November 10, 2021 • 48 mins
Kristin Nobles of the podcast Close to the Chest joins us to discuss Breast Implant Illness (BII), the issues, misinformation, and progress around it, and the power of art and supportive women.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
I've never told your production of I Heart Radio, and
today we are so so so excited to be joined
by Kristin Nobles of the new podcast Close to the Chest. Hi, Kristen,
(00:27):
Hi both of you. This is incredible. Thank you, thank
you so much for being here. I'm talking, Lie. I'm
sitting here staring at your background. I'm like, is that
tu Buck? It is? And I'm I'm an artist, so
oh this is this your world? It's amazing. I love that.
So sorry. I had a moment I'm sitting here talking
and I'm like, wait, yeah, see I looked at the
art beforehand, and there's some Carrie Fisher art. A huge
(00:53):
Carrie Fisher fan. This is very exciting for me. Yeah,
well we were. We're sending it to you because we're
doing actually the she wrote collection. And I have a
dog named Leia after Princess Leiah, so oh my god,
you're speaking her language. You are never going to forget
this moment if you were to get to Oh my goodness,
(01:14):
I like literally waping my hands at my cheek right now.
I'm so excited at this prospect um. So yes, We're
very excited to have you. Thank you for joining us
from California, uh to Urany, Atlanta in our home podcast studios. So, Kristen,
could you tell the listeners a little about yourself and
(01:36):
the show. Well, the short version is I was sick
for over twenty plus years. I had debilitating illnesses from
you know, inability to digest food, to epilepsy and all
sorts of strange symptoms that I found out came from
a reaction my body was having to breast implants, so
(01:57):
my heart stopped twice. I was losing organs limb. It
was pretty unbelievable, and that's kind of how the art
came into play, because it was a way to deal
with my pain and just something you can do at
home without freaking other people out. And about three years ago,
a doctor came in and said to me, and I
see you. I was suffering from a terrible brain infection
and she said she believed I was having an immune
(02:18):
response to implants. This was something they were just really
starting to understand more about, but was not even like
a formal medical disease yet. So we ended up doing
a surgery. I unfortunately chose to do something called to
swap out and I found out later that was the
wrong twice, and I went from horribly sick to almost dead.
(02:40):
And I went to a good friend of mine, Christine Torres,
who we have a lot like you guys, and just
really went to her as a former prosecutor, and said,
how did this happen? What can we do? And she
had turned filmmaker, and long story short, we decided to
create Close to the Chest because they were starting to
recognize b I I, but I didn't want women to
(03:00):
take that left turn into the wrong treatment in protocol
like I had, and I really wanted to create kind
of a resource guide when it started for women to
be able to no matter where you were at, if
you just found out or if you were a post explant,
to get real facts because there was a lot of
you know, quote fake news out there on the issue.
And as we learned more, I started to meet hundreds,
(03:21):
if not thousands of women that were not only going
through this, but there was not real coverage financially for it.
So then I got piste off and passionate about using
it as a platform to build some sort of a
program to help women. So we started the podcast We're
halfway through the season, and she has been incredible to
be part of this and help me really research and
(03:42):
understand it and attack the problem, not the people. And
I'm proud to report we're meeting incredible advocates, doctors, you know, survivors,
drivers in recently. Last week, the FDA created a warning
that will be issued to women, so hopefully it's working.
Oh wow, so it was you've been just last weight
there now just approved to put that warning. That's oh
(04:06):
my god, that's infuriating. And you said b I I.
So that stands for breast implant illness. Correct. Yes, Like
we talked about at the beginning with names. When I
first put I am b I I on LinkedIn and everywhere,
I got all sorts of pride stuff because they thought
I came out of No, I'm not that exciting, I wish.
(04:29):
So how long did it take you to get actual diagnosis?
And then you said that when they were talking to
you about it was fairly new. So how long did
this process did it actually take for you to get
this diagnosis? Twenty one years? Wow? Until then you were
just going through testing after testing trying to figure out
so they were pretty much just figuring out symptoms rather
(04:49):
than the actual problem. Yeah, and it was creating permanent disease,
you know, affects in the body. So it became very
much my I would walk into the offices and it's
my diagnostic and then they look at me and they'd
be like, you're walking or you're this because you end
up with so many issues or misdiagnosis. Is So when
they finally came to me and said this is the problem.
(05:12):
At that time, they also really were just starting to
understand what to do because there was this dogma that
breast implants are completely safe. These plastic surgeons were being
taught that there's no way this was really happening to me.
So when ender chronology and oncology was saying this in
rheumatology and all my other allergy dudes and ladies, plastic
surgery was saying uh. And so that was the real
(05:33):
battle was to find It took me a long time
to find the right doctor to offer me the right treatment,
and it ended up being a hand surgeon. Wow, that's incredible. Also,
you said swap out. Can you explain what that is too?
I am very much a novice in this whole world
and so I'm like, I need to know what this is.
So what exactly is a swapout? So about ten years ago,
(05:54):
Allergant identified that certain breast implants could cause cancer. So
the f d A did a voluntary recall with them,
I believe it's what they called it. So they issued
an offer where they would give you new implants in
towards your surgery that costs much more than that, and
they called it a swap out, but with that you
would waive any future rights. So I did not take
(06:16):
Allergan's money to do the swap out, but I did
talk to a doctor who was like, no, no, it
was just those these are new and improved. And that
was a really terrible mistake because if I had not
done that, I'd probably still have both my hips, you know,
I wouldn't have some of the permanent damage that happened
from that point forward. Oh my gosh, that sounds like
(06:38):
the beginning of lawsuit movies, one of those. I'm sorry. Well,
you have been called the Air and Rocket bits of boobs, right,
you have a document going on about this, so it
really is. What's fascinating is I was in the film
business last you know, I was lucky to have really
amazing people around me who actually I didn't want to
make We're an impact production company, and I joked that,
(07:01):
you know, I didn't want to be out there talking
about my breasts. And I started to share this and
people were shocked. And then with Christine Torres, the co
host of the show, we were really looking at this
from a you know, documentary industry issue, you know, freakonomics
standpoint of how did this perfect storm happen? And then
(07:21):
I met through the podcast this woman, Sibyl gold Rich,
and I watched Two Small Voices, which was done twenty
years ago because she won the Dow implant case. And
when I met Sybil, I felt a responsibility to carry
the torch into honor her sacrifice and what they accomplished
in in meeting the attorney on the class action suit
(07:42):
that we filed, like the most important thing for us
not to go on and on was to give people
this full disclosure as to the risks and to get
plastic surgeons to really understand and if a documentary, a
podcast meeting other women, you know, however, they get the
quote proof they need. That's where we started to be compassionate.
So I joke. I'll talk about my boobs in any format. Yes,
(08:07):
And um, you're so open on your site and in
the material you create, which is it's really really moving
and we're going to get into two some of those
things that you've tackled in a minute. But um, just
to step back, I feel like it's maybe not obvious
is the right word, but we've been pretty clear what
it is. But could you talk about what breast implant
(08:30):
illness is exactly? Absolutely? So you know, the way I
explain it in non medical legal terms is that you
know your body is having an autoimmune response to these implants,
which can convert eventually into cancer. So a lot of
people hear about B I, A, L C L, which
they think is the worst part, but what's really important
(08:51):
as breast implant illness is identified as a group of symptoms,
which I posted the other day, and I was like,
what if you had these hundred symptoms, what would you do?
That's and unfortunately, for a long time they were able
to say, you know, it's because you're older. Oh, it's
because you're you know, you have this underlying condition. But
what started to become predominant in the communication of other
(09:12):
women on Facebook and Instagram and other platforms. Was yes,
there was this group of symptoms, but there was also
this commonality of implants. And then what they're starting to
realize now it's not you know, silicone isn't every implant.
So the other big misunderstanding was, oh, my implants are sailing.
This can't be what's causing it, and doctors saline, we're safe.
(09:33):
And it's really important to understand that all implants are
encased in silicone and a lot of other toxic chemicals,
and then what's inside it varies, but they're seeing evidence
of b I I in both silicone gel filled and
sailing filled implants, texturized or non texturized, which that's a
whole other gross conversation. And what's happening is women are
(09:54):
getting everything from fatigue, weight gain, their hair falling out,
losing their vision, headaches, migraine, seizure, diarrhea, quoating, like the
list goes on and on, and then many times they're
diagnosed by either their endercnologists, a rheumatologist, or an integrated
medicine doctor who's been able to do what we call
a process of elimination and do every known medical test
(10:16):
they can to rule out every possible cause that they
know of other than your implants. So by the time
they get diagnosed, god knows what they've spent in son.
Right now, what's exciting is the Plastic Surgery Association and
the FDA and other you know, stakeholders are trying to
work together to create a protocol in a process to
treat us. But there's still really not even a way
(10:38):
to define the disease or put it in to get
it covered by insurance, because it still doesn't have its
insurance I dcode right, there's a lot of impactors in that.
One of the things that I was interested in when
I was um researching this beforehand was you you were
talking about kind of your the difference between like a
(11:01):
cosmetic surgeon or a plastic surgeon versus an actual doctor,
and sort of the attitude behind it. That's almost like
trying to sell you something. I don't know if you
could expound on your thoughts around that absolutely. I recently
wrote a letter to a major hospital with a recording
(11:21):
of a plastic surgeon telling me that I do not
have b I. I that it could not exist, and
when I explained I was diagnosed in his practice by
his colleague and treated by him. Then he pivoted and said, oh,
I mean it does exist, but now you're fine because
you got new implants. And then I said, no, no,
these are recalled him. We're not fine. And it ended
(11:42):
up being this moment where it was like my rise up.
That's where I got really mad. And this was over
a year ago, and it delayed my healing. And what
I found most interesting is instead of him being apologetic
or wanting the information or wanting to understand this, it
was almost as if he felt he had to protect
his practice, his business, his colleague, and it became very personal.
