Navigating Brain Surgery and Explant: Insights from Taylor Dukes' Recovery with Dr. Robert Whitfield

All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. Today I have our patient, Taylor Dukes. Everybody who follows her on Instagram, reads her blogs, knows her history, but it's one of the most interesting ones I've ever come across in my practice. So, Taylor, welcome to my show, and thanks for taking part.

Thanks for having me.

So for everybody, Taylor is a patient of ours who's had an explant, but that is basically the tip of the iceberg story for Taylor. Her pick it up with that little tease.

Yeah. So he's not lying. I have kind of an interesting story. I wish I could be a little bit more of a boring patient, but I'll kind of, like, back it up because I think that's what resonates with a lot of people and kind of why I chose to get an explant and kind of where I was at with my history and symptoms. And so I went to tcu. Nursing school, was just a typical nursing major. I had the opportunity to do some medical missions in Africa and Ecuador, abroad. Ended up getting really sick over there. You know, I got all the shots. I was taking all the malaria medication. I got parasites. I didn't know that at the time. So I ended up getting flown back to the States and just had all sorts of weird health issues. And this was fall of 2012, and I have to back up that. I got my implants fall of 2011. So it was definitely one of the contributing factors to suppressing my immune response. And then, of course, I got all the shots. I went to Africa. I got parasites. It was just the perfect storm. I was under a lot of stress, had some trauma in my life, and then I was working night shift, ICU in Austin, Texas, which was just, you know, cortisol bomb, really stressed, and my health just, like, totally plummeted. And it was one of those things where I was the healthy girl. You know, I never was sick growing up. I never had ear infections, strep throat. And so it was kind of like, what is going on? You know, this is me. I'm like, I should be at the peak of my life. I'm 22, young, fun, you know, was athletic at the time. And I was laying in bed, my hair was falling out. I had joint pain, stomach issues, skin issues, super inflamed. My mom actually pretty much moved in with me. I was living downtown Austin, and I was just really sick, and I was going to endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, all the specialties, and no one really had answers. You know, I was put on different medications I did invasive procedures, colonoscopy, endoscopy, and really had no answers. And so that's when I was desperate and I was like, all right, there's gotta be more. And really, my parents were pushing me to go to, like, People's Pharmacy in Austin. And then they found Ann Shippy, who is a functional medicine provider, and she saved my life. You know, she did all this testing, she talked to me about my diet, and I was kind of like, no, I've eaten whataburger, Like, I'm fine. But it was. I. And I wasn't fine anymore, you know, but I was like, wait, what do you mean, gluten? I've eaten this my whole life. So, yeah, that's how I kind of got into this field of functional medicine, which I feel like is an important part of my story. It, you know, I was really sick and desperate. I wasn't smart and ahead of the curve and so changed my life, which changed the trajectory of my career. So I worked for Amy Myers as her nurse, and then I became a functional medicine nurse practitioner and opened my own practice and worked with patients over the years. And I was doing good, I was healthy. I had two kids, gotten married at that point, and a lot of my symptoms turn around. I was able to get off my medications and was feeling good and I was gifted. This is where kind of the plot twist comes into play. I was gifted a full body preventative scan, the pernuvo scan, and it's an MRI technology, and they found a brain tumor, which that was fall of September 2022. And as you can imagine, that was totally shocking. I had no symptoms more complicated than that.

Because you tried to give away the gift.

Oh, yes, I forgot that detail. So they reached out.

You tried to give this gift away.

That is true. He's not wrong. So Prenuvo reached out. They were getting a Texas location and they said, you know, because of the work that you do online and social media, we'd love to gift it to you and you can share with your patients in your practice or, you know, you can just share it online. It was just kind of an exchange, like this fancy scan for a tag. And I said, you know what? That's so sweet. You know, I'm breastfeeding my 10 month old. Like, I feel fine, fine, I'm not worried. But my husband's mom passed away from non smoking lung cancer. I want to gift it to him. And they were basically like, no, you know, this is for you. We want you to speak to it. Which was Such a blessing. I look back and I'm like, thank God that they kind of held to that because that's how they found the brain tumor.

So yeah, to unpack all that's pretty complicated. But there's something that, when you were speaking to it, I think when you speak about becoming a functional practitioner, like what does that mean to you? Because everybody has this and throws this term around now.

