks that you start to face, you're going to spend thousands over your lifetime, revising and replacing and repairing breast implants.

And I want you to make sure that you are willing to risk your health, your immunity, and maybe even pieces of, of your mental health for your looks. I also want you to know that your self-worth comes from inside of you inside your soul, not outside of your body. I want you to know that no one else has the power to tell you what you should look like or to set the bar on your confidence. You and only you can determine your self-worth and those of you that already have implants and you love them. Cool rock on sister. I believe that each person can make the choices for their own life. And there's nothing wrong with that. As long as you're okay with the investments of replacing them and you understand the health risks, and now the FDA risks that are, that are tied to two breast implants.

And you still believe that they're worth worthwhile to you. And it's something that you believe in then I think that's awesome go you, but I do want to educate you guys on all of the processes. And I also want you to understand that getting those implants did not make me feel better about myself. It took a decade of learning to love myself just as I am of growing up of recognizing that. However, I look is how God wanted me to look, you know, and, and also having children, I think really opened my eyes to my health in a major way. There is nothing that I would do to myself to potentially risk my health in the future for my, the sake of my family and my children. I need to have energy to stay, you know, to hang out with my boys. I need to have energy to pour into you all as a coach and a mentor and as an educator for women.

And I believe that God has created a platform for me to help women. And how can I do that if I'm suffering in any way. And so if I have the power to live my healthiest life, feed my body with healthy food and exercise and fill my mind with his word and with personal development and coaching and mentorship, and then not fill my body with toxic objects. I know that God is cheering for me to go down that path, right, to choose the path of least resistance and to choose the healthiest version of myself. So I am ready to love myself here today at 33 years old. Okay. To love myself with small boobs and be part of the itty bitty committee. Cause they, that committee is bad-ass. Okay. So yay for that. I'm also ready to give my body the respect. It deserves and remove these bags from, in front of my heart.

And I ask for all of your prayers in this journey, it's scary. I'm not looking forward to going back under the knife. I'm not looking forward to anesthesia. I'm not looking forward to the recovery process, not being able to pick up my two year old, not being able to lift him out of his crib for a month or more not being able to clean my house. Cause Lord knows nobody else is going to do that. Except my mama. There's no good time to, to do something like this. And so I figure now's as good a time as any. And I want those of you who are considering removing your breast implants, or this is the first time you're hearing about all of this and you're going, Oh my gosh, you know, I need to do some research and want you to know that there's an entire online community focused on this.

And then not all the groups are created equally. There is a lot of fear-mongering going on around re removing breast implants. And they are really pushing only one method of removal, which is extremely expensive. Invasive could even end up with disformed breasts because it's so invasive into your body. And so I want you to know that I found a community after a lot of searching and being scared, really scared from some of these other groups that loves every method of removal. They encourage education, they encourage asking questions and they don't judge. And so if you, if you need a community like that, to start researching breast implant removal, go to Facebook. And in the search bar, I want you to type in breast implant, removal support, and that's the group to join. It's a smaller one compared to some of the big ones, but I promise you, your journey will be so much more peaceful if you join this group.

And also those of you that are, that are thinking, Oh my gosh, you know, if I removed my breast implants, I would be literally flat chested and you just can't even go there. There is something called a fat transfer. And I had no idea about this and neither did many of the people in these support groups. And this is an option for those of you that have been considering breast implants, but now you don't want to get them because of all of this information that you've been hearing and the risks and the health scares related to it. Fat transfer is a great option. You can remove that from one area of your body and put them inside of your breasts. And so that's also an option for people that I wasn't aware of. So I just wanted to mention that as well. Anyways, that's my story.

Y'all so your prayers are appreciated over the next couple of weeks, as I mentally and physically prepare for this massive surgery. And also I pray over you that if, if there's anyone, you know, that needs to hear this episode, that you share it with them. And if you need it to hear this episode, I believe that's not by chance. And I would pray that you pray on it and ask God for guidance in making some decisions in your own life. And I just want to send you off with so much love. Thank you for listening to me for being supportive of me. Each of you mean the absolute world to me and I am excited for where we're going for the rest of this year. Can't wait to see what's next. And what's on the other side. Love and light, Stef. 

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