(12:04):
And when I talked to many women, it's in their families.
It's that attitude that can be the cliff for many
women because we're raised not to question that, you know,
do what the doctor tells you. And then also when
I really committed to going out and finding another doctor,
I met with several people and got the range of
(12:26):
you know, people like him, two people offering me other
procedures that were fifty to a hundred thousand dollars, and
then their assistance trying to give me financing options from
getting a boyfriend to borrowing against my assets. So I
talk you with you' getting a boyfriend as a financial assistance?
(12:48):
That's interesting. Don't you ask someone who can happy? Like
you don't get no man? You want to invest in this?
It's like a car a lot or just like what
do I have to do to set you up with
a man? Exactly? Well, that sounds a lot like as
we've talked about before on the show, when just women
in general are not believed and then therefore they're just
(13:11):
dismissed altogether. And I can't imagine what that would look
like when it comes to especially as the stigma with
plastic surgery and and brest them plants, like how many
battles and uphill like moments where you're like, this is enough.
I've had enough because I couldn't imagine this. Okay. So
I live in Los Angeles and I've spent a lot
of time in this one hospital, and this doctor came
(13:31):
in and not from New York, right, so I gotta
and he's telling me you just want drugs, it's you're fine,
and I'm literally like having seizures and projectile vomiting and
I'm probably not okay. So I looked him up on
social media and I was like you'll never surf again.
And I met because I was going to go block
him out at trestles right the security and security came
(13:54):
in and I was just crying. And it was interesting
because that security guard or the nurse, you know, they
really just they got to know me. They spent a
lot of time with you. And another time, my daughter
I was again seizing and I would have a weird
reaction to other medicine, and I remember waking up and
seeing my daughter just in tears, probably aren't twelve years old,
(14:15):
talking to a doctor and she was winning, which I
was impressed, but tragically sad. And I remember thinking at
that moment in my head, like, you know what, if
I'm just gone, she can go back to me and
a kid. You know this, this and this, and so
I think for a lot of us, we have moments
where we start to question our worth, our value and
the burden because you know it lasts forever. And then
(14:40):
you just somehow, through like the right support system around
me and a great doctor I had for ten years
as a primary, she just didn't quit and they checked in,
and so my friends created a safe space, and then
we started to make jokes about it. So I have
like my brand sick Ditties, because you know, it's hard
to talk about and like you said in a podcast
I listened to recently, laughing about it because it's so hard,
(15:03):
became easier and I made a lot of friends. You know,
some of the nurses and doctors that did defend me
are you know, really close friends and resources. And I
just kept hearing my mom say, you know, not everybody's
it's the golden rule, you know, treat people how you
want to be treated, attacked the problem, not the people,
and fight. And so I think through meeting other women,
I have found my fight. That's yeah. I love seeing
(15:27):
other women supporting other women. UM. I do think that's
incredibly powerful. One of the things, as you mentioned, like
(15:49):
the f d A is only just kind of released
something about this um and then on your site you
have a link to to some numbers and statistics around
all of this. I mean, do you have kind of
a understanding of how many people are impacted by this,
because you're also there's a lot of misinformation as well.
Are people who are not getting the diagnosis? Absolutely, And
(16:12):
you know we talk in the community and activists about
there's really three ways to stop this one is education,
and I think through this site in social media, I'm
grateful to get messages from girls who in women who
really read this in an eighteen to sixty five can
understand the financial, emotional, and physical impact this can have
in frankly investor capital in other ways, right like they
(16:34):
can invest in themselves in such different ways. Or you know, Second,
is this full disclosure plastic surgence being required to identify
this disease as a potential outcome for women in education?
I can tell you that in the community to destigmatize this,
I don't care if you've got the implans for breast
cancer or you wanted to be Pamela Anderson. The reality
(16:55):
is we were not told this information and I think shame, guilt,
and fear has been used a lot to really keep
the third thing, which is women get implants every year.
You know it's going to continue to happen. Breast cancer
centers offer these implants as a solution. And so what's
most important for me and the community is there's millions
of people suffering and never once has someone contacted me
(17:18):
and said it's not me and you know I don't
have this, you're crazy. And if they come back to
the community. The community doesn't punish them, they welcome them.
Because this isn't you know, anything other than this perfect
storm of manufacturers not being required to tell information, plastic
surgeons being courted and sold details in a business that's
(17:39):
really profitable, and women wanting to buy into this perception
of beauty unfortunately, and that's changing. And I think through
the advocates and the women that share their stories. I joke,
that's your full disclosure. Like you google hashtag b I
I and start to see thousands, if not now millions
of women stepping been saying this happened to me. It's facts,
(18:03):
mm hmm. And one of the things you touched on earlier,
and you've been very open about that, I found very
very upseting, Like there's no insurance code for it, right,
and it is extremely costly, like the whole all of it. Yes,
could you go into that a little bit. Yeah, And ironically,
(18:24):
I have a certificate and impact finance from MEW. I've
managed investment funds and financing this treatment has been the
hardest thing in my life. It's nearly bankrupted me um
At times I wasn't sure what to do, and so
for the average woman, the diagnostic process can range from
ten thousand to hundreds of thousands, depending on the course
(18:45):
they take, because there's summer eyes, colonoscopies, et cetera. And
with insurance. Recently, I've been invited by a company to
join a patient advocacy board and talk about the fact
that providing the fourteen to thirty four thousand dollars to
remove breasts and potentially reconstruct them in a safe way
is so much better than keeping someone sick for ten years.
(19:07):
And so when we started to look at the economic impact,
also there are insurance companies that will now refund the money.
Insurance companies are now taking them out under other codes,
so like back pain, you know, masses because like people
have CIST. So thank god mine was recently covered by insurance.
My last procedure cost my thousand, six twenty eight dollars.
(19:30):
That is a lot of money. And for women out there,
they carry so much shame because they don't want to
put their families through that. They don't want to take
money out of their kids tuition and other people finance
putting them in. So there are programs where you can
go into debt to get boobs, but you can't go
into debt to get them out, and I don't think
that's right, and we've been searching for a partner to
(19:51):
help us fix that because economically and as women, you know,
we tend to feel like we want to self sacrifice.
That's what makes us a good mother. And the longer
we wait to have this procedure, the more damage that
happens to your body and you lose valuable healing time.
And so from a finance standpoint, insurance companies are motivated
now to treat this as more data comes in and
(20:13):
we eventually get peer reviewed studies. But until then, you know,
I've seen women do such creative, cool stuff to raise money.
I had a Kickstarter once and I went to a
meeting and a guy's like, you're here to finance a company,
but you're raising money for boobs. And I have looked
at him and I was like, I'm raising money for
lots of boobs, but and so he really kind of
(20:34):
judged me. But then I talked to him and later
he's like, oh, Tony, because it's about education, Nobody really,
you know, understands this. And like you've talked about a
lot on your show, is there certain things that are
so hard to talk about. And you know, I was
at parties before the pandemic, obviously, but grabbing. You know,
we were touching each other's boobs at parties during the
(20:55):
me too movement, trying to figure out like do you
have them? Do you have them? And speacame very quickly
a conversation that through you know, social media and such
honesty where now three years later, people are talking about
this a lot, and people are curious versus judgmental, which
is nice. I mean, I still get those posts where
(21:16):
I did this to myself go away, but I just
you know, we want to educate, we want to empower people, right, Yeah,
that's so infuriating, just to know that it's a blame
game when you're absolutely correct. I did not know of
these implications. I've heard one or two cases of things
going wrong, but essentially being told it's safe, it's safe,
(21:37):
They've gone through years of procedures and they know what
they're doing. Now these products are FDA approved, literally being
told that throughout my life, not that I could afford
any of those things, but just as an outsider, that's
what I knew of it. And then being stigmatized because
your body is like, no, this is not good. They
lied to us, and they made so much money off
of this, and now I want to save face and
(22:00):
not wanting to come back and be like, oh, this
is problematic. We need to care for them and take
care of that. And I'm wondering in the back of
my head of like how many women were misdiagnosed, died
and never knew this was the complication because so many
other things were being said or told to them, and
or that shame factor of like it took so long
for people to accept the fact that this is about
a woman's self esteem and if they want to do it, great,
(22:23):
This is not about you, this is her body. But
then coming back to be like, yeah, but you lied,
the the creators lie, or they didn't know they were wrong.
Now it's times for them to face the facts and
needs to be corrected instead of having a moment of
being supported being told well, sorry, you're a woman who
was vain about this and this is your fault. Even
though there's so many out there who absolutely advocate for
(22:46):
these things and or get to see the effects. And
a lot of times I've seen where women are manipulated
into going into these types of surgeries as well. There's
so many avenues of why, but yet the women are
mainly shamed point blank, and I could not. I just
want to throw something right now. Well, and here's the
thing on that note, the education, the impulse is like
(23:07):
I got these at twenty five years old. What the
hell did I know? I was at lunch with a
hot model fresh off a bad divorce with a baby,
and I was raised nobody wants that, so I thought, Okay,
I'll get boobs that'll fix everything. I didn't even think about,
Like they're going to rip my chest off and shove
some toxic ax under my muscle and we're gonna hope
for the best. She was in Cosmo, this doctor. I
(23:29):
trusted her and she didn't know. And so when through
the process, you're right, And then the anger. What I
found is the women that are advocating and lobbying for
things like the Medical Device Safety Act, the full disclosure
laws that are being passed, the f d A actually
taking meetings with women to say, okay, you're not hysterical.
But there's also a book by a friend of mine
(23:50):
who I don't want to cry, but she died, and
the book is called you know, a mother's nightmare dealing
with breast and plant illness and the opiate crisis, because
a lot of these them and fell down the pathological
whole of we're going to treat her pain, her symptoms,
and then we're going to label her with fibro mayalgia,
drug seeking, We're going to make sure that she's a
(24:12):
frequent flyer, you know, all these terms, and then eventually
social work and all these other areas get involved because
as a mom, a woman, a sister, a grandmother, you know,
all that hat you wear. And I do think it
was really important when Sybil Goldrich did what she did.
