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Nearly Enlightened
Join Nearly Enlightened's host Giana Giarrusso and discover the body, mind and spirit connection! The Nearly Enlightened Podcast is for the soul-centered seeker who is on the path of personal growth and spiritual development. This podcast takes a light-hearted approach exploring topics rooted in themes of mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing.
Nearly Enlightened
Boobs and Breathwork to Resilience and Recovery with Amy Chauvin
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Imagine discovering a practice that not only helps you manage stress but also plays a crucial role in your healing journey from a serious health condition. That's exactly what happened to our guest, Amy Chauvin. In this episode, Amy takes us through her transformative experience with breathwork, which she found amidst the chaos of March 2020, and how it became a lifeline during her battle with breast implant illness.
Amy's story is one of following intuition and resilience. She shares the ups and downs of her health journey, including the challenges of dealing with breast implant illness and the consequential explant surgery amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. You'll hear about her three-year search for the right doctor, the near cancellation of her surgery, and how breathwork not only helped her cope but also become an integral part of her recovery. Her experiences underscore the importance of listening to your body and trusting your instincts when making crucial health decisions.
This episode doesn't shy away from discussing the broader implications of beauty practices on our long-term health. Amy candidly talks about her experience with breast implant illness and the critical perspective she gained over time. We address the often-overlooked health risks tied to cosmetic injectables and elective surgeries, emphasizing the need for informed choices and holistic health practices. Tune in to hear Amy's inspiring journey and learn how breathwork, yoga, and nature can be powerful tools for self-care and inner well-being.
Connect with Amy:
https://stan.store/AmyChauvin
https://www.instagram.com/amychauvin/
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This is the Nearly Enlightened Podcast. I am your host, gianna Girusso, and I am joined again by Amy Chauvin. Hi, amy, welcome.
Speaker 2:Hi, Gianna. Thank you so much for having me here today. I'm so excited to talk on so many topics.
Speaker 1:So excited to have you back. I was just saying before we started recording that her podcast the original one that she was on Break Free Breathwork with Amy it's still one of the best performing podcasts of all time.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, to hear that two little Gemini is just riffing away, indeed. So today Amy um is back, and if you haven't listened to her podcast before, she was on on a couple of weeks ago and then on in season two. So if you haven't listened to those podcasts yet, you can go back and listen to them. Amy is a breathwork practitioner and breathwork found her and I'll let you talk about it a little bit, because we want to talk about something very specific today and that was Amy's healing journey and how it brought her to all of these amazing tools that she now uses and teaches others.
Speaker 2:Yes. So a little bit about breathwork. We'll go into that a little bit up front and then jump into the other topics of my healing journey with breast implant illness. So breathwork jumped into my life at the most opportune time and I wish it did come in sooner. But everything in the right time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how I feel about yoga too. I found it in college and I was like, wow, if only Yep, indeed.
Speaker 2:So March of 2020 was my very first virtual breathwork session. It was a very interesting time in March of 2020. From that moment forward, in 2021, I became certified, double certified, and for over three years now I've been facilitating breathwork and transformational events and I have my first retreat up coming up in Aruba in November. But it's really been a journey all about inspiring others to break free, become alive. Regulate the nervous system because I feel like so many people don't even understand what regulating the nervous system is yes, and just stepping into that, just a different way of living through purpose, joy and manifesting those big goals and dreams. So that's a little bit about what I do in breathwork, without getting too deep into it.
Speaker 1:Well, breathwork is so important, so one. So I mean this study is probably dated at this point. But when I first became a yoga teacher, I mean this study is probably dated at this point. But, um, when I first became a yoga teacher, I had read a study from the American heart and lung association, and it's literally stuck with me ever since. But, and this study was done in 2010. So it is a little bit dated at this point, um, and I would be curious to see what it is currently. But when I had originally read it, it stated something along the lines of lines of the average American only uses 10% of their lung capacity in an entire lifetime, and that blew me away.
Speaker 1:And if you've been in my yoga classes in the last nine years, you might have even heard me talk about it. Around our ribs are strictly muscles for respiration, so if we're not breathing properly, like all of those muscles are atrophying, they're not going to work properly, and then you're really not going to be breathing properly. So in my yoga classes, there's always a big focus on breathwork. Breathwork is one of the eight limbs of yoga, along with asana, which is the poses.
Speaker 1:For those not familiar with the practice of yoga, but breathwork has always been near and dear to my heart as well, because I feel like most of us aren't breathing properly and that kind of contributes to anxiety, depression, just like disease on health. And so, when you know not to get controversial although we love to do that on this podcast so when you know not to get controversial although we love to do that on this podcast but I feel like it made so much sense that there was a disease in 2020 that was attacking the lungs. It's like oh duh, because it's like one of the weakest points for Americans, like we don't have healthy lungs because of the air that we breathe, pollution in the environment, perfumes, chemicals, that kind of stuff, and also because we're not breathing properly. So I love that you're here to talk about this, because I think that breathwork goes really hand in hand with overall health 100%, and so so many, I would say, americans and people all over the world.
Speaker 2:When we're, when we're born, we breathe nice deep diaphragm, like belly breathing breaths. Yeah, when, as we grow up and get a little bit older, we're doing very, very shallow chest breathing, so we lose the deep belly breathing and do very shallow. And part of my personal journey with the breath is for many, many years I was holding my breath and that's like slowly dying, like you need breath to live, like if you're holding your breath throughout the day and not actually breathing, that can cause so much stuff. So in finding breathwork, it opened up my day-to-day breathing and actually realizing hey, you can stop and actually take breaths throughout the day. And it's just been a wild, wild journey.
