After being held prisoner by her own body for 18 years, Dana Klassen finally feels free.
Four weeks ago the West Kelowna woman had her saline breast implants removed after experiencing a long list of symptoms, including fatigue, chest pain, numbness in her arms, brain fog and trouble breathing, that she believes were due to breast implant illness.
“The only sad part is that I had gone through this surgery and had eight-inch incisions,” she said. “I look at them now (the scars) and it breaks my heart to think I had that crap in my body. But these incisions saved my life and now I smile every time I see these scars because I got my life back.”
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Klassen claims she was regularly misdiagnosed by medical professionals and had her gallbladder removed three years ago in an attempt to cure more than 30 symptoms she experienced since getting her implants. In the last year, she has been to the ER at least 30 times and no doctors were able to give her an answer.
My Breast Implants were poisoning my body. These are my Breast Implants with capsules surrounding them. pic.twitter.com/cIlqAToFac
— Dana Klassen (@klassen_dana) February 22, 2019
Klassen had her implants removed by Dr. Aaron Brown Jan. 30. He specializes in this surgery and she found him on a list at www.healingbreastimplantillness.com., a website that was first published in 2013 and since has more than 60,000 women in its support group on Facebook.
“The surgery went really well, it took a little longer because the capsule surrounding the actual implant was growing into my armpit and that is causing a lot of discomfort (in my recovery),” she said.
Klassen has already started to regain her independence, has been able to drive for the first time without her arms going numb, and is now looking forward to playing in the last few games of her hockey season before starting soccer season starts this summer.
Her old implants still have a place in her new lease on life—they are framed and hanging on her wall.
“I literally made art with them,” she said. “They are still in the toxic bag with the emblem on them. It’s a daily reminder of how thankful I am to have them out of my body.”
Klassen is now ready to gear up her work to educate other women about breast implant illness, and to help prevent others women from getting them.
She has launched her own website for others to follow her journey to heal at danaklassen.wixsite.com/biiblog
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