She and another woman did amazing things to really take
on dout to ask these questions. But what happened was
(24:36):
there was never follow up on these peer reviewed studies.
And so the only way to be the change we
need to see is to show them the studies. Go
look at Instagram and now I think what's happening is
this conversation and women speaking up. I joke, they're all
a little you know, we're like Helen ready, it's hear
me roar. And it's so empowering because their teachers, real
estate agents, nurses, doctors, you know, everyday women and celebrities
(25:01):
and thought leaders that are all coming together and there's
no racial you know, spectrum, it's every type of woman
out there, and that's the change. And then also there's
plastic surgeons that are now saying, you know what, I'm
going to lead this change, and those people need to
be recognized because imagine what their conferences are like, Yes, well,
(25:21):
I did want to ask the plastic surgeant that you
actually got them to change their tune to be like okay, okay,
we we do uh have they changed their practices at all?
As in like informing So what's interesting is I the
one who wouldn't treat me. I was able to get
the CEO of that hospital's email and I sent him
(25:42):
the recording. I filed a complaint and I reported my
adverse event directly to the f d A working with
patient affairs within the hospital. I wrote a letter recently
that I would, you know, pay to take all these
surgeons to dinner just to tell them this is real.
Meet me, Hi, I have this, and here's a thousand
other ladies that like to talk to you and men.
But until then, I think what's going to mandate real
(26:04):
change is losing business women, you know, speaking up for
each other. And what I requested in my most recent
letter was tell the truth because you are a teaching
hospital and I think as other surgeons are stepping up,
they have whole practices dedicated to this. I've interviewed some
incredible doctors on the podcast and they're putting their foot down,
(26:27):
as is the Plastic Surgery Association. They really included B
I I this year in their conference, and so we're
starting to see change. And I think the most common
thing with all of us is see we're not crazy, right,
Like that's my next T shirt one me just believe us,
thank you and know that you know, hysterical women is no,
(26:50):
it's not a thing. We don't wake up in the
morning and want to be crazy, right, you make me
that way. That's I mean, there's so many things on
there that they just are so infuriating and upsetting and
that we have talked about. But yeah, like not believing women,
not believing women's pain, are dismissing it. It's clear like
(27:12):
women are seen as like not a priority and if
it's there it's a women's issues, then we don't have
to deal with it. But we love stories of women
supporting women in like finding that community and then being
able to make change in that way. Can you talk
about the community you found and maybe any like common
threads that you've heard or anything that's really brought you together. Absolutely.
(27:36):
I got a message from Maria Dmitro, who is on
the podcast and done such incredible work. Um, she's with
a company that has a technology solution that will allow
us to track our implants or any device I've learned,
like my new hips and my other things. But she
sent me a message the day we got the announcement
from the f d A, and I know in my
(27:56):
head there were women in dorm rooms to board rooms
to you know, their rocking chairs, just taking that deep breath.
And she messaged me and you know, she asked, did
you ever think we would be part of something that
would change the world? And and and knowing her the years
I have, I wrote her back and said, excuse my
French because they're strong, you know, from Eden Sassoon, who
(28:19):
has been such a supporter, and she comes out of
the beauty industry to stand up and say, if you
know these don't feel good, I don't look good, get
them out of you too. You know. The Reverend t
Towanna Davis, who we interviewed who's incredible and what she
talked about. To Christine Handy who's a cancer advocate and
a b II survivor and is changing the breast cancer
space to educate women. The common thread with each of
(28:41):
them is they believe in right. They believe in you know,
fixing this injustice, and they are attacking the problem, not
the people. And they're coming at this in a way
where you know, Maria calls it a gymnastics team and
you know, to lobby, to educate, to post, to empower.
What I love about this community is it's never one
but a competition. It's been you know, you're good at this,
(29:03):
you're good at that. How do we advocate here? How
do we find this person? How do we get to
that person? And they're determined and they don't quit in there,
you know, doing this on their dying, which is impressive
to me. You know, they're investing in saving other people
and making sure that people know that. Maybe it's your implants,
but here's the process you take and here's someone you
(29:25):
can rely on that can give you directions because she's
done it. I love it. I love that so in
being a part of this, you know, changing the world
and seeing some things slowly change. Is there anything else
that you all are targeting that we should keep an
eye on. Um my colegislation wise, are just information wise.
(29:46):
So I've been working. One of the big misnomers in
this disease and in the world is, you know, people
mistaking sickness with an appearance versus a feeling. And a
lot of times we hear in the community, I don't
care you know which of my nineteen diseases I have.
Now you know, the common thing is you don't look sick.
And so the idea of this is sick in humanizing
(30:07):
what women go through and you know, creating something that
I you know, have a working title on called the
Ability Fund, And we need to dis disability and we
need to really bring awareness through events, campaign social media
posts that this is sick. These are the human beings
that are suffering, and as you both know, here are
the real world problems they face. There's a big misnomer
(30:28):
that when we get sick, we just rest. Well, who'll
pay your rent, who walks your docs, who brings you groceries?
How do you make money? Right? And so the entrepreneurship
within the industry of women who have become in the
solution space is key, but creating a platform and a
place for them to safely share their stories, to protect
their identities. And then what I hope happens is that
(30:49):
the class of legal action opens up beyond the cancer
class but into women with breast implant illness and they
have the right to sue for the damage that was
done to their body by that odd immune disease. And
that's when I will feel that the manufacturers will be
held accountable, the doctors will have to acknowledge and treat this.
And the last thing is that will stop this gridlock
(31:11):
and innovation because the women we deserve to be reconstructed.
We deserve to have options. But if you're settling on
this is the standard, then we're not going to get there.
So my hope is that by getting peer reviewed studies,
providing the FDA with data, and opening up the class,
the manufacturers are going to have to say, you know what,
we're going to doll with this out, bankrupt ourselves and
(31:34):
we're gone, because that's when things will change. But until then,
it's all about education and finding fun ways. Like you guys,
do to speak up and speak out and maybe get
people's attention in the format they weren't looking for it.
So if you come to one of our fashion shows
and see all the women are actually just say, you know,
in your mind disabled, but they're beautiful, We've may change.
And I think you know, not dismissing women as looking
(31:57):
fine when they feel like crap. I mean, that's such
a pressure to rights as women to not like calls
problems or rock the boat. Is you want to present
this image of no, I'm fine, it's fine, even though
it's not fine right, as well as the fact that
we talked about the pandemic, like they're not allowed to
(32:20):
be sick, as you said, like we have to keep going.
We whether you're being a mother and so you still
have to raise a child, you still have to feed
them as well as yourself as well as take care
of the house well, make sure that bills are paid.
And you don't have time to pause and even if
you do look okay, why are people judging you saying
you're not sick enough? Excuse me, excuse me? Why are
you the judge of how sick I am? It's a
(32:41):
well and I this is not statistically necessary, but like
a lot of women that I know have a pretty
high threshold for pain in general, and because they have
to maintain like, it's not because they want to, it's
because they have to. Point blank, I'll tell you a secret.
Right now, I'm sitting on a heating pad this week.
I yesterday I was told I have a fractured back,
(33:04):
and I go to the spine surgeon at one And
in the work I do and on Instagram sometimes people
will post like she was just at a podcast, now
she's hospital, and I'm like, welcome to sick And the
reality is this sense of purpose and what you said
about pain, you know, I joked that we embraced the
suck to almost the point of instinction. And I've been
(33:27):
reading so much by incredible women that are really looking
to eradicate self sacrifice is this trait of strength, so
you know, the Radical Awakening and all these great books
of No, if you take care of yourself, you're a
strong person. If you treat yourself bad, no, that doesn't
mean you're you know better or stronger or you know, no,
and more lovable, I think is the end result and
(33:51):
the last and then the last thing is this idea
of beauty. I've seen it change to such a positive
space where you being authentically you is it's beautiful, you know,
And especially the men in my life lately have all
come to me and I don't like them anyways, Like
really quickly, how do you post that? Like? Because I
(34:13):
think we you know, we perceive what men and women
think are beautiful versus actually asking people and instead of
going into this you know, marketing concept of beauty, you know,
really looking at sick is a feeling health as a
form of wealth and self preservation as something we do
because we're loving people to ourselves and not selfish. And
(34:48):
you have been practicing art for a while, now, how
did you get into it? You were saying that you
did this as a way of like coping, but how
did you get into it? Because I think one of
the big things that we talked about is, yes, self care,
what do you do for yourself, especially when you feel
like everything he's falling apart? How did you get into art?
Is that part of that process? I joke with my
(35:09):
um now disease mom that I was never an artist
because I didn't want to starve, and then I became
an entrepreneur so now I'm an artist, so I don't
starve UM. And you know, for art with me, I
was a single mom and early on, you know, being
home alone taking care of my daughter after a long
days at work. Art was a form of therapy. I
(35:30):
did it in high school. And then when I started
to have epilepsy UM, I started to have these really
vivid images and experiences. And it was a nurse and
one of the hospitals who encouraged me to paint as
a form of therapy. And I started to realize also,
like you said, it was something I could control. So
I didn't have to get twenty people to produce a
movie or to finance it. I could buy a canvas,
(35:52):
make place of art, put it on the wall, and
it was cool, and it just became, you know, a
real passion of mine. And then I started to meet
and credible artists like you know, Shepherd Fairy and all
these iconic people that were creating pop art that were
changing the world. And so I originally used to joke
that when I was at a party raising money for
a project, I would never introduce myself as an artist
(36:15):
if I introduced myself as an investment banker and I
happened to do art, I was cool. But if I
was the artist, they couldn't think I could do math.