Speaker 1:So you found breathwork for a very specific reason. There was like one point in your health journey that kind of like culminated to everything. So do you want to talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 2:Yes, so the big word of the day is breast implant illness. So when I was 20 years old, I chose to get breast implants. I had them for, I think, a little bit over 16 years. Um, I think many women have different reasons why. Um, my light bulb moment was I was in a terrible car accident and I was getting reconstructive surgery on my facial area, and the big light bulb moment was, if I'm already going in for surgery, why not get something that I want that will make me look a little bit better? So that was like my 20 year old self.
Speaker 1:I think our generation yeah, I think our generation too. It was so glorified by like celebrities and like it was just really out in the forefront like everyone was doing it. Everyone was getting breast implants I actually. So this is something about me. I actually had a surgery date.
Speaker 1:I was probably 19, so very young, like frontal lobe, medium rare, like not cooked yet and like making these giant decisions. And I had my consultation, I had my surgery date booked, I had my deposit in and it was really my dad who was like yeah, if you do this, like I'm not going to disown you, but I'm not going to be happy Like you, I don't think you should be doing this. This is like a huge decision and you're so young breast implants need to be switched out like every 10 or so years. He was like you're only going to be 29 by the time you need another surgery. He was like this is a. He kept saying this is elected surgery, gianna, elected surgery.
Speaker 1:And I you know little 19 year old me like I didn't give a shit. Yep, um, but probably. It was probably like 10 days before my surgery. I don't know what happened, but something was like you know what, I don't think I should do this. And I didn't. I canceled the surgery, lost my deposit, um, um and yeah, like looking back on it now, I don't know that I would have been like through the healing journey that I've gone through, like I don't know that I would have been okay with having a foreign body and in my body, like I think that that would have, I think that would have eventually really gotten to me psychologically, like I think I would have ended up having them out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and before I speak further on my journey, I just want to do like a total disclaimer Anyone that currently has breast implants. There are many women out there that have no side effects, no issues currently, but there are many out there that do have all these mystery illnesses, mystery issues, autoimmune disease, autoimmune, yeah. And so this is a just total disclaimer, not meant to trigger anyone if you currently have them and are having no issues, but just simply an educational, an educational conversation on what my journey is and what other women that I have seen out there that have had them explanted.
Speaker 1:Yes, and your experience?
Speaker 2:this is based on your experience as you just mentioned what your dad said. So I grew up with this instilled in my head for my grandmother you only have one body. Be nice to it, treat it good. So that was instilled in like, like you, at 19, 20 years old, I went against that little piece of advice from my grandmother. I went against that little piece of advice from my grandmother and we all have a journey to learn and experience, and this just happened to be a 16-year journey of.
Speaker 2:I know there's something wrong with me. I can't figure it out. I had no clue until 2017 or 2018 what the potential cause of so many things in my life, like symptom wise, 2017 was, when that label moment went off of like, oh my gosh, it could be the breast implants. But some of my symptoms and there's like a list of like, probably 60 symptoms it sounds like a pharmaceutical commercial, but some of my top ones I just wrote down my top ones Chronic fatigue was my number one by far.
Speaker 2:I felt like a 90 year old living in a 20, 30, early 30 year old body where I had to take naps every like, every day, and people like friends would ask me to go out and I'd be like I'm tired. I'm tired. I have to take a nap first, or I would just like make up excuses not to go and do the things that like a healthy 20 something year old would be doing because I was so fatigued. Um, hair loss. So I have a head of hair. I have very thick hair, I have to say my explant was in 2020. I had my hair done a couple of days ago. It's the first time since 2020 where I actually had her thin out my hair again. Um, so in that 16 year breast implant journey I broke so many vacuum cleaners my hair would just fall out. In every time I washed my hair I would have like a big pile, like not a normal pile, of hair. So hair loss. Thank goodness I did have a big, like I have a lot of hair, so thank goodness I did not have thin hair.
Speaker 2:Where I had like seeing through, um, swollen lymph nodes was another one where, about two months after I had the explant, all of a sudden, it's been since 2020. So like we're going on four years of since my explant, I might have had swollen lymph nodes two or three times where it was a weekly, bi-weekly thing where I was complaining to whoever was in my like in my family circle that feel this. It feels like a swollen lymph node and like it's a little tiny bump on the back of your neck. But when you have a swollen lymph node it's scary. It feels like it's like you have a bruise, like it's not just that tiny dot where the lump is, it feels like a bruise, like infiltrating your head on the back, because mine were always on the back of my head and my neck and of course I would go to the doctors. Perfect blood work, I think.
Speaker 2:At one point I was like anemic at one point, but that was just a very short while. So, perfect blood work. Nothing's wrong with you. You're a healthy person. Keep doing what you're doing, my regular doctor says. But I had this clear inner knowing that there was something not right. So I was seeking fitness. The more fitness and being an athlete, the more of that I did, the tireder I would get. Then I was seeking eating healthy. Then I was seeking like anything to make me feel better. I was seeking it and I was just not finding the right things to make me actually feel better and not be so fatigued with swollen lymph nodes, all the time.
Speaker 1:So what was the thing? That was like holy shit, this is what it might be.
