I Got My Breast Implants Removed 4 Years Ago. Here's What Nobody Tells You.

Announcer (00:00):
You're listening to The La Jolla Cosmetic Podcast with Monique Ramsey.

Monique Ramsey (00:05):
Nearly four years ago, Janelle came on this podcast just weeks after having her breast implants removed by Dr. Luke Swistun. At the time she told us she woke up from surgery, she immediately felt better. Her breathing was easier. She had more energy and a sense that her body was finally resetting. So today, almost four years later, she's back to talk about what happened next and what life actually looks like long after breast explant surgery. Welcome back to the podcast, Janelle.

Janelle (00:38):
Thank you. It's great to be here.

Monique Ramsey (00:40):
So being almost four years since your explant, when you look at that time, you look back and what stands out to you now?

Janelle (00:50):
A lot has changed, obviously. My wardrobe, number one. But freedom in my body, I'm a fitness instructor. So the way that I move, the way that my shoulders pull back and down now, the structure of my body feels different. Energetically, I just feel more alive and more aligned with myself. So the last four years has pretty much been unraveling of who I used to be in terms of just what society kind of places upon women and why I got breast implants in the first place. So it's been an unraveling in addition to a becoming of who I am now. And four years has been ... It's gone by quickly, but time flies and I feel fantastic. It's the best decision that I made. Still to this day, I believe that. So yeah.

Monique Ramsey (01:38):
Well, and you look amazing. So

Janelle (01:41):
Thank you.

Monique Ramsey (01:41):
Show off the girls. Show off the girls.

Janelle (01:43):
Here they are. They shake just enough.

Monique Ramsey (01:46):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, so if you could go back and talk to yourself right before that explant surgery, what would you say?

Janelle (01:55):
Everything is going to be okay. Your body's going to look great. And also, post explant, I went through a divorce, so it was a large life change for myself. And then going back into the world of being a single woman with having an explant and the expectation of the beauty standards, I was also like, okay, this is something that I have to really embrace myself and my body and love the factory settings that I'm back to and then go into this world of unknown where I'm single and I have this new, it felt like a new body and stuff. So I think if I was to go back right before the explant, I would say everything is going to work out. You're going to love your body even more than you did ever before. And all of that is true. So yeah.

Monique Ramsey (02:42):
That's a huge life change. I had no idea.

Janelle (02:45):
Huge. Yeah. Yeah.

Monique Ramsey (02:46):
I mean, it almost sort of though like a cleansing.

Janelle (02:50):
Yeah.

Monique Ramsey (02:51):
All of it, even if it's maybe hard to go through at the time emotionally, because it's not just the physical changes, it's the emotional changes. And you're speaking to your perception of yourself and sort of going back to the factory settings. And you're right, society does place so much emphasis on looks and AI isn't helping.

Janelle (03:13):
Yeah, not helping.

Monique Ramsey (03:14):
Uber perfect all the time. And so it is hard for our brains to sort of reconcile that with everything we've heard and been taught or believed. And then with who we are inside, your journey, it was so kind of you to come share it with everybody because I feel like that helped break wide open people being willing to share. And I see more and more women across social media who are ... I saw one yesterday who had surgery with another doctor in another city and she was filming her whole ... She was going in for surgery yesterday and sharing this experience. And so I think that gives permission to women who are out there who might think, "Oh, I paid to put these in, so am I crazy to want them out? " It's okay. You didn't need them in the first place, so you can take them out. But I think we all have that talk track. So in your mind, what were your thoughts going into it and then sort of immediately afterwards?

Janelle (04:26):
I mean, immediately going into it, I was 100% ready. I think it couldn't have come sooner. I think from the moment that I booked the actual surgery date, I was like, "Okay, let's go. " And I was kind of counting down the clock. So immediately going into it, I was just like, "Let me get through this and get to the other side." And I get nervous with any surgery as anybody does. It's like you're being put under anesthesia. There's a small possibility of risk associated with that. And so, I mean, if anything, it was just a little bit of, let me get to the other side of this, wake up, see the lights and see Swisston and the staff and have the freedom in my chest. I couldn't wait to wake up and just place my hands on my chest. So that was my immediate thought.