And so that was you know, the dynamic thing, like
they say, left brain, right brain. And it was recently that,
through needing to finance treatment, a friend of mine said,
why don't we drop some of this art and sell
it as a way to raise money, and I, you know,
(36:37):
thought about it. I was really afraid I sucked. Um,
I don't. It's so intimidating to me the art world.
And then I got with the right group of people,
and now I continue to use it as an outlet
to create images of people that inspire me. Um that
I think, you know, are quote noble. And through researching
a lot of the people I paint, I have learned
(36:58):
such inspiring things about you know, the men and women.
And I noticed there was a common theme. You know,
they were all people who overcame injustice, adversity and stood
for something that was really meaningful to them. From you know,
the animal that's a wolf I paint to the owl too,
you know RBG. Those are the really important iconic people.
And I was lucky. So it's been true therapy. But
(37:21):
it was thank God for a nurse who brought me
paint into a hospital room. I think I was there
for twenty two days and I was climbing the walls
and she said that's color. Yeah, for good nurses exactly.
I mean, that's I'm a big proponent of that. You
never know what things, that kind or thing you do
that can really impact someone's life. You really don't, absolutely,
(37:44):
and the nurses are the heroes here. You know, that's
an important thing to bring up. I know obviously both
of your backgrounds, and you know, health care is evolving.
It's a industry that we don't know what we don't know.
And I think what I took away from all of
this is that you can't approach any thing in life
with absolution. There's always going to be unnes And as
(38:04):
we go forward as women sharing and being open and
being vulnerable versus posing and posturing and hiding things, that's
being tough, you know, telling people what's really going on.
That's hard. It's easy to get on Instagram and pretend like,
you know, my three dogs and I are living life.
It's hard to get on there and be like, um,
I just put my pants in the elevator. But people
(38:29):
actually like those stories better. So it's a testimony where
we're headed honesty. I like people appreciate well speaking of
kind of you do. Like we mentioned you've got a
documentary coming out TV, Like, what what is on the
horizon for you? Well, I'm you know, it's interesting because
(38:50):
I made a big change in my company in the
last month and I run Benoble Media Group. We've done
some great projects and we will continue to make some
really cool movie etcetera. But I had started the website
sick Titties dot Com, and I started to see that
what we really needed were three things. You know. One
a way to connect directly with accredited doctors who were
(39:10):
within the protocol that we understand right now to be
working right which is an expan et cetera. Two is
a financial services program to allow women to finance and
grow their business. And then lastly was a way to
host a community that was confidential. Unfortunately, when I opted
in too, you know, pursue my rights legally, I started
(39:33):
to see there were some bad actors that were paid
to come after women to disqualify them from the case.
So what's really important to know is if you quote
identify is having BII not diagnosed identify. So say you
post on your Instagram, I think I have b I
I two years ago, but then you don't think about
it again for a year and it comes out now
(39:55):
that data can be presented to disqualify you with certain
statutes from doing a claim. So I also wanted to
save space to connect women and to allow them to
do things that would help them help each other. So
a store full of great products that these amazing women
are creating, health coaches, and this whole industry of b
(40:15):
I I concierge has emerged, and so I wanted to
create some sort of technology and community to connect patients
with advocates and then lastly lobby and registration. Because from
a technology standpoint, if we have all these women's stories,
it's data they opt in. We can provide that to
the f d A, we can provide that to different
organizations and allow them to see while this is a
(40:37):
quote cluster or a class of women with common themes.
And so what we're now doing is expanding the company
and then through the movie, through the book, and through
you know, any other platform we can get on. We
really want to drive people to this community. And then
also create women driven products that you can buy, to
support people in the industry, to create that connectivity and
(40:59):
you know there's a new you. The last thing I'll
say is that, you know, I always say this is
for my daughter, you know, as a twenty three year
old woman. I want her and her friends to know
that the best thing they can buy is not boobs.
So integrate that safe space, I think is really important. Yeah, yeah,
(41:20):
I mean it's it's it's one of those things. So
many times on this show we'll talk about something or
someone and everything they've done and advocating for themselves and
for their community, and it's like so inspiring, but it's
also so infuriating because like so much work and you're
not really getting paid for it, and it's just like
to be healthy because you were allied to, were not
(41:40):
given the information and it's like on you two to
go to the government and be like, wait, right, there's
a problem here, so that younger people don't do the
same thing right well, And it's it's shocking how hard
it is to tell people that you've had an ingest
this in any capacity, right, It's difficult, And I think
(42:04):
you know, there is a segment of female empowerment and
human empowerment where it should be your body, your choice,
and it should be an educated decision, not the best guess.
And you know that's the future. And I think just
disclosing the cost, like if someone told me I would
have to spend all my money for the rest of
my life to maintain these suckers, I would never have
done it right, right, I mean just in fact, we
(42:28):
also talked about on our show often that there are
things out there it finally comes to the point that
a woman has to say, well, I'll do it myself.
I'll create this myself. I'll do this space myself. And
the fact that you're having to do this is both infuriating,
really encouraging to and inspiring at the same time. Um,
and to see that as you're talking obviously things have
(42:49):
continued to change as you've began this process to today
and talking about how you're having to rearrange like, oh,
I see a need for this, so I'm having to
create this. And it's both encard again and infuriating, but
also knowing that someone is actually fighting and actually working
to make sure people know what's happening out there. And
the mere fact that you have to raise money and
(43:10):
do crafting to be healthy. It makes they have a deep,
deep moment of like Clutiel is going to have their
own at sea someday. And here's the thing, like you know,
my mom, poverty breeds invention. Like you know, action is
intention and you know the Golden rule, and I think
you know out of this will be burst this, you know,
(43:34):
like as you hear, I'm sure right now the impact world,
you know, it's all about impact and sponsoring change. And
what I'm excited to report is that as we're approaching
corporate partners, for instance, I heart I literally wrote an
email that said, let me do a podcast. It will
say women's Life's talk about the kids are killing them
And within seven minutes like out of response, right, And
to have that merge into the producers hopping on, the
(43:56):
marketing team helping us, all the support we've gotten, it's
soalidating that, like you were saying, if people want to
make a difference and if you can help them, help
you help us, then it works. But it's definitely this
attitude of action and change. And that's one thing about
this community. I have yet to meet a woman who
yes they're mad, Yes they recognize ingestice, but they will
(44:17):
not be a victim, and you know that is important.
And I think, you know, and listening to your podcast,
like I listened to the episode about the beer, and
now I know you need to think about where it
comes from, right and educating yourself. So then I wanted
to be here for the sick titties because I was like,
that's me right, exactly, like CBD for it, and you know,
(44:44):
and now I'm exploring all these partners and you know,
I joked with someone last night and I was serious
because I came from the cannabis space and I'm like,
We're gonna have smoking sick titties if it kills me.
Because also, like the alternative medicine side of this and
what I've learned and the education and the companies who
stepped up and really wanted to help, So that part
of this has definitely been inspiring. And then also I'm
(45:06):
forty eight and I get to interact with women of
all generations and I see this really great change in
you know, support and advocacy versus competition and you know
a little bit of cruelty. Yeah, well, that's that's wonderful
to hear I'm glad. I feel like we've kind of
experienced that as well in terms of the people who
(45:27):
are interacting and sort of the general vibe as they say,
towards issues that we bring. Like I feel like several
years ago I would have gotten much angrier response to
certain things we've talked about as compared to now where
people are more like, Okay, yeah, we should talk about this.
I did want to ask do you have any um
resources that you want to shout out for listeners to
(45:49):
to check out? Absolutely, I think it's really important to
go to the f d a site and read what
they're publishing in real time because that's the truth. One
of the important things to know is there are you know,
definitely hashtags you can follow. There's amazing people on social media,
but the FDA is publishing in real time information that's
you know, pretty compelling, and they also give out data
(46:12):
for the recall um. There's a great organization that's working
hard to create a registry called track my Solutions, so
you can look up and see if your implants are recalled.
But the FDA right now is our go to and
when you research their announcement last week and these hearings
that they're holding. The other thing is, you know, share
your story hashtag at brest Implant Illness hashtag at b
(46:33):
II journey, because you're going to start to follow and
connect with other people. And then in most cities right now,
there's a plastic surgeon that's registered on the Plastic Surgery Association.
Go there and look at accredited doctors and doctors that
are part of these panels about rest implant illness, because
those are some of the thought leaders that are publishing things.
(46:55):
And then also ask other patients if you're looking for
a doctor, get referrals, get reviews, and message people online
because women who like what they've experienced post it, but
women who don't like it also post it, and it's
important to reach out to them. Yes, absolutely, thank you
so much Kristen for being with us today having this conversation.
(47:18):
Come back any time. We would love to have you
happy hour. I want to come to Atlanta. We're gonna
do some beer and Carrie Fisher well, I'm not to
have to come to buy one of these Michelle Obama
mugs for sure. I'm like, oh, my collection, I will
send you. I will send you guys some stuff. I mean,
thank you so much, and you know, please continue what
(47:38):
you're doing. Like I listened to the show all the
time and it's so incredible. I'm learning so much in
a fun way. Thank you and you as well. You
as well, Um. And speaking of where can the good
listeners find you? So, I am on Instagram at Kristen
underscore e Nobles and I'm also at sick Titties dot
(47:59):
com which is an ever growing site. And I'm also
on um Facebook under Kristin Nobles and we have a
Facebook support group that's b Noble on b I I yes,
and I always love I have to do this with
podcasts or sometimes you also have a podcast podcast Sister Podcast.
(48:20):
You can also find us on Close to the Chest
with Kristen and Christine and that's on I Heart Apple
or wherever you get your podcasts. Yes, and definitely go
check it out, listeners. Thank you again Kristen for being here.
If you would like contact us, you can or email
us Stephieu Mom and stuff at I hurt media dot com.
You can find us on Instagram and Stuff I've Never
(48:41):
Told You or on Twitter at moms Podcast. Thanks. It's
always to a sup producer, Christina, Thank you and thanks
to you for listening. Someone over toldly distrected I Heart Radio.