Speaker 2:So I feel like everything shows up in the right time. I do wish that this right time was much sooner than 16 years. Um, so I was at Thanksgiving and my aunt like it was really loud Thanksgiving. So it wasn't like we were just like at a quiet table, it was really loud. We were all talking. Um, and my aunt just like turns to me. She's like aim, when are you going to get those implants removed? And I'm like I w I was like kind of like pulled back by the question.
Speaker 1:I'm like we're at Thanksgiving dinner, like okay, yeah, Like let's just talk about my boobs at the family dinner table.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, and again we were kind of like off to the side, so it wasn't like in front of everyone and she's like. You know, I saw this article the other day. Let me forward it to you if you, if you want me to. It was Crystal Hefner, so Playboy Crystal Hefner. An article of all of the symptoms and fatigue and autoimmune, everything that she went through and actually getting the explant done. That was the ultimate light bulb moment, that like dropped a ton of bricks on my head and from that day I entered into probably obsessive research mode which took me three years, three years before I found the right doctor to get them out. So that was like the moment Thanksgiving, three years before I got them out.
Speaker 2:And then it just yeah, obsession mode of I need like. Even if the one thing, chronic fatigue, all the other symptoms I was like whatever, as long as the chronic fatigue was the one that like got addressed, I would be the happiest human alive and that was the one thing. After a few few weeks after I would say no, a few months after surgery is when I started feeling the difference and not needing to take naps anymore. So, like your body is, it's miraculous to see what it can do.
Speaker 1:Yep, the body is the scorekeeper, like it knows it's. It's such an ancient wisdom that is deep inside and, like you said, you followed your intuition. You knew something was wrong. You weren't going to accept like OK, all these blood work, everything, your tests are normal. So like okay, why do I feel like shit then?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, keep doing what you're doing, but what I'm doing like I did not feel. Like I felt. I literally felt like a 90, an unhealthy, 90 year old person on super low battery. That's how I felt going through those 16 years.
Speaker 1:That's great, that's crazy and hard to live with. So how did that? How did you find breath, work through this journey?
Speaker 2:So I happened to find breath work three weeks before, three weeks before my actual explant surgery. So it just happened to like fall into my life. I did the first breath work and I know how I am I try something once. It's not really my thing. I will never do it again. I had that first virtual breath work experience and, of course, march 2020, it was a thing. I went into the surgery three weeks later. And, of course, march 2020, it was a thing.
Speaker 2:I went into the surgery three weeks later and, of course, because I had it was a major surgery on my chest I don't think I did breath work for about two two to two and a half months after I had the surgery. So I did the one initial two and a half months to have my kind of recovery time and then I jumped right back into it bi-monthly for the next year and I just it was definitely part of my healing journey. If I would have said that to myself back then I'd be like healing what? What does that even mean? But it really it just between the getting explanting and starting breath work, which helps regulate your nervous system and just helps de-stress and it's just such a beautiful modality and has different effects on everybody. It was just a perfect way, in conjunction with explanting, to just be kind to myself and have a practice that really helped me get through a major transition in my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because that is a major surgery. Like that's the other thing that we don't talk about when we're signing people up for any kind of plastic surgery. But like you're going under general anesthesia, you are, you're having a major surgery, like they are cutting your chest open. It is a major surgery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that brings me to so, in choosing to do the surgery, it was April 2020, three days before the appointment. The doctor calls me and he's like he physically picked up the phone and called me and he's like your surgery might be canceled because it's not. They're canceling not medically necessary surgeries and this is kind of like a gray area he's like, but I'm going to push for it that it's medically necessary. So it was when all the roads, like, were kind of closed down to be out. So I drove from Rhode Island to New Hampshire, rhode Island to New Hampshire with my sister my sister couldn't even go into the surgery center with me Um, and everything worked out. They did not cancel it. I was able to go and I think, because of the timing of it, I will talk about divine timing.
Speaker 1:Like that could have very easily been canceled and you probably wouldn't have been able to get a surgery until like more than a year after that. So like that's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and then I went with him. I'm going to actually throw his name out here for anyone, so I researched.
Speaker 2:I researched doctors in Florida. I researched doctors in Southern California. I drove to long Island for a any advice I would give to anyone that if you're going through this journey or any medical type of journey with surgeries cause it could be for anything right Go with your gut, go with your intuition. I had one doctor really pushing to do it the next week and I wasn't mentally prepared to go the next week so I did not go with that person. Um, the few that were pretty far out of state. They only did explant surgery, so they did not do implant surgeries. So I was really pulled to them. But then the price tag, because it was all out of pocket, was like triple. And then the person that I actually I have one more story One doctor actually was like I'll take them out, but I'll put another set in. I think, do you have a silicone phobia? And I was like what? I'm like no, I want them out. And he was like no, I'll put another set. I'm like no. So that was an interesting journey. So it's like, it's like you need to use your intuition, even like doctors are people and surgeons are selling surgeries. Yes, yes, so I finally I had a consult probably two years before I actually did it, with the person I went with, um Dr Chapson out of Andover mass and the surgery center was in New Hampshire.
Speaker 2:Um, his one-liner that had me sold was, if I am allowed to put implants in, a woman should be allowed to take the implants out safely. He said that one line I'm like, I am sold. And of course I saw other women, um other women through groups that have had surgery, through through all of the various ones that I researched and kind of interviewed. So interview, if you're going in for a surgery, interview multiple people and read reviews, I mean it's, it is a pretty big thing.