Yeah, it's much more popular than it was back in the day. Back in the day people would be like, what? And I do think, you know, we talk about the conventional medical model, which is just traditional medicine, your specialist, your emergency department, you know, primary care, things like that. But then you also talk about the holistic side of things. And I think holistic, I actually have never really said holistic. I think it just gets a bad rap. People think you're like outside just eating kale all day, doing a rain dance, hoping to heal. And where I like to say, I mean functional, integrative, however you want to say it. I like to say integrative because you're taking the best of both worlds. You're taking the best of the functional world and the best of the conventional and you integrate them for the best possible outcome. And so, you know, when I tell people what I do, it's like, I'm not against prescription medication, but that's not going to be my first go to. And so, you know, it's looking at someone's diet, their lifestyle, their stress, their toxic exposure. Sometimes you dig into genetics, you know, mold, mycotoxins, heavy metals, kind of, you know, that kind of gets down the rabbit trail line, co infections. But basically when I used to explain it back in the day, like if I'm at a party and someone's like, what do you do? It's like we just don't suppress someone's symptoms. We look at, we ask the why question. Why is this person sick? Why do they have ibs? Why do they have, you know, skin issues? It doesn't end with the diagnosis, the symptoms. It's, that's the beginning of where it starts because then you're trying to figure out what caused it. So you know, for me, over the years we would do a lot of in depth testing and look at someone's history and you know, in true functional medicine practices, I feel like you get more extended appointments. It's really hard for someone to give you that type of care in a 15 minute appointment. Even if your primary care provider means really well. It's just hard because oftentimes you have to go back and look at the story. And even for me, you know, it was like when I was sick, we're looking at all the contributing factors. But if you go back to even just the year before I was sick, which most doctors aren't going to talk to you about, that's when I got my implants. So I can look back and trace my story to say, oh, you know, my body did okay for a little bit, but then my immune system, under stress and under, you know, coming in to contact with all these pathogens, it just. I didn't have an immune system to fight back.

Yeah, that's an important point, and I'm glad you explained it that way. I've been asked on shows when I appear, you know, why we're doing such integrative care. And the way you described it is why. So why wouldn't I try to provide everybody the best options? I'm just kind of stupid to say that you just ignore that or genetics, and then certainly using a Ponovo to complement that, because when you identify any kind of lesion early, there's a better chance that you can take care of it. And obviously yours was significant and occupied a very special place. And, yeah, any space occupying lesion in.

Your brain is prime real estate, a.

Little bit more complicated. So maybe, I guess you went on a. A very different type of journey for that as well. And you probably should enlighten everybody on what that entailed after you found that information out.

Yeah, so. And also, I think it really freaks people out when they hear, like, Taylor Dukes, the healthy person, had a brain tumor. But what I always like to remind people is, and my neurosurgeon, neuro, oncologist, everyone have said this has been growing for years, so it didn't happen overnight. But it was the perfect storm with my immune system that was suppressed. You know, it had been growing for maybe seven to eight years, maybe 10 years, they said.

All right, so what Taylor's pointing out is our body has its own surveillance system, and natural killer cells are what surveil cancer typically in your body. And when you have NK cell suppression, and I can go out on a limb and say this, I see a lot of patients with breast implants who have NK cell suppression in my practice. So that's the correlation. And so you can have a tumor and people can obviously have NK cell suppression without implants. So there's going to be other reasons for that. So don't everybody freak out and text.

Me about, yeah, yeah. And people. It didn't happen overnight. And honestly, I think the blessing and the biggest encouragement was so when they found the brain tumor, and I can talk about kind of the route that I took, I was not symptomatic. So when I first got the results, I was like, no way. Wrong person, Total denial. Because, you know, as a nurse practitioner, I know the checklist. You know, I used to work with neuro patients in icu and so no headaches, no personality, no speech, no, I mean, no nothing. No dizziness. I mean, you. I went through the entire checklist. I'm like, this is not me. I have peace of mind. This is not me. Total denial. Ended up getting in with a local neurosurgeon. We did repeat the MRI with contrast, and he's like, yeah, you have a pretty sizable tumor in your right frontal lobe. And so as y' all can imagine, I mean, I. My world flipped upside down. I had a 3 year old and a 10 month old husband. And so I still do have all of them, obviously, but it was just one of those things like life turned upside down and I'm like, what do I do? And the neurosurgeon basically said, the neurosurgeon in Texas was basically like, you know, this needs to come out. It's a matter of time, but you're not symptomatic. So, like, you can go home, get your affairs in order if you want to enjoy the holidays, but like, let's get this on the schedule in the next couple months to do surgery. And so I just went home and I took a lot of time to think and pray about it. And I wasn't symptomatic, so I wasn't going to rush into some hasty decision. And being in the integrative world that I am, I just knew there was a lot of things that I could do to either shrink the brain tumor or to just prepare my body for surgery. And so just. But also like, life wise, you know, I owned three businesses at the time. I had to get my husband access to the business. I wanted to enjoy the holidays. So much of healing and life is community and living life and, you know, and so I waited five months before my brain surgery, which most people don't really get that opportunity, which that gave me time to find the surgeon that I ultimately went to in Arizona. So I was able to get second opinions and learn about the different approaches. And then I also went to Mexico, Hope for Cancer, an integrative treatment center there. And I did an intensive therapy for two weeks. You know, I would do everything from high dose vitamin C, hyperbaric ozone, red light therapy. I mean it was like a full time job for those two weeks. So I did more of the metabolic ketosis diet. I know ketosis gets a really bad rap just because people think that you're just eating like T bone steaks and cottage cheese all day. But I did a pretty, pretty high fat, really clean fats, lots of, you know, good quality olive oil, avocados, macadamia nuts, moderate protein and then like non starchy vegetables. And so what that does is it starves glucose to any cancer cells. And cancer loves glucose, you guys. It eats it up like pac man, like candy. So that I was doing diet, I was doing therapies, I was reducing stress. I mean it was healing. Felt like a full time job. And then I also worked with Dr. Connealy at the cancer center for Healing in California. She's like the quarterback to my care team. She's the one that still oversees all my care, is monitoring my testing. She did order the NK cell test on me, of course it was suppressed. Not surprised. So yeah, I took those five months to just really prepare my body and lord willing, shrink the brain tumor. And we actually did shrink the brain tumor in half, which is pretty unheard of in those five months. And then I still proceeded with surgery because, you know, you don't want a tumor lurking in your brain.