(05:12):
And then also it did cross my mind how life changing this would be because everything changes after that. You learn to dress your body a certain way, even if you're fluctuating in weight, your wardrobe changes constantly. It's seasonal. You get seasonal weight, you get seasonal this, but when you get implants, they're there for a long time, years, decades, whatever. And so I was thinking about, okay, this is going to be like a new me on the other side. It's going to be me, but a new me in a way. And then I have to relearn my body and learn how to dress it because everything I had in my wardrobe was based off of having large breasts. So it was just kind of like more excited. It was excitement and just let's get this going. Not more so like get it over with. But I was just like excited to wake up and just start over.

Monique Ramsey (06:01):
Yeah. Now right after surgery, I think we talked to you a few weeks after your explant and you said that you noticed changes in things like energy, inflammation and dry eyes surprisingly, pretty quickly. How have you felt long-term?

Janelle (06:19):
Amazing. So I had implants for 22 years. So I did have a few flare-ups because I was researching about it and I'm like, all right, some people feel like post-surgery, little flare-ups and whatever. And it could be, I don't know, a series of just the toxins leaving your body or whatever's in your body, whatever's traveling through your lymphatic system. And so I had a few of those where it was like a couple of days of lulls where I just felt not depressed, but just kind of low energy and just kind of, never did it cross my mind like that was the wrong decision, even if I had low energy or anything like that. It wasn't like that. It was just more so like, okay, body processing all of this newness and this, what's going on.

Monique Ramsey (07:07):
Yeah. And I think over time, the body is still healing. Even though you feel like you're healed and you get signed off and you can exercise, I don't care what they say, like your body is healing for a long time.

Janelle (07:20):
It's a body.

Monique Ramsey (07:22):
Yeah.

Janelle (07:22):
It's a body, but yeah.

Monique Ramsey (07:24):
And very complicated.

Janelle (07:25):
Very complicated.

Monique Ramsey (07:26):
It's very complicated systems that I feel like, how can it just be like on this day you're fine. You're cleared to go get on the exercise bike and cycle away. That's not how it works, like when you turn the page.

Janelle (07:42):
It's not.

Monique Ramsey (07:43):
So that makes sense that it would sort of be a little bit of a wave.

Janelle (07:48):
And you just kind of move with it. You move with it with grace. It's like anything else. You have to relearn your body. Your upper body is sore. I couldn't wait to come back on the bike and teach it soul again. And I went back in six weeks and I taught from the floor and then my energy was just going up, up. And then I take a couple steps back and then up, up, up. And the upward trajectory was just amazing and incredible. And next month I'm going to be 48 years old and I'm like crushing it. Look at you. My energy is crushing it.

Monique Ramsey (08:22):
In the four years that you and I have not seen each other, clearly we have not aged one day.

Janelle (08:28):
One day. I mean.

Monique Ramsey (08:29):
Not one day. Well, 48, oh my gosh. I would never have guessed.

Janelle (08:33):
Thank you.

Monique Ramsey (08:34):
But you take care of yourself. And I think when you're a healthy person and you take care of yourself, this makes sense that this is kind of an extension of, if I'm not feeling well, getting down to the bottom of why that is. Now, are there any symptoms that improved slowly over time that you didn't expect?

Janelle (08:55):
Slowly would be strength, obviously strength in my upper chest. Everything else, I feel really lucky to say this because this may not be the case for everybody. Obviously we all heal very differently, but I've always been like a really quick healer. If I get a cut, it's healing quick. If I sprain something healing quick. So my thing was just strengthen my upper body and my upper chest. I couldn't lift weights in the upper body for a while, which was a given. I mean, you have muscles reattaching to the ribcage and all that stuff, but I just gave it time. It didn't take longer than I expected. I expected it to take about six to eight weeks and that's really what it took. So nothing caught me off guard or by surprise.

Monique Ramsey (09:36):
Like you say, we're all different in how our bodies ... And you know your body, you know that you're a quick healer and like I'm the opposite of that. If it's going to go wrong, it happens to me. But it's okay. I know that about myself. I know I don't get discouraged if something's taking longer than it would for the average person. It's like, okay, but that's my normal and that's okay. So do you feel like your body eventually reached a new normal? And if so, was that kind of right away or did that take some time?