Speaker 1:It's a huge thing. It is a huge thing, especially when your health is on the line and and, like you said, like no doctor believed you know, like they just see the blood work and they want to write you off and like following that intuition of like okay, I know something is is wrong and I'm going to figure it out, and and that's a very powerful place to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, indeed. And then when you think about it, it's any. Just think about getting a splinter. You get a splinter, you get pieces of it out. The other piece is kind of still in. What does your body do? It pushes it, eventually pushes it out.
Speaker 2:Imagine any type of foreign object being put in your body. It's basically your body's. What it wants to do is push it out, protect you from it. So, even in like the just example, breast implants, because that's what we're talking about your body forms a capsule of scar tissue around it. Why? Of course I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist, but the reason why is, like all the research that I've done, is even the safe implants, like mine, were saline. They were the safe kind. The shell is still tons of different chemicals and plastic and silicone. It's just, it's hundreds of things that you don't even. You can't even pronounce the word of what it is. So you're putting this in, even though it's safe, and then your body is creating the scar tissue around it and that's your body protecting itself from an object that should not be in the body. So it's just, it's just wild and interesting and just like all this stuff that I've learned um the three years leading up to actually getting them out.
Speaker 1:So it's funny that when you started posting about it, it started to come into my sphere too.
Speaker 1:Um, there's a doctor that I've that I've followed since pre 2020. And then she was pretty outspoken during that whole thing and part of her journey was also explant Dr Jess Petras of wellness plus and she started to talk about it too because she had her explant surgery kind of around the same time. It was like just I think it was just pre 2020, if I'm not mistaken, but she put up before and after pictures and it was like before she got the explant surgery, after pictures, and it was like before she got the explant surgery. And then it was like three months after the explant surgery and this woman aged backwards like she looked 10 years younger. It was absolutely incredible and yeah, you just you don't know and you're you're young and you're signing up for the selected surgery and all these doctors are telling you that it's safe and they're telling you it's safe. But, like you said before, we started recording and we can touch on this now. It's like there is a black box, a black box warning on there.
Speaker 2:Like yes, so how safe?
Speaker 1:can it be If there is a literal warning on there? And you know, just like more anecdotal stories. Um, my mom's best friend since she was 16 she's basically an aunt to me now um, she had breast implants very young and then a couple years ago got breast cancer and they she had a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. Because they really push the reconstructive surgery, they really push the implants. The first set of implants that they put in got recalled due to causing cancer. So they're putting these cancer causing implants in women who have already had cancer. It's so crazy to me, it's so insane, yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, and this is this is just my own personal view and advice If anyone goes through cancer, goes through having to have um, they're like a lumpectomy or a mastectomy. I think I'm saying that right. I would, 1 million percent, just based on my journey do not get implants after going going through something like that. Um, I have someone very close to me I'm not going to call them out on here but they had a lumpectomy where one was. It was just very lopsided for years and they actually ended up just doing doing a lift. So like there are other options where you're not putting foreign body bodies, um, and if I was to go back and they were to say I'll take them out, but you're going to be like totally deformed or mastectomy. Like mastectomy is how you say correct, I probably the way I feel right now. I would probably go for that instead of having having them in. Like that's how dramatically different my life has changed since getting them out.
Speaker 1:And what was that like? So I think that's another thing that we don't really talk about is like the emotional part. Yes, the emotional part and just getting them out and like not knowing what you're going to look like after, because you've you've already altered your body from what it was pre implants, so, explanting them, you're probably not going to look like you did before you got them out.
Speaker 2:No, and I think age is a big, big factor in that too. Um, so like it was, it was an emotional rollercoaster. I'm not going to lie. Um, I suggest anyone going through it have a good support system, have someone that's already been through the explant journey, Like even if it's just one person, because they you can talk the same language about things, and having a good like home and family support. Because it was an emotional rollercoaster. You think you might be deformed, you think you might not look good, you think you might just like lose everything. And it's emotionally draining.
Speaker 2:There is in explanting I don't want to get too deep into it, but after explant, because you're taking the implants out, it does feel like they just kind of like I don't want to say it's like maybe concave a little bit, but then there's a fluff period. So even up to six months after the surgery they kind of reshape back to a different shape from like initially getting the explant done. And again, every body is different, Every person is different. And then that pre and post, so like I was 19, 20 years old when I had them put in. So my body was very different than my now 40 year old body. So like I think in my head I'm going to get these out and there's going to be absolutely nothing there. That was a total falsehood and totally wrong, because a 20 year old versus a 40 year old, it's like. I feel like I probably wasn't even fully developed at the age of like 1920.
Speaker 1:And I was a serious athlete and yeah, it's so true, and that's the other thing that we don't talk about. Being on the younger spectrum, and that's that was kind of my journey is I was on birth control very, very young. Um, I had. So I got my period for the first time when I was 12, and then by like 12 and a half, and then by like 12 and a half 13. I was having severe pain right before periods and it took a little while to figure out that it was because I had ovarian cysts that were rupturing right before my cycle started. So it was causing immense pain and thought it was appendicitis. But then I was in like my fourth sonogram trying to figure out like what the heck was wrong with me, and the tech was like, oh, you have fluid in your ovaries. Like we have to talk to a doctor about this, and basically what fluid in your ovaries means is you had a cyst that ruptured. So that was how we came to know that that was what was happening. So their immediate fix is like oh well, go on birth control. Birth control helps to fix this, and I was 13. So my parents were like we're not putting her on birth control at this point, but it persisted and it was so bad that every time it would happen I would end up in the hospital because of the level of pain that I was in. So finally it was like, okay, well, if this is the only fix, then yeah, let's do this. So, by 14 years old that I was in. So finally it was like, okay, well, if this is the only fix, then yeah, let's do this. So by 14 years old I was already on birth control. Um, and I was on birth control from 14 all the way up to almost 25.