For more podcast on my Heart Radio, see on radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
I've never told your production of I Heart Radio, and
today we are so so so excited to be joined
by Kristin Nobles of the new podcast Close to the Chest. Hi, Kristen,
(00:27):
Hi both of you. This is incredible. Thank you, thank
you so much for being here. I'm talking, Lie. I'm
sitting here staring at your background. I'm like, is that
tu Buck? It is? And I'm I'm an artist, so
oh this is this your world? It's amazing. I love that.
So sorry. I had a moment I'm sitting here talking
and I'm like, wait, yeah, see I looked at the
art beforehand, and there's some Carrie Fisher art. A huge
(00:53):
Carrie Fisher fan. This is very exciting for me. Yeah,
well we were. We're sending it to you because we're
doing actually the she wrote collection. And I have a
dog named Leia after Princess Leiah, so oh my god,
you're speaking her language. You are never going to forget
this moment if you were to get to Oh my goodness,
(01:14):
I like literally waping my hands at my cheek right now.
I'm so excited at this prospect um. So yes, We're
very excited to have you. Thank you for joining us
from California, uh to Urany, Atlanta in our home podcast studios. So, Kristen,
could you tell the listeners a little about yourself and
(01:36):
the show. Well, the short version is I was sick
for over twenty plus years. I had debilitating illnesses from
you know, inability to digest food, to epilepsy and all
sorts of strange symptoms that I found out came from
a reaction my body was having to breast implants, so
(01:57):
my heart stopped twice. I was losing organs limb. It
was pretty unbelievable, and that's kind of how the art
came into play, because it was a way to deal
with my pain and just something you can do at
home without freaking other people out. And about three years ago,
a doctor came in and said to me, and I
see you. I was suffering from a terrible brain infection
and she said she believed I was having an immune
(02:18):
response to implants. This was something they were just really
starting to understand more about, but was not even like
a formal medical disease yet. So we ended up doing
a surgery. I unfortunately chose to do something called to
swap out and I found out later that was the
wrong twice, and I went from horribly sick to almost dead.
(02:40):
And I went to a good friend of mine, Christine Torres,
who we have a lot like you guys, and just
really went to her as a former prosecutor, and said,
how did this happen? What can we do? And she
had turned filmmaker, and long story short, we decided to
create Close to the Chest because they were starting to
recognize b I I, but I didn't want women to
(03:00):
take that left turn into the wrong treatment in protocol
like I had, and I really wanted to create kind
of a resource guide when it started for women to
be able to no matter where you were at, if
you just found out or if you were a post explant,
to get real facts because there was a lot of
you know, quote fake news out there on the issue.
And as we learned more, I started to meet hundreds,
(03:21):
if not thousands of women that were not only going
through this, but there was not real coverage financially for it.
So then I got piste off and passionate about using
it as a platform to build some sort of a
program to help women. So we started the podcast We're
halfway through the season, and she has been incredible to
be part of this and help me really research and
(03:42):
understand it and attack the problem, not the people. And
I'm proud to report we're meeting incredible advocates, doctors, you know, survivors,
drivers in recently. Last week, the FDA created a warning
that will be issued to women, so hopefully it's working.
Oh wow, so it was you've been just last weight
there now just approved to put that warning. That's oh
(04:06):
my god, that's infuriating. And you said b I I.
So that stands for breast implant illness. Correct. Yes, Like
we talked about at the beginning with names. When I
first put I am b I I on LinkedIn and everywhere,
I got all sorts of pride stuff because they thought
I came out of No, I'm not that exciting, I wish.
(04:29):
So how long did it take you to get actual diagnosis?
And then you said that when they were talking to
you about it was fairly new. So how long did
this process did it actually take for you to get
this diagnosis? Twenty one years? Wow? Until then you were
just going through testing after testing trying to figure out
so they were pretty much just figuring out symptoms rather
(04:49):
than the actual problem. Yeah, and it was creating permanent disease,
you know, affects in the body. So it became very
much my I would walk into the offices and it's
my diagnostic and then they look at me and they'd
be like, you're walking or you're this because you end
up with so many issues or misdiagnosis. Is So when
they finally came to me and said this is the problem.
(05:12):
At that time, they also really were just starting to
understand what to do because there was this dogma that
breast implants are completely safe. These plastic surgeons were being
taught that there's no way this was really happening to me.
So when ender chronology and oncology was saying this in
rheumatology and all my other allergy dudes and ladies, plastic
surgery was saying uh. And so that was the real
(05:33):
battle was to find It took me a long time
to find the right doctor to offer me the right treatment,
and it ended up being a hand surgeon. Wow, that's incredible. Also,
you said swap out. Can you explain what that is too?
I am very much a novice in this whole world
and so I'm like, I need to know what this is.
So what exactly is a swapout? So about ten years ago,
(05:54):
Allergant identified that certain breast implants could cause cancer. So
the f d A did a voluntary recall with them,
I believe it's what they called it. So they issued
an offer where they would give you new implants in
towards your surgery that costs much more than that, and
they called it a swap out, but with that you
would waive any future rights. So I did not take
(06:16):
Allergan's money to do the swap out, but I did
talk to a doctor who was like, no, no, it
was just those these are new and improved. And that
was a really terrible mistake because if I had not
done that, I'd probably still have both my hips, you know,
I wouldn't have some of the permanent damage that happened
from that point forward. Oh my gosh, that sounds like
(06:38):
the beginning of lawsuit movies, one of those. I'm sorry. Well,
you have been called the Air and Rocket bits of boobs, right,
you have a document going on about this, so it
really is. What's fascinating is I was in the film
business last you know, I was lucky to have really
amazing people around me who actually I didn't want to
make We're an impact production company, and I joked that,
(07:01):
you know, I didn't want to be out there talking
about my breasts. And I started to share this and
people were shocked. And then with Christine Torres, the co
host of the show, we were really looking at this
from a you know, documentary industry issue, you know, freakonomics
standpoint of how did this perfect storm happen? And then
(07:21):
I met through the podcast this woman, Sibyl gold Rich,
and I watched Two Small Voices, which was done twenty
years ago because she won the Dow implant case. And
when I met Sybil, I felt a responsibility to carry
the torch into honor her sacrifice and what they accomplished
in in meeting the attorney on the class action suit
(07:42):
that we filed, like the most important thing for us
not to go on and on was to give people
this full disclosure as to the risks and to get
plastic surgeons to really understand and if a documentary, a
podcast meeting other women, you know, however, they get the
quote proof they need. That's where we started to be compassionate.
So I joke. I'll talk about my boobs in any format. Yes,
(08:07):
And um, you're so open on your site and in
the material you create, which is it's really really moving
and we're going to get into two some of those
things that you've tackled in a minute. But um, just
to step back, I feel like it's maybe not obvious
is the right word, but we've been pretty clear what
it is. But could you talk about what breast implant
(08:30):
illness is exactly? Absolutely? So you know, the way I
explain it in non medical legal terms is that you
know your body is having an autoimmune response to these implants,
which can convert eventually into cancer. So a lot of
people hear about B I, A, L C L, which
they think is the worst part, but what's really important
(08:51):
as breast implant illness is identified as a group of symptoms,
which I posted the other day, and I was like,
what if you had these hundred symptoms, what would you do?
That's and unfortunately, for a long time they were able
to say, you know, it's because you're older. Oh, it's
because you're you know, you have this underlying condition. But
what started to become predominant in the communication of other
(09:12):
women on Facebook and Instagram and other platforms. Was yes,
there was this group of symptoms, but there was also
this commonality of implants. And then what they're starting to
realize now it's not you know, silicone isn't every implant.
So the other big misunderstanding was, oh, my implants are sailing.
This can't be what's causing it, and doctors saline, we're safe.
(09:33):
And it's really important to understand that all implants are
encased in silicone and a lot of other toxic chemicals,
and then what's inside it varies, but they're seeing evidence
of b I I in both silicone gel filled and
sailing filled implants, texturized or non texturized, which that's a
whole other gross conversation. And what's happening is women are
(09:54):
getting everything from fatigue, weight gain, their hair falling out,
losing their vision, headaches, migraine, seizure, diarrhea, quoating, like the
list goes on and on, and then many times they're
diagnosed by either their endercnologists, a rheumatologist, or an integrated
medicine doctor who's been able to do what we call
a process of elimination and do every known medical test
(10:16):
they can to rule out every possible cause that they
know of other than your implants. So by the time
they get diagnosed, god knows what they've spent in son.
Right now, what's exciting is the Plastic Surgery Association and
the FDA and other you know, stakeholders are trying to
work together to create a protocol in a process to
treat us. But there's still really not even a way
(10:38):
to define the disease or put it in to get
it covered by insurance, because it still doesn't have its
insurance I dcode right, there's a lot of impactors in that.
One of the things that I was interested in when
I was um researching this beforehand was you you were
talking about kind of your the difference between like a
(11:01):
cosmetic surgeon or a plastic surgeon versus an actual doctor,
and sort of the attitude behind it. That's almost like
trying to sell you something. I don't know if you
could expound on your thoughts around that absolutely. I recently
wrote a letter to a major hospital with a recording
(11:21):
of a plastic surgeon telling me that I do not
have b I. I that it could not exist, and
when I explained I was diagnosed in his practice by
his colleague and treated by him. Then he pivoted and said, oh,
I mean it does exist, but now you're fine because
you got new implants. And then I said, no, no,
these are recalled him. We're not fine. And it ended
(11:42):
up being this moment where it was like my rise up.
That's where I got really mad. And this was over
a year ago, and it delayed my healing. And what
I found most interesting is instead of him being apologetic
or wanting the information or wanting to understand this, it
was almost as if he felt he had to protect
his practice, his business, his colleague, and it became very personal.
(12:04):
And when I talked to many women, it's in their families.