Janelle (10:07):
I would say it took about a year to feel like really strong in my upper body, really understanding how to dress my body. And this is realistic. This is me going through orders of clothes, coming to the house, bikinis, figuring it out. Everything is different. I mean, I was like a small D and I'm ... So that's very different. And I'm a small petite woman. So it was trying to figure out what made me also in clothing wise feel sexy as a woman. Because again, I was going into the single world and so I was just kind of like, not necessarily let me dress for men, but it was like, let me dress to feel sexy for myself and let me feel confident. And because immediately when you get breast implants, your confidence is like, boom, oh my gosh. And for whatever reason, societal standards, I don't know, call it what you want, but when you get them removed, you're so happy to return back to your normal factory settings, if you will. But you're also like, I have to learn how to dress and I don't know, feel confident in my new body. It's a new body.

Monique Ramsey (11:18):
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you remember this, but back then when you were talking about teaching your fitness classes, you're at SoulCycle and you were exhausted. And you talked about needing a daily nap.

Janelle (11:33):
Every day.

Monique Ramsey (11:33):
So what does your energy look like now versus before?

Janelle (11:37):
Yeah, a lot better. I mean, I think I'm a napper in general, but it's not because it's mostly for cognitive reset. I need to just shut off and meditate. Before, it was the classes were dreadful on my body. My joints hurt. I don't have joint pain. And that was the biggest on and off switch for me. That shut off within a couple months. I had no more joint pain. I felt like this is going to be the reason that I quit my job. This is going to be the reason that ... I was like, "Do I have arthritis? What's going on with my body?" Every joint hurt in my body and I'm in the gym lifting weight like I'm 25 years old.

Monique Ramsey (12:24):
And you have the body of a 25 year old. Let me just tell you people out there in internet land. This lady is amazing.

Janelle (12:31):
I appreciate that.

Monique Ramsey (12:32):
She's a beautiful woman and also works very hard for that body, but your body is like perfect. I love it.

Janelle (12:37):
I appreciate that. Thank you.

Monique Ramsey (12:39):
Well, you work hard for it and it's perfect. And I love how confident you are on camera. And when you have pictures of you and your love interest, who's adorable.

Janelle (12:50):
Thank you.

Monique Ramsey (12:50):
It's just every once in a while you'll come up in the feed and I'm like, "Oh, there she is. They're traveling. I love it. "

Janelle (12:57):
Yeah, it's great. He's great.

Monique Ramsey (12:59):
Yeah. And how has your relationship with exercise or your body changed over the last few years? Has it changed at all? I mean, you're already busy exercising and teaching, but does it just feel better?

Janelle (13:14):
Yeah, it feels better. I'm not having ... I do a lot of recovery anyways just because I'm almost 48 and I want my body to basically last as long as I can. And I want to be able to move with grace and through my whole life. So everything is like stretching all the things, but I'm not doing it because I'm in pain. I'm just doing it for restorative work and just kind of longevity work. And before I was spending hours a day just trying to figure out why I have so much pain.

Monique Ramsey (13:47):
I love that it just is part of your health journey that you knew like this is a real thing and that you were able to sort of take the steps to fix it and then move on and go to the next thing. Now, one thing that struck me with your story, and we'll put a link in the show notes for anybody who wants to go back and listen or watch. One of the things that struck me was how emotional it was for you to see yourself in the mirror after surgery. So how do you feel about your body now four years later?

Janelle (14:27):
Oh, I'm like, if we could all be naked, I love my naked body. I say that with full confidence as a mature woman. When I get out of the shower, there's no part of me that looks in the mirror and says, "Oh, I wish I had bigger boobs or I wish whatever." I embrace every part of my body, but I just especially really love my boobs and they're little and they healed well. And I think when I first got them done, and it wasn't a heartbreaking thing, I was emotional because it was so freeing. It was so ... I don't know. I felt like when you're young, I was 22 when I got them and I just felt like I needed them to be seen as sexy and all the things and whatever. And maybe that's somebody's choice out there and it's not a wrong choice.