Speaker 1:Um, and that changed my body a lot. Like I, I had switched birth controls a couple of times just because of, like, what I was experiencing. They were trying to find, like, the best fit for me or whatever. So there were a lot of fluctuations, um, in my body shape and I went from having like these triple D boobs which I'm I'm a super small person, so, like I had these ginormous boobs. And then I went on a new birth control. I was this is going to shock a lot of people I was training for a pageant and I was doing heavy fitness training and I lost a lot of body fat content and I went from being like normal body fat range, which is like probably in the teens, to being about 5% body fat. My boobs completely deflated, like they. It was just skin, like it didn't. They didn't even get smaller, they were just like saggy and like, like you talk about, like a 90 year old woman. Like I looked like a 90 year old woman stuck in a 19 year old's body and that was really why I wanted to get them.
Speaker 1:But now, looking back on it, I was going really big, like 365 cc's. So if anyone knows what that's like, like they were were basically saying like oh, you used to be close to a triple D, now you're measuring at like an AB, like we're going to get you back up to that size. These implants were massive and I'm a small framed person. I'm five to right now I'm probably like 120 pounds, like back then I was probably like 107 pounds. Five to like very small framed person and you're going to put these giant implants in me. And the doctor kept saying, well, people always come back and they want bigger. So like if you go bigger than you're just going to, you'll be fine.
Speaker 1:And then, coming off birth control, my body fluctuated again and I kind of went back to normal, off birth control, my body fluctuated again and I kind of went back to normal. Um, but what they don't tell you too, is like strength training and just activating those pec muscles, like you can get you can get your shape back. And and that's something that happened to me and one of the reasons why I look back and I'm like, wow, thank God, I didn't do that. Like since starting yoga, um, I don't really wear a bra anymore. And there's lots of studies that say like, wow, thank God, I didn't do that. Like, since starting yoga, I don't really wear a bra anymore.
Speaker 1:And there's lots of studies that say, like, if you don't wear a bra, you train your muscles to kind of hold your breasts up yourself, and I have found that to be very true. Like I, 2012 is when I probably started playing with, like, not wearing bras, and I do a lot of yoga and my, my, my personal life, and have have since then and now I never wear a bra. Like I'm very comfortable with how I look and I'll be completely transparent like everyone's a little asymmetrical, like my right boob is a lot bigger than my left boob, but I have come to embrace my natural figure and I'm so, so glad that I didn't, because I don't know what I would have done. Like I can imagine that I mean 365 cc's on each side, like that's a lot of weight.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, on each side, like that's a lot of weight. Oh yes, so mine came out because I remember when I went in my surgeon I was like he was between two sizes and I'm like whatever one looks looks best and the most natural. They went with the smaller. So when they came out I didn't even know what size they were coming out. It was only 200 cc's or 220 cc's.
Speaker 2:These things were tiny and then I was like these tiny things wreaked so much havoc. So the 360 that you're talking about on that tiny, tiny body, and then you're massive. Imagine your body as it grows up into your 30s. What then that would look like of your natural growth? Like yeah.
Speaker 1:It's just wild. It is wild and it's, I mean, just like anything. It's a business Like they're selling surgeries. That's what they're doing, Indeed, so it's crazy.
Speaker 2:It is, it definitely is.
Speaker 1:But everything happens for a reason and I really thank my dad for being transparent and at the time I obviously thought he was like the biggest asshole, because I'm like it's not your body, it's not your money, like what do you give a shit? Yep. But in the long run it's really about health and I don't think that I would have, on the journey that I've been on, I think I would have done the same thing. I think I would have eventually explanted, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again it's like it's. The journey is different for everybody, but definitely thank goodness for your dad to kind of plant that seed where you, you backed out. Everything really does happen. Happen for a reason.
Speaker 1:For sure.
Speaker 2:I have. I just want to like read this.
Speaker 1:Yes, back to the black box, the black box.
Speaker 2:So in October 2021, the FDA required that breast implant materials for patients and physicians include a black box warning To communicate the risks associated with breast implants. The warning informs patients that here we go. Breast implants are not considered lifetime devices. The risk of complications increase over time. Some complications may require additional surgery. Textured breast implants have been linked to breast implant-associated large cell lymphoma, a rare type of immune system cancer. Here we go. The warning also explains some of the symptoms patients have experienced. Experienced such as fatigue, joint pain, brain fog and memory loss. And again, that's just a very small amount of like what birth?
Speaker 1:control, where it's like pages and pages and pages long, and you know, these are two very I feel like it's a very similar things, like our generation was given birth control Like it was M&Ms, and I feel like same thing. Breast implants were pushed in the media in shows that we watched. All of the celebrities that we were watching had them, but we weren't really's like oh, it's safe, but like how safe if these warning labels are here, although to add that in 21 yeah, I know, that's crazy like it took that long yep, it took that long to get that kind of warning on there like why didn't we have those studies before all of this happened?