It's that attitude that can be the cliff for many
women because we're raised not to question that, you know,
do what the doctor tells you. And then also when
I really committed to going out and finding another doctor,
I met with several people and got the range of
(12:26):
you know, people like him, two people offering me other
procedures that were fifty to a hundred thousand dollars, and
then their assistance trying to give me financing options from
getting a boyfriend to borrowing against my assets. So I
talk you with you' getting a boyfriend as a financial assistance?
(12:48):
That's interesting. Don't you ask someone who can happy? Like
you don't get no man? You want to invest in this?
It's like a car a lot or just like what
do I have to do to set you up with
a man? Exactly? Well, that sounds a lot like as
we've talked about before on the show, when just women
in general are not believed and then therefore they're just
(13:11):
dismissed altogether. And I can't imagine what that would look
like when it comes to especially as the stigma with
plastic surgery and and brest them plants, like how many
battles and uphill like moments where you're like, this is enough.
I've had enough because I couldn't imagine this. Okay. So
I live in Los Angeles and I've spent a lot
of time in this one hospital, and this doctor came
(13:31):
in and not from New York, right, so I gotta
and he's telling me you just want drugs, it's you're fine,
and I'm literally like having seizures and projectile vomiting and
I'm probably not okay. So I looked him up on
social media and I was like you'll never surf again.
And I met because I was going to go block
him out at trestles right the security and security came
(13:54):
in and I was just crying. And it was interesting
because that security guard or the nurse, you know, they
really just they got to know me. They spent a
lot of time with you. And another time, my daughter
I was again seizing and I would have a weird
reaction to other medicine, and I remember waking up and
seeing my daughter just in tears, probably aren't twelve years old,
(14:15):
talking to a doctor and she was winning, which I
was impressed, but tragically sad. And I remember thinking at
that moment in my head, like, you know what, if
I'm just gone, she can go back to me and
a kid. You know this, this and this, and so
I think for a lot of us, we have moments
where we start to question our worth, our value and
the burden because you know it lasts forever. And then
(14:40):
you just somehow, through like the right support system around
me and a great doctor I had for ten years
as a primary, she just didn't quit and they checked in,
and so my friends created a safe space, and then
we started to make jokes about it. So I have
like my brand sick Ditties, because you know, it's hard
to talk about and like you said in a podcast
I listened to recently, laughing about it because it's so hard,
(15:03):
became easier and I made a lot of friends. You know,
some of the nurses and doctors that did defend me
are you know, really close friends and resources. And I
just kept hearing my mom say, you know, not everybody's
it's the golden rule, you know, treat people how you
want to be treated, attacked the problem, not the people,
and fight. And so I think through meeting other women,
I have found my fight. That's yeah. I love seeing
(15:27):
other women supporting other women. UM. I do think that's
incredibly powerful. One of the things, as you mentioned, like
(15:49):
the f d A is only just kind of released
something about this um and then on your site you
have a link to to some numbers and statistics around
all of this. I mean, do you have kind of
a understanding of how many people are impacted by this,
because you're also there's a lot of misinformation as well.
Are people who are not getting the diagnosis? Absolutely, And
(16:12):
you know we talk in the community and activists about
there's really three ways to stop this one is education,
and I think through this site in social media, I'm
grateful to get messages from girls who in women who
really read this in an eighteen to sixty five can
understand the financial, emotional, and physical impact this can have
in frankly investor capital in other ways, right like they
(16:34):
can invest in themselves in such different ways. Or you know, Second,
is this full disclosure plastic surgence being required to identify
this disease as a potential outcome for women in education?
I can tell you that in the community to destigmatize this,
I don't care if you've got the implans for breast
cancer or you wanted to be Pamela Anderson. The reality
(16:55):
is we were not told this information and I think shame, guilt,
and fear has been used a lot to really keep
the third thing, which is women get implants every year.
You know it's going to continue to happen. Breast cancer
centers offer these implants as a solution. And so what's
most important for me and the community is there's millions
of people suffering and never once has someone contacted me
(17:18):
and said it's not me and you know I don't
have this, you're crazy. And if they come back to
the community. The community doesn't punish them, they welcome them.
Because this isn't you know, anything other than this perfect
storm of manufacturers not being required to tell information, plastic
surgeons being courted and sold details in a business that's
(17:39):
really profitable, and women wanting to buy into this perception
of beauty unfortunately, and that's changing. And I think through
the advocates and the women that share their stories. I joke,
that's your full disclosure. Like you google hashtag b I
I and start to see thousands, if not now millions
of women stepping been saying this happened to me. It's facts,
(18:03):
mm hmm. And one of the things you touched on earlier,
and you've been very open about that, I found very
very upseting, Like there's no insurance code for it, right,
and it is extremely costly, like the whole all of it. Yes,
could you go into that a little bit. Yeah, And ironically,
(18:24):
I have a certificate and impact finance from MEW. I've
managed investment funds and financing this treatment has been the
hardest thing in my life. It's nearly bankrupted me um
At times I wasn't sure what to do, and so
for the average woman, the diagnostic process can range from
ten thousand to hundreds of thousands, depending on the course
(18:45):
they take, because there's summer eyes, colonoscopies, et cetera. And
with insurance. Recently, I've been invited by a company to
join a patient advocacy board and talk about the fact
that providing the fourteen to thirty four thousand dollars to
remove breasts and potentially reconstruct them in a safe way
is so much better than keeping someone sick for ten years.
(19:07):
And so when we started to look at the economic impact,
also there are insurance companies that will now refund the money.
Insurance companies are now taking them out under other codes,
so like back pain, you know, masses because like people
have CIST. So thank god mine was recently covered by insurance.
My last procedure cost my thousand, six twenty eight dollars.
(19:30):
That is a lot of money. And for women out there,
they carry so much shame because they don't want to
put their families through that. They don't want to take
money out of their kids tuition and other people finance
putting them in. So there are programs where you can
go into debt to get boobs, but you can't go
into debt to get them out, and I don't think
that's right, and we've been searching for a partner to
(19:51):
help us fix that because economically and as women, you know,
we tend to feel like we want to self sacrifice.
That's what makes us a good mother. And the longer
we wait to have this procedure, the more damage that
happens to your body and you lose valuable healing time.
And so from a finance standpoint, insurance companies are motivated
now to treat this as more data comes in and
(20:13):
we eventually get peer reviewed studies. But until then, you know,
I've seen women do such creative, cool stuff to raise money.
I had a Kickstarter once and I went to a
meeting and a guy's like, you're here to finance a company,
but you're raising money for boobs. And I have looked
at him and I was like, I'm raising money for
lots of boobs, but and so he really kind of
(20:34):
judged me. But then I talked to him and later
he's like, oh, Tony, because it's about education, Nobody really,
you know, understands this. And like you've talked about a
lot on your show, is there certain things that are
so hard to talk about. And you know, I was
at parties before the pandemic, obviously, but grabbing. You know,
we were touching each other's boobs at parties during the
(20:55):
me too movement, trying to figure out like do you
have them? Do you have them? And speacame very quickly
a conversation that through you know, social media and such
honesty where now three years later, people are talking about
this a lot, and people are curious versus judgmental, which
is nice. I mean, I still get those posts where
(21:16):
I did this to myself go away, but I just
you know, we want to educate, we want to empower people, right, Yeah,
that's so infuriating, just to know that it's a blame
game when you're absolutely correct. I did not know of
these implications. I've heard one or two cases of things
going wrong, but essentially being told it's safe, it's safe,
(21:37):
They've gone through years of procedures and they know what
they're doing. Now these products are FDA approved, literally being
told that throughout my life, not that I could afford
any of those things, but just as an outsider, that's
what I knew of it. And then being stigmatized because
your body is like, no, this is not good. They
lied to us, and they made so much money off
of this, and now I want to save face and
(22:00):
not wanting to come back and be like, oh, this
is problematic. We need to care for them and take
care of that. And I'm wondering in the back of
my head of like how many women were misdiagnosed, died
and never knew this was the complication because so many
other things were being said or told to them, and
or that shame factor of like it took so long
for people to accept the fact that this is about
a woman's self esteem and if they want to do it, great,
(22:23):
This is not about you, this is her body. But
then coming back to be like, yeah, but you lied,
the the creators lie, or they didn't know they were wrong.
Now it's times for them to face the facts and
needs to be corrected instead of having a moment of
being supported being told well, sorry, you're a woman who
was vain about this and this is your fault. Even
though there's so many out there who absolutely advocate for
(22:46):
these things and or get to see the effects. And
a lot of times I've seen where women are manipulated
into going into these types of surgeries as well. There's
so many avenues of why, but yet the women are
mainly shamed point blank, and I could not. I just
want to throw something right now. Well, and here's the
thing on that note, the education, the impulse is like
(23:07):
I got these at twenty five years old. What the
hell did I know? I was at lunch with a
hot model fresh off a bad divorce with a baby,
and I was raised nobody wants that, so I thought, Okay,
I'll get boobs that'll fix everything. I didn't even think about,
Like they're going to rip my chest off and shove
some toxic ax under my muscle and we're gonna hope
for the best. She was in Cosmo, this doctor. I
(23:29):
trusted her and she didn't know. And so when through
the process, you're right, And then the anger. What I
found is the women that are advocating and lobbying for
things like the Medical Device Safety Act, the full disclosure
laws that are being passed, the f d A actually
taking meetings with women to say, okay, you're not hysterical.
But there's also a book by a friend of mine
(23:50):
who I don't want to cry, but she died, and
the book is called you know, a mother's nightmare dealing
with breast and plant illness and the opiate crisis, because
a lot of these them and fell down the pathological
whole of we're going to treat her pain, her symptoms,
and then we're going to label her with fibro mayalgia,
drug seeking, We're going to make sure that she's a
(24:12):
frequent flyer, you know, all these terms, and then eventually
social work and all these other areas get involved because
as a mom, a woman, a sister, a grandmother, you know,
all that hat you wear. And I do think it
was really important when Sybil Goldrich did what she did.