(15:24):
I'm just saying that's how I felt at 22 and looking at myself now saying, "Wow, I have such a sexy, powerful body." You know what I mean? But at first you look at it and it's an unbecoming because your skin is not tight yet and you have to give it time and everything needs time to heal and it's like, they kind of look like empty coin vouches. It's like skin. There was something there big and it's gone. And then every week or a couple of weeks that went by, it just was changing. So I'm like, all right. And then I would visualize what I wanted them to look like. And I'm very like, I'm like a manifester. I'm like, "This is what they're going to look like. " And I knew if it didn't turn out that way, I could just come back in and Swistun and would help me out.

Monique Ramsey (16:09):
He'll make it so.

Janelle (16:10):
He'll make it possible. But yeah, immediately like a few weeks after, obviously you're looking at your healing body and you're just like, "Okay, I'm here for this. Let's do this. " And if you go into a positive as opposed to like a worrying mind, you're going to heal faster and your body's going to feel that. I feel like energetically, whatever we put, whatever our mind is spiraling on, it's energetically traveling through your body.

Monique Ramsey (16:36):
Yep.

Janelle (16:36):
You can make yourself sicker or healthier.

Monique Ramsey (16:40):
Exactly. I think that is 100% true. And now you mentioned about dressing for your new body and figuring that out. And so what were some of the mistakes you made at the beginning and then how did you finally kind of learn what clothes were going to make you feel fabulous?

Janelle (17:00):
So what I was doing in the beginning was trying to not do an overhaul of a brand new closet. So I'm trying to consolidate the things that I have that may work, right? And a lot of the things, even sports bras were slightly stretched out and things like that. So it came down to the point where I was like, "Okay, have to go shopping." You know what I mean? And then it was kind of a series of things that went too high neck. I didn't feel sexy in them because my chest was so small. So I love super plunging, low cut, show my whole chest. The more skin I can show up here, the better. And it made me personally feel sexy. So I love like anything like plunging deep, even lower than this, like dresses with deep neck lines. And what's interesting about that is I wouldn't go super plunging with the implants because my boobs were so big that it kind of looked, it didn't look as like, I guess, classy in my opinion.

(17:57):
And so now when I'm wearing these super low cut where I have to use tape to like make sure it doesn't move, but I have more freedom to wear all of this stuff to show my chest all the way down because it still looks classy to me.

Monique Ramsey (18:11):
Right, right. So wrapping it all up in terms of that decision and the long-term healing, now that you have that way to look back at that, how do you feel about it?

Janelle (18:26):
I mean, it was, honestly, I can't say it enough, obviously the best decision. I think for anybody considering it, it's really a coming back to ... You have to be so on board with love from yourself. You have to really love yourself because you can't live your life going off of what the world views you as or what they need from you. It's what do you need from yourself? And in that moment, four years ago, I needed from myself to be the realest version of me and to get to eliminate my body from the things that I felt as a young woman that I needed to be, to be seen, to be sexy, to be confident, and learning how to do all of those things over as a mature woman was the best thing I ever did for myself. I can go through the rest of my life and know that I'm proud of the choice that I made.

(19:29):
And it was not an easy one. At the same time I was getting an explant, friends were getting upgrades and bigger implants, and that was all in my world. I was going through a divorce, which by the way, were like really good friends. So shout out to my ex. But life can be huge, grand, big. You can be confident, sexy. People will look at you. Confidence is the way you walk through life. It's not your big boobs or your small boobs. And I just feel like I know who I am. I love who I am. This works for me. And it's the greatest adventure I've ever taken with myself. So anybody that's thinking about it, I give you credit for even the first part of the process, which is the thought. This doesn't work for me anymore. I don't want this in my body anymore.

(20:23):
And besides all of the health risks that come with having that in your body, and for me, I'm just super happy and I feel more aligned with myself. This feels very real for me, and it is real for me.

Monique Ramsey (20:38):
I know we talked about like there's different Facebook groups and different online communities with people sharing their experiences with each other online. Do you still hear from people who are considering explant surgery?