Speaker 1:and you know not to go off on a tangent, but here I go. It leads me to question all of these like botox and fillers, like these things aren't safe, that we're injecting into our face, like we don't have these studies. So what's going to happen in the next 10 years about warnings about about these things that we're injecting into our face, like yep 100 million percent.
Speaker 2:I question that all the time after going through this journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I question everything at this point, but especially anything that big pharma is pushing. But that's the thing. It's like they're creating patients for life, so like if they put these breast implants in you, they tell you that they're healthy, but then you have all these autoimmune issues that pop up. They got you for life. They got you for life because now they're, you know, prescribing whatever to keep you normal or stable during this time when all they could do is like, oh, take the implants out and now you don't need all these medications.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's I don't know. I just keep saying wild, it is wild and it's I don't know. I was like I feel like there is so much like I advise people not to Google, but I'm going to advise people to Google. Like, especially in this particular explant journey, if I didn't have Google and Facebook groups, I probably would have not been able to actually explant because I wouldn't have had enough data and I wouldn't have been able to navigate to the right person to be able to safely explant. So, in this particular and even other medical things, like, don't go in the Google loop where you're like obsessive over, like I have this symptom of everything, but for a specific thing, of like this is a big surgery. So, yep, I did go down the Google rabbit hole and the Facebook group rabbit hole and it helped a lot. I know I just kind of like contradicted myself, but I feel like there is a fine line of too much Googling and Googling enough to get you to where you need to be to find the answers.
Speaker 1:Right, because you want to make a decision of this magnitude from a very uh like, strong foundation. You want to be able to be confident in the decision that you're making and when you're going through let's call it what it is major surgery. Like it is important to be confident in the decision that you're making and when you're going through let's call it what it is major surgery like it is important to be completely informed. And just being informed from a doctor that's not, that's not informed consent, like that's not. I'm sorry it's not. That's a biased opinion because, like I said, they're selling big pharma products, they're selling surgeries. So like, yeah, yeah, do your own research, tap into your intuition, like really dig deep and and find out if this is the road that you want to go down yep.
Speaker 2:So an example is of the research and the massive amount of women that are being jumping on board with knowing about breast implant illness. The group that I joined in 2017, I believe, big Facebook group I'm not going to throw the name out there, but big Facebook group, you can just Google it they had maybe 11,000 people in it. The group is now up to like 190,000 women in it. So just to see over the course of that many years and then in that course of the years, a lot of the women that are in it are those trailblazers that are bringing it to DC to lobby about getting the black box warning and getting these stories on the news and media and doing the podcast.
Speaker 2:So it is really because breast implants throughout I think it was like it might've been like the six, four, forties or sixties when they started as like research in this country. Um, but being when you, you think about that, that's still super new. Even anything in the last hundred years, that's like not enough research to be like oh hey, these are totally safe, just go for it and you're gonna have to keep them for life.
Speaker 1:Here you go, like it is definitely something to question and a lot of those studies are skewed Like that's the other thing that we need.
Speaker 2:They're made by the company. Right.
Speaker 1:Who's paying for these? Who's paying for these studies? Like yeah, exactly Like they are skewed. So it is really important to have that informed consent and to go down the research rabbit hole and do research. To go down the research rabbit hole and do research based on, like good resources because there are good resources and bad resources and you kind of have to know the difference. But if you're, if you're informing yourself like that, like you're arming yourself with the best information possible, you're going to make a decision based on that, versus like you know what my 19 year old self could have done.
Speaker 2:Like if I didn't have that research and backing and like just extremely courageous women that like I didn't even know, like seeing them go through their journey, if I didn't have that for the couple of years leading up to the explant, I could have gone with that first doctor saying, oh, I'll take them out and just put a smaller size in, like that could have been the oh, okay, if the doctor says, so, let me do that. So it really is just like researching, so, let me do that. So it really is just like researching having that, um, that community that has been, that has gone through what you're going through, and that that can be in anything, not just explain my friend Kat Parks, who has been on the podcast before too.
Speaker 1:She is a face yoga teacher, so she's very outspoken about the dangers and and side effects of botox and fillers because, again, these are so new, we really don't have long-term studies and something that comes and she's also very vocal. She's in a couple of um private facebook groups too that talk about um women who have had women and men who have had adverse effects from injections, and I think it's just something that needs to be talked about and not shoved under the rug because it's such a layered journey. The reason we're injecting our face with all of these things is because really it's a fear of aging but, like, none of us are escaping it, and I worked at a med spa for a while when I was living in arizona and one thing that I really appreciated that the nurse practitioner would say is like injectables aren't going to make you look younger, you're going to look your age with work, so like, if you have this hang up about like looking young and aging like, your best bet is probably to find a therapist.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that has that has really really stuck with me.
Speaker 1:And again, these are newer technologies and we really don't know the long-term safety on them and I have to wonder this is completely anecdotal and I'm not going to drop any names but a lot of women that I know personally who have had miscarriages have also had injectables. Now, whether or not there's a correlation there, I don't know. Like you said, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist, but if you're looking at this objectively, I don't know, it makes you wonder. And then, to take it a step further, these substances are eventually being metabolized by your liver and your kidneys. Substances are eventually being metabolized by your liver and your kidneys. What are the long term damages that that's doing on the liver and kidneys?