She and another woman did amazing things to really take
on dout to ask these questions. But what happened was
(24:36):
there was never follow up on these peer reviewed studies.
And so the only way to be the change we
need to see is to show them the studies. Go
look at Instagram and now I think what's happening is
this conversation and women speaking up. I joke, they're all
a little you know, we're like Helen ready, it's hear
me roar. And it's so empowering because their teachers, real
estate agents, nurses, doctors, you know, everyday women and celebrities
(25:01):
and thought leaders that are all coming together and there's
no racial you know, spectrum, it's every type of woman
out there, and that's the change. And then also there's
plastic surgeons that are now saying, you know what, I'm
going to lead this change, and those people need to
be recognized because imagine what their conferences are like, Yes, well,
(25:21):
I did want to ask the plastic surgeant that you
actually got them to change their tune to be like okay, okay,
we we do uh have they changed their practices at all?
As in like informing So what's interesting is I the
one who wouldn't treat me. I was able to get
the CEO of that hospital's email and I sent him
(25:42):
the recording. I filed a complaint and I reported my
adverse event directly to the f d A working with
patient affairs within the hospital. I wrote a letter recently
that I would, you know, pay to take all these
surgeons to dinner just to tell them this is real.
Meet me, Hi, I have this, and here's a thousand
other ladies that like to talk to you and men.
But until then, I think what's going to mandate real
(26:04):
change is losing business women, you know, speaking up for
each other. And what I requested in my most recent
letter was tell the truth because you are a teaching
hospital and I think as other surgeons are stepping up,
they have whole practices dedicated to this. I've interviewed some
incredible doctors on the podcast and they're putting their foot down,
(26:27):
as is the Plastic Surgery Association. They really included B
I I this year in their conference, and so we're
starting to see change. And I think the most common
thing with all of us is see we're not crazy, right,
Like that's my next T shirt one me just believe us,
thank you and know that you know, hysterical women is no,
(26:50):
it's not a thing. We don't wake up in the
morning and want to be crazy, right, you make me
that way. That's I mean, there's so many things on
there that they just are so infuriating and upsetting and
that we have talked about. But yeah, like not believing women,
not believing women's pain, are dismissing it. It's clear like
(27:12):
women are seen as like not a priority and if
it's there it's a women's issues, then we don't have
to deal with it. But we love stories of women
supporting women in like finding that community and then being
able to make change in that way. Can you talk
about the community you found and maybe any like common
threads that you've heard or anything that's really brought you together. Absolutely.
(27:36):
I got a message from Maria Dmitro, who is on
the podcast and done such incredible work. Um, she's with
a company that has a technology solution that will allow
us to track our implants or any device I've learned,
like my new hips and my other things. But she
sent me a message the day we got the announcement
from the f d A, and I know in my
(27:56):
head there were women in dorm rooms to board rooms
to you know, their rocking chairs, just taking that deep breath.
And she messaged me and you know, she asked, did
you ever think we would be part of something that
would change the world? And and and knowing her the years
I have, I wrote her back and said, excuse my
French because they're strong, you know, from Eden Sassoon, who
(28:19):
has been such a supporter, and she comes out of
the beauty industry to stand up and say, if you
know these don't feel good, I don't look good, get
them out of you too. You know. The Reverend t
Towanna Davis, who we interviewed who's incredible and what she
talked about. To Christine Handy who's a cancer advocate and
a b II survivor and is changing the breast cancer
space to educate women. The common thread with each of
(28:41):
them is they believe in right. They believe in you know,
fixing this injustice, and they are attacking the problem, not
the people. And they're coming at this in a way
where you know, Maria calls it a gymnastics team and
you know, to lobby, to educate, to post, to empower.
What I love about this community is it's never one
but a competition. It's been you know, you're good at this,
(29:03):
you're good at that. How do we advocate here? How
do we find this person? How do we get to
that person? And they're determined and they don't quit in there,
you know, doing this on their dying, which is impressive
to me. You know, they're investing in saving other people
and making sure that people know that. Maybe it's your implants,
but here's the process you take and here's someone you
(29:25):
can rely on that can give you directions because she's
done it. I love it. I love that so in
being a part of this, you know, changing the world
and seeing some things slowly change. Is there anything else
that you all are targeting that we should keep an
eye on. Um my colegislation wise, are just information wise.
(29:46):
So I've been working. One of the big misnomers in
this disease and in the world is, you know, people
mistaking sickness with an appearance versus a feeling. And a
lot of times we hear in the community, I don't
care you know which of my nineteen diseases I have.
Now you know, the common thing is you don't look sick.
And so the idea of this is sick in humanizing
(30:07):
what women go through and you know, creating something that
I you know, have a working title on called the
Ability Fund, And we need to dis disability and we
need to really bring awareness through events, campaign social media
posts that this is sick. These are the human beings
that are suffering, and as you both know, here are
the real world problems they face. There's a big misnomer
(30:28):
that when we get sick, we just rest. Well, who'll
pay your rent, who walks your docs, who brings you groceries?
How do you make money? Right? And so the entrepreneurship
within the industry of women who have become in the
solution space is key, but creating a platform and a
place for them to safely share their stories, to protect
their identities. And then what I hope happens is that
(30:49):
the class of legal action opens up beyond the cancer
class but into women with breast implant illness and they
have the right to sue for the damage that was
done to their body by that odd immune disease. And
that's when I will feel that the manufacturers will be
held accountable, the doctors will have to acknowledge and treat this.
And the last thing is that will stop this gridlock
(31:11):
and innovation because the women we deserve to be reconstructed.
We deserve to have options. But if you're settling on
this is the standard, then we're not going to get there.
So my hope is that by getting peer reviewed studies,
providing the FDA with data, and opening up the class,
the manufacturers are going to have to say, you know what,
we're going to doll with this out, bankrupt ourselves and
(31:34):
we're gone, because that's when things will change. But until then,
it's all about education and finding fun ways. Like you guys,
do to speak up and speak out and maybe get
people's attention in the format they weren't looking for it.
So if you come to one of our fashion shows
and see all the women are actually just say, you know,
in your mind disabled, but they're beautiful, We've may change.
And I think you know, not dismissing women as looking
(31:57):
fine when they feel like crap. I mean, that's such
a pressure to rights as women to not like calls
problems or rock the boat. Is you want to present
this image of no, I'm fine, it's fine, even though
it's not fine right, as well as the fact that
we talked about the pandemic, like they're not allowed to
(32:20):
be sick, as you said, like we have to keep going.
We whether you're being a mother and so you still
have to raise a child, you still have to feed
them as well as yourself as well as take care
of the house well, make sure that bills are paid.
And you don't have time to pause and even if
you do look okay, why are people judging you saying
you're not sick enough? Excuse me, excuse me? Why are
you the judge of how sick I am? It's a
(32:41):
well and I this is not statistically necessary, but like
a lot of women that I know have a pretty
high threshold for pain in general, and because they have
to maintain like, it's not because they want to, it's
because they have to. Point blank, I'll tell you a secret.
Right now, I'm sitting on a heating pad this week.
I yesterday I was told I have a fractured back,
(33:04):
and I go to the spine surgeon at one And
in the work I do and on Instagram sometimes people
will post like she was just at a podcast, now
she's hospital, and I'm like, welcome to sick And the
reality is this sense of purpose and what you said
about pain, you know, I joked that we embraced the
suck to almost the point of instinction. And I've been
(33:27):
reading so much by incredible women that are really looking
to eradicate self sacrifice is this trait of strength, so
you know, the Radical Awakening and all these great books
of No, if you take care of yourself, you're a
strong person. If you treat yourself bad, no, that doesn't
mean you're you know better or stronger or you know, no,
and more lovable, I think is the end result and
(33:51):
the last and then the last thing is this idea
of beauty. I've seen it change to such a positive
space where you being authentically you is it's beautiful, you know,
And especially the men in my life lately have all
come to me and I don't like them anyways, Like
really quickly, how do you post that? Like? Because I
(34:13):
think we you know, we perceive what men and women
think are beautiful versus actually asking people and instead of
going into this you know, marketing concept of beauty, you know,
really looking at sick is a feeling health as a
form of wealth and self preservation as something we do
because we're loving people to ourselves and not selfish. And
(34:48):
you have been practicing art for a while, now, how
did you get into it? You were saying that you
did this as a way of like coping, but how
did you get into it? Because I think one of
the big things that we talked about is, yes, self care,
what do you do for yourself, especially when you feel
like everything he's falling apart? How did you get into art?
Is that part of that process? I joke with my
(35:09):
um now disease mom that I was never an artist
because I didn't want to starve, and then I became
an entrepreneur so now I'm an artist, so I don't
starve UM. And you know, for art with me, I
was a single mom and early on, you know, being
home alone taking care of my daughter after a long
days at work. Art was a form of therapy. I
(35:30):
did it in high school. And then when I started
to have epilepsy UM, I started to have these really
vivid images and experiences. And it was a nurse and
one of the hospitals who encouraged me to paint as
a form of therapy. And I started to realize also,
like you said, it was something I could control. So
I didn't have to get twenty people to produce a
movie or to finance it. I could buy a canvas,
(35:52):
make place of art, put it on the wall, and
it was cool, and it just became, you know, a
real passion of mine. And then I started to meet
and credible artists like you know, Shepherd Fairy and all
these iconic people that were creating pop art that were
changing the world. And so I originally used to joke
that when I was at a party raising money for
a project, I would never introduce myself as an artist
(36:15):
if I introduced myself as an investment banker and I
happened to do art, I was cool. But if I
was the artist, they couldn't think I could do math.
And so that was you know, the dynamic thing, like
they say, left brain, right brain. And it was recently that,
through needing to finance treatment, a friend of mine said,
why don't we drop some of this art and sell
it as a way to raise money, and I, you know,
(36:37):
thought about it. I was really afraid I sucked. Um,
I don't. It's so intimidating to me the art world.