Janelle (20:52):
So my explant journey is pinned at the top of my Instagram so that when people go and go to my Instagram, it's always going to be the first and most important thing on there because it was such a life change. And people still DM me and randomly find me through social channels, whatever. They still ask questions. I have a bunch of reels at the top that go over the whole process. So I kind of direct them there and because it's a lot of people and sometimes I can't get back to everybody and I also don't want people to think I don't care because I care. It's a big deal.

Monique Ramsey (21:26):
Yeah. If somebody is listening right now and they're considering it, what would you tell them?

Janelle (21:32):
I would first dive into why you're considering it. I mean, really think about what it is about removing them from your body that's the most important, or why are the thoughts coming up? Because you can get to the other side and say, "I made a mistake, get them back in. " And people have done ... I actually have friends that have done that. But I think if you really want to do it, really look into the pros and cons, be part of the communities, join the Facebook group, reach out to people that have had it, had the surgery that never got them back in, see how they feel, see how they're living. For me, I always try to ... Anytime I'm invested in something, I always try to research like if it's HRT or whatever, I'm like, All right, let me reach out to people my age that are doing something I have questions on.

(22:19):
So maybe if you're 45 or 50 and you want an explant, look for the 45, 50 year olds that are going through it at this time in their life, not 10 years ago or the 25 year old because their bodies are going to heal a little bit different. 25 year old body's going to heal different than a 45 year old body.

Monique Ramsey (22:38):
And I think also there's two types of people. There could be the people who have breast implant illness or think that they might like, "Oh yeah, that totally sounds just like me, all these same symptoms." But there's also just the people who are like, "They just don't serve me anymore." It's been 20 years that I'm a different person now. And even if that's your reason, I think that's both of those are very valid reasons to make a change and decide, "Okay, this is what I want to do. " And by you talking about it and bringing light to it, I think that's huge for women to say, "Okay, well, here's what I'm thinking of. Here's somebody who did it and how they feel now." And so you coming back to tell your story and with kind of being able to look back retroactively and see how that has affected your life, what do you wish more people understood about your decision to take the implants out? And did you have any pushback, I guess?

Janelle (23:40):
No pushback. From the moment I decided it was an all in, period. I only researched so I knew what to expect on the other side. It was never a zigzag of emotions. Should I, should I not, should I, should I not? Never. Not once. I was an all in person, but I'm an all in person with life.

Monique Ramsey (24:01):
So how would you, Janelle, describe the new you four years later?

Janelle (24:07):
Oh, I'm really in a space of gratitude. I feel like I have attracted things into my life that makes sense. I have cut the cords from things that didn't, and they served a purpose of my life at one point, but I just feel alive and energetic. I feel like I can do anything I want to do. I don't feel ... And not that I couldn't do that with implants, but I just feel like my body is so capable of anything and nothing's in the way and-

Monique Ramsey (24:41):
Literally.

Janelle (24:45):
I'm really happy in my life.

Monique Ramsey (24:48):
That's really cool. Well, thank you for sharing. And I really appreciate it. It was like all of a sudden I have one other patient, Kaylee. She did a skinny BBL and she is going to come back and talk about her experience because we had her on the podcast a few years ago. And so it was like, "Ooh, we're going to have this whole series of life after these things and where are they now?" And so you're the first in our series, Janelle. So thank you. Thank you.

Janelle (25:18):
Wow. Thank you. What an honor.

Monique Ramsey (25:20):
So it's going to be fun. Well, it's an honor to have you here because not everybody feels comfortable talking about it. And I get that and we respect that, but it is wonderful when there is somebody who will share the story just because it does help people so much. So I appreciate that. And if you're listening today, hopefully you subscribe to us. We're on YouTube for videos if you ever feel like you have to watch us. And if you don't, yeah, that's right. Janelle's showing off the girls, but if you listen, that's totally cool too. I think on Spotify, we also have our videos. So you can, if you're a Spotify listener, I am, you can watch us there or wherever you get your podcast, subscribe. And every Tuesday we have a new episode. So we look forward to seeing you all on the next one. And thanks again, Janelle.

Janelle (26:06):
Thank you. Good luck everybody.

Monique Ramsey (26:09):
Bye everyone.

Announcer (26:14):
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