Speaker 1:Because even when injectables first came out, like you know, maybe like, let's say, it's been about 20 years where it really started to come into the mainstream and be used not just on these celebrities and really rich people, where it became accessible for the masses. Women started doing it later in life. They were like maybe in their 50s, 60s, 70s, but now women are doing it as early as their 20s, like early 20s. So if you're doing this through your 20s, through your 30s, your 40s, your 50s, what does that long-term use of these substances look like for metabolizing it in the body?
Speaker 1:Because I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but like it is having an effect on your liver, like it 100 is, and you talk about black box warnings like you are, I mean, if we're just talking about botox, like you are literally injecting yourself with botulism. Like you are paralyzing your muscle and and kat will talk about this. Like you are literally injecting yourself with botulism. Like you are paralyzing your muscle and Kat will talk about this. Like you're actually doing the opposite. Like now you're going to have to keep doing those injectables because you're atrophying muscle, which is actually going to make your fine lines and wrinkles worse if you were to stop doing it. So all of these like beauty practices that we have really glorified and put up on a pedestal, like I think it's time to really look at them and say is this really safe? Is this really safe? Like you know, we talk about the body.
Speaker 1:You know, in in religion, in yoga, we talk about the body being a temple and, like you said, about your grandmother you only have this one body, so you have to take care of it, because if you don't, that's why we're seeing the rise of disease and people are dying younger. And yeah, I don't know it's. It's something that I've been looking at for a while and, um, yeah, I just hope that everyone makes informed decisions for themselves based on real research and real safety studies. Versus, just like I want to look younger, I want to have bigger boobs. Just like I want to look younger, I want to have bigger boobs. I, I mean even talk about bbls, like brazilian butt lifts, the most dangerous elected surgery there is. Like there is such a high mortality rate. Like you really want to chance death to get a bigger ass. Like that To get a bigger butt. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Some serious squats.
Speaker 1:We all need therapy. That's what it is. We don't need squats. We need therapy.
Speaker 2:But seriously like like with doing the right self-care practices, whether it's breath work, which I am a 100 million percent supporter of, whether it's yoga, whether it's sound million percent supporter of whether it's yoga, whether it's sound, whether it's going for a walk by the beach and just getting that peacefully, peaceful state of mind can make a huge difference from the inner.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And sometimes that outer of how you look, how you look to other people, it's just not going to matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean you even put pictures. So I talked about Dr Jess looking like she aged backwards, but you also. I remember when you were first posting about this you put pictures before and after pictures up and your skin, like even dark circles around your eyes, like you, looked like a different person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and now I'm four years out. Of course, I do have some lines under my eyes, but it is what it is Like. We can't reverse. We can't reverse aging. But after the explant I 100% like. I had family members saying what are you doing different? You're glowing differently. And I honestly will say it's two part. I started breath work and I got the breast implants out and I was getting comments what are you doing? You are just glowing, you are, you seem like you're a different person and those two things that happen just in the right, perfect timing. That's what I, what I am owing that to and I have not looked back ever since April of 2020 when I got them out. I have not looked back to be like, oh my God, I miss them. Oh no, I was so happy that they are gone and out of my life and I have the story to share and hopefully inspire others, even if this reaches one person, to have that light bulb moment that would just make me so happy.
Speaker 1:So one thing that you've talked about with me privately but I really want you to touch on here is you were saying that before you had your explant surgery, you couldn't take deep breaths Like you knew that you were always kind of like out of breath. So I want you to talk about that a little bit, because I that was so shocking to me and kind of ties everything together with the breath work, Um so yeah, I felt like I would, was like holding my breath.
Speaker 2:And again I, um, when I had the initial implant surgery when I was in my twenties, I also had facial reconstruction which had to do with my nose and my nasal passageways and breathing, and I think I walked out of both of those surgeries kind of like breath holding all the time, Like I don't know if it was just like a trauma response or whatnot.
Speaker 2:And again I didn't even know what those words meant. Back then I just was like I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine Walking through it all, like life is good. Um, and when I had the explant it felt like this whole thing was just lifted off my chest, off my lungs, and it felt like it was the first time I could ever like actually breathe normally. And I think having breath work be integrated into my life in that couple month timeframe pre and post X plan that just added more value to wow, I was breathing wrong for the past 16 years, like I was holding my breath and just not getting breath in which is high level of stress, high level anxiety, high level of like survival mode, almost Right and then full breath in and you're adding to the cortisol like by not breathing properly.
Speaker 2:you're adding to that cortisol overload and then I had my body fighting these things that were in it for so long, with responses of swollen lymph nodes and whatnot. So it was it was just a wild experience when I realized these things post post surgery, like wow. So it really did feel like I was almost if anyone knew me in my 20s, early 30s, like you didn't really know who I was because I was not an alive person. I felt like a not alive person walking through life and 2020 was the year that I just really like became alive in number one, starting breathwork and number two, getting getting this foreign body that my body was fighting out.
Speaker 1:What did that recovery period look like for you?
Speaker 2:So a lot of women claim oh, within two days I feel great.
Speaker 1:No, I was my recovery Right right, because you just went through major surgery. You probably did you have drains. I did have drains yep.
Speaker 2:Um, I had to go back, I think two weeks later, and I had a fever and they weren't gonna let me in to get the drains out. And they did let me in and I'm like I don't know what's going on. Like they let me in, I was freaking out, um, so the drains did come out. I believe it was like within a week to two weeks after. My recovery by that point was fine. I think they tell you a couple weeks, two, three weeks. You just don't want to like lift your arm over your head, like with a say, like with a gallon of water, like you wouldn't want to do that the initial few weeks. And it's just really being being compassionate and just giving your body what it feels it needs and just do the things that you feel that you can do.