And then I got with the right group of people,
and now I continue to use it as an outlet
to create images of people that inspire me. Um that
I think, you know, are quote noble. And through researching
a lot of the people I paint, I have learned
(36:58):
such inspiring things about you know, the men and women.
And I noticed there was a common theme. You know,
they were all people who overcame injustice, adversity and stood
for something that was really meaningful to them. From you know,
the animal that's a wolf I paint to the owl too,
you know RBG. Those are the really important iconic people.
And I was lucky. So it's been true therapy. But
(37:21):
it was thank God for a nurse who brought me
paint into a hospital room. I think I was there
for twenty two days and I was climbing the walls
and she said that's color. Yeah, for good nurses exactly.
I mean, that's I'm a big proponent of that. You
never know what things, that kind or thing you do
that can really impact someone's life. You really don't, absolutely,
(37:44):
and the nurses are the heroes here. You know, that's
an important thing to bring up. I know obviously both
of your backgrounds, and you know, health care is evolving.
It's a industry that we don't know what we don't know.
And I think what I took away from all of
this is that you can't approach any thing in life
with absolution. There's always going to be unnes And as
(38:04):
we go forward as women sharing and being open and
being vulnerable versus posing and posturing and hiding things, that's
being tough, you know, telling people what's really going on.
That's hard. It's easy to get on Instagram and pretend like,
you know, my three dogs and I are living life.
It's hard to get on there and be like, um,
I just put my pants in the elevator. But people
(38:29):
actually like those stories better. So it's a testimony where
we're headed honesty. I like people appreciate well speaking of
kind of you do. Like we mentioned you've got a
documentary coming out TV, Like, what what is on the
horizon for you? Well, I'm you know, it's interesting because
(38:50):
I made a big change in my company in the
last month and I run Benoble Media Group. We've done
some great projects and we will continue to make some
really cool movie etcetera. But I had started the website
sick Titties dot Com, and I started to see that
what we really needed were three things. You know. One
a way to connect directly with accredited doctors who were
(39:10):
within the protocol that we understand right now to be
working right which is an expan et cetera. Two is
a financial services program to allow women to finance and
grow their business. And then lastly was a way to
host a community that was confidential. Unfortunately, when I opted
in too, you know, pursue my rights legally, I started
(39:33):
to see there were some bad actors that were paid
to come after women to disqualify them from the case.
So what's really important to know is if you quote
identify is having BII not diagnosed identify. So say you
post on your Instagram, I think I have b I
I two years ago, but then you don't think about
it again for a year and it comes out now
(39:55):
that data can be presented to disqualify you with certain
statutes from doing a claim. So I also wanted to
save space to connect women and to allow them to
do things that would help them help each other. So
a store full of great products that these amazing women
are creating, health coaches, and this whole industry of b
(40:15):
I I concierge has emerged, and so I wanted to
create some sort of technology and community to connect patients
with advocates and then lastly lobby and registration. Because from
a technology standpoint, if we have all these women's stories,
it's data they opt in. We can provide that to
the f d A, we can provide that to different
organizations and allow them to see while this is a
(40:37):
quote cluster or a class of women with common themes.
And so what we're now doing is expanding the company
and then through the movie, through the book, and through
you know, any other platform we can get on. We
really want to drive people to this community. And then
also create women driven products that you can buy, to
support people in the industry, to create that connectivity and
(40:59):
you know there's a new you. The last thing I'll
say is that, you know, I always say this is
for my daughter, you know, as a twenty three year
old woman. I want her and her friends to know
that the best thing they can buy is not boobs.
So integrate that safe space, I think is really important. Yeah, yeah,
(41:20):
I mean it's it's it's one of those things. So
many times on this show we'll talk about something or
someone and everything they've done and advocating for themselves and
for their community, and it's like so inspiring, but it's
also so infuriating because like so much work and you're
not really getting paid for it, and it's just like
to be healthy because you were allied to, were not
(41:40):
given the information and it's like on you two to
go to the government and be like, wait, right, there's
a problem here, so that younger people don't do the
same thing right well, And it's it's shocking how hard
it is to tell people that you've had an ingest
this in any capacity, right, It's difficult, And I think
(42:04):
you know, there is a segment of female empowerment and
human empowerment where it should be your body, your choice,
and it should be an educated decision, not the best guess.
And you know that's the future. And I think just
disclosing the cost, like if someone told me I would
have to spend all my money for the rest of
my life to maintain these suckers, I would never have
done it right, right, I mean just in fact, we
(42:28):
also talked about on our show often that there are
things out there it finally comes to the point that
a woman has to say, well, I'll do it myself.
I'll create this myself. I'll do this space myself. And
the fact that you're having to do this is both infuriating,
really encouraging to and inspiring at the same time. Um,
and to see that as you're talking obviously things have
(42:49):
continued to change as you've began this process to today
and talking about how you're having to rearrange like, oh,
I see a need for this, so I'm having to
create this. And it's both encard again and infuriating, but
also knowing that someone is actually fighting and actually working
to make sure people know what's happening out there. And
the mere fact that you have to raise money and
(43:10):
do crafting to be healthy. It makes they have a deep,
deep moment of like Clutiel is going to have their
own at sea someday. And here's the thing, like you know,
my mom, poverty breeds invention. Like you know, action is
intention and you know the Golden rule, and I think
you know out of this will be burst this, you know,
(43:34):
like as you hear, I'm sure right now the impact world,
you know, it's all about impact and sponsoring change. And
what I'm excited to report is that as we're approaching
corporate partners, for instance, I heart I literally wrote an
email that said, let me do a podcast. It will
say women's Life's talk about the kids are killing them
And within seven minutes like out of response, right, And
to have that merge into the producers hopping on, the
(43:56):
marketing team helping us, all the support we've gotten, it's
soalidating that, like you were saying, if people want to
make a difference and if you can help them, help
you help us, then it works. But it's definitely this
attitude of action and change. And that's one thing about
this community. I have yet to meet a woman who
yes they're mad, Yes they recognize ingestice, but they will
(44:17):
not be a victim, and you know that is important.
And I think, you know, and listening to your podcast,
like I listened to the episode about the beer, and
now I know you need to think about where it
comes from, right and educating yourself. So then I wanted
to be here for the sick titties because I was like,
that's me right, exactly, like CBD for it, and you know,
(44:44):
and now I'm exploring all these partners and you know,
I joked with someone last night and I was serious
because I came from the cannabis space and I'm like,
We're gonna have smoking sick titties if it kills me.
Because also, like the alternative medicine side of this and
what I've learned and the education and the companies who
stepped up and really wanted to help, So that part
of this has definitely been inspiring. And then also I'm
(45:06):
forty eight and I get to interact with women of
all generations and I see this really great change in
you know, support and advocacy versus competition and you know
a little bit of cruelty. Yeah, well, that's that's wonderful
to hear I'm glad. I feel like we've kind of
experienced that as well in terms of the people who
(45:27):
are interacting and sort of the general vibe as they say,
towards issues that we bring. Like I feel like several
years ago I would have gotten much angrier response to
certain things we've talked about as compared to now where
people are more like, Okay, yeah, we should talk about this.
I did want to ask do you have any um
resources that you want to shout out for listeners to
(45:49):
to check out? Absolutely, I think it's really important to
go to the f d a site and read what
they're publishing in real time because that's the truth. One
of the important things to know is there are you know,
definitely hashtags you can follow. There's amazing people on social media,
but the FDA is publishing in real time information that's
you know, pretty compelling, and they also give out data
(46:12):
for the recall um. There's a great organization that's working
hard to create a registry called track my Solutions, so
you can look up and see if your implants are recalled.
But the FDA right now is our go to and
when you research their announcement last week and these hearings
that they're holding. The other thing is, you know, share
your story hashtag at brest Implant Illness hashtag at b
(46:33):
II journey, because you're going to start to follow and
connect with other people. And then in most cities right now,
there's a plastic surgeon that's registered on the Plastic Surgery Association.
Go there and look at accredited doctors and doctors that
are part of these panels about rest implant illness, because
those are some of the thought leaders that are publishing things.
(46:55):
And then also ask other patients if you're looking for
a doctor, get referrals, get reviews, and message people online
because women who like what they've experienced post it, but
women who don't like it also post it, and it's
important to reach out to them. Yes, absolutely, thank you
so much Kristen for being with us today having this conversation.
(47:18):
Come back any time. We would love to have you
happy hour. I want to come to Atlanta. We're gonna
do some beer and Carrie Fisher well, I'm not to
have to come to buy one of these Michelle Obama
mugs for sure. I'm like, oh, my collection, I will
send you. I will send you guys some stuff. I mean,
thank you so much, and you know, please continue what
(47:38):
you're doing. Like I listened to the show all the
time and it's so incredible. I'm learning so much in
a fun way. Thank you and you as well. You
as well, Um. And speaking of where can the good
listeners find you? So, I am on Instagram at Kristen
underscore e Nobles and I'm also at sick Titties dot
(47:59):
com which is an ever growing site. And I'm also
on um Facebook under Kristin Nobles and we have a
Facebook support group that's b Noble on b I I yes,
and I always love I have to do this with
podcasts or sometimes you also have a podcast podcast Sister Podcast.
(48:20):
You can also find us on Close to the Chest
with Kristen and Christine and that's on I Heart Apple
or wherever you get your podcasts. Yes, and definitely go
check it out, listeners. Thank you again Kristen for being here.
If you would like contact us, you can or email
us Stephieu Mom and stuff at I hurt media dot com.
You can find us on Instagram and Stuff I've Never
(48:41):
Told You or on Twitter at moms Podcast. Thanks. It's
always to a sup producer, Christina, Thank you and thanks
to you for listening. Someone over toldly distrected I Heart Radio.
For more podcast on my Heart Radio, see on radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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