Speaker 2:I was after surgery. I was, I was out for about a week and again it was. It was in that mode of 2020. Where what else was there really to do? So I did definitely take that downtime serious and then, little, then, little by little, by a couple of weeks, couple of weeks out, I was totally back to normal. But again, it's major surgery. You have scars. Scars fade Like if you're afraid of getting a scar, you wouldn't have had the surgery to begin with. So it just no scars fade, and they're part of our story.
Speaker 1:So how did you come? You said you did breath work like right before the surgery and then after the surgery it was like a couple month break, maybe months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so how did you like what?
Speaker 1:was it that was like, oh, I need to do that again, like what brought you back to the practice.
Speaker 2:I think that initial breathwork session that I did was just so wild and not what I was thinking at all. I thought I was going into just like laying on my office floor at home and into like a meditation where I was going to fall asleep. I just had this total like wild out of body experience. Just it just felt so freeing and I really couldn't articulate my first session. All I knew is I needed to do more and I needed more of it in my life and, of course, I was going in for major surgery on my chest where breath work.
Speaker 2:you would not go and do deep belly and chest breaths right after surgery. So I did wait two months and something was like you have to keep this up and I am so happy I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it. You, your life literally took a like a huge pivot because of work and now that's like that's what you do you teach.
Speaker 2:I've facilitated thousands and thousands of people, multiple different states, virtually in person. Yeah, my dream is just to travel around the world and just continue spreading breathwork and breaking free and becoming alive and manifesting those really big dreams to like anyone that wants to participate in it.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's so inspiring. Yeah, and you said you have a retreat coming up. Are there still spaces? Can people still join?
Speaker 2:As of right now, there are two spaces. This is the first one I'm officially doing. It's in Aruba. It's November 2nd to 7th, so there's only two spaces left. My website's, amyshovencom, or the link in my Instagram, which is also amyshoven. If anyone has any questions, I am an open book on my explant journey.
Speaker 1:Feel free to private message me on that, and yeah, and if you're local to Rhode Island, do you have any events?
Speaker 2:coming up. So, coming up, I do have events in Garden City at Aaron Anchor, and then I have not released my fall schedule yet, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of events coming up in the fall fall schedule yet, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of events coming up in the fall.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that. Yeah, I'm so glad you came back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I am too. This is. This is something that for. I mean, it's been four years since my explant. This is something that I'm like. I've done posts here and there. I have not actually done too much using my voice in a couple of years and I just think it's a really important message for those that are ready to hear it. Yes, even if it's not breast implant, um explant, um even if it's other surgeries or other things that they're in search for, I think that this could be informative on many, many different levels.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree. Or just being like me, of like being informed about this now and being like there's a reason it didn't. It didn't work out that way for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's like, as long as you're human here on this planet, you have a mother, you have a you. You could potentially have a mother that is still here, sister on, and someone in your life that's going through medical stuff that might not have that light bulb moment and you might just be like my aunt that had me have that light bulb moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and she didn't know what that was going to do for you. So, like, how powerful is that that she was called to like because you could have taken that a completely other way Like you're overstepping, it could have been like a tumultuous thing, but like to be open about it and for her to just be like okay, I'm going to share this, to be open about it and for her to just be like, okay, I'm gonna share this and however it's received, it's received. Like that is that's that's powerful stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was definitely received at the right moment in time yes, yeah, because I mean, I know me.
Speaker 1:I would have been like what the fuck are you talking about? Like please mind your business. Yep, especially, especially at Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it might have actually been one of my thoughts, but then when I did click and read the article like I was like Whoa, it just opened up a whole new pocket of research for me.
Speaker 1:That's pretty crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for being here, for coming on again. If you haven't listened to amy's other episodes, you can click uh back to I don't know like a couple weeks ago now, maybe like april. You were on this year, um, and then last season as well, in like march of 2023, which feels like so long ago, um, and if you want to connect with amy, I can link it in the show notes for you. Amy, thank you so much for being on and for sharing so candidly, because this, uh, this is something that's somewhat of a sensitive topic and, like you said, it is courageous to come out and and talk about this and kind of go against the mainstream narrative. So I appreciate you being so candid and open about your journey and your experience and, yeah, I'm just so grateful that you decided to come on here and share it with us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and thank you so much for having this platform to be able to share.
Speaker 1:Oh, of course.
Speaker 1:This is like my life's work.
Speaker 1:This is what I feel like I've really been like meant to do, meant to bring here, and I've said this like pretty much on every podcast this season.
Speaker 1:But the people who, my guests that come on this podcast, they really are out here like walking the walk and talking the talk and their pillar is in this community of like pushing this forward, because I think that it's so important to not just talk about it but to be about it, and every single person that has been on this podcast are really amazing humans that are there being about it. They're being the change that they wish to see and I just love giving them a platform to share that, because I think so many are seeking answers and and they want to tap into their intuition and be a little bit more connected and to work on their body, mind and spirit relationship, and there's just a bunch of amazing humans on this podcast that are doing just that. So I appreciate you coming on. Thank you so much. Thank you all for listening. If you liked this episode, please like, subscribe, share, share it with someone you love that might need to hear it. Thank you for being here and I will see you next time.