I think that goes to how inflamed you were at that time though. So when you have a really, you know, even though you were doing all the things that just to me like resonates like if you have a fair amount of inflammation and then you take a really drastic approach from like dietary especially ramping up protein and cutting out carbohydrates. And like you said, you know, really, you know, you did probably very strict clean ketosis. And a lot of people show up to me and they're like, oh, you know, keto doesn't work. I'm like, yeah, it does.

Keto works just fine when done properly.

Dirty keto does not work because can't metabolize all the fat you're introducing, which is the problem. So but like regular straight keto of course works because. Because I was in med school and I had a biochemistry teacher and he's like, I'm in ketosis right now. I remember him. He was like, ketosis is great. And I was like, what is he talking about? What? This guy's mooney. And you know, you, when you're in your 20s, you eat like trash anyway. And you know, we're all trying to stay awake and study and know he would just be up there like, I'm in ketosis. Ketone strip. He's like, yeah, I'm in ketosis right now. And he's just like, oh, what does that mean? But, you know, just for inflammation, that certainly is a big way to decrease and drive it down for sure.

Yeah. Dietary. And that's the crazy thing because I was already so healthy, you know, like, I was considered everyone's healthiest friend, which I am healthy. And my body has responded so well. And I think that's also why I was never probably symptomatic. Who knows? If it stopped growing, we stunted the growth. If it was just slower growing, we'll never know. But regardless, I'm really grateful I got the scan to find out. You know, there could have been a million ways I found out. And not that you can play the what if game, but of course I've gone there. I'm like, what if I was driving my kids and I had a seizure? You know, like, there are just so many things. So I'm really grateful. Yeah, I mean, that would have been scary. But also I think that's where. And this is the perfect, like my whole integrative oncology journey is the perfect explanation of like, you know, people that see me and follow my story, they're like, well, do you go to doctors? Do you think they're bad? And I'm like, no, y'. All, like, look at my approach. I went to Mexico, I go to California. I done all the things. I've changed my diet even more. I got my house hardwired, you know, to protect my brain from emfs. Like, I've gone to great lengths, but I've also had surgery, which is a very conventional intervention. And that's the perfect. You use the best of both for the best outcome.

Yeah. It is interesting how that obviously have a unique view and people always, you know, based on what's going on in the world and medicine in general, they're like, would you go back and, you know, do what you did? Like, yeah, of course I would. This is what I was meant to do. Yeah.

And you have a unique set apart path that, like, if you didn't have the training conventionally that you did, you wouldn't be doing the things that you do. And so it's. There's times and places and it's necessary. And I will say also preparing my body for brain surgery. I, you know, it's like, I get it. Most people have a seizure, they End up in the emergency room, they get the neurosurgeon on call, like they don't get an option. You know, I realize in my situation I was very fortunate. But I will say I think having that time to prepare my body, physically, mentally, emotionally, everything, you know, it really helped. And I was out of the. I was walking 6 hours after brain surgery. I was discharged straight from ICU to home 24 hours after brain surgery. Like even the physical therapists were like, this is not normal. And I think it's also a testament to preparing your body for any surgery.

Right, that's, that's more of. I was going to say that is, you know, we have a book coming out about the process I Run Sharp and whether it's reading like a book like Stephen Covey's, you know, seven Habits, like you have to be proactive. You're talking about being proactive and prep versus reacting, which is, you know, unfortunately too many people are always reacting, so they're always backpedaling and trying to deal with the next set of events. And, you know, your preparation certainly has lay a, you know, to a much cleaner, efficient recovery. And that's why the providers are, you know, confused. Like if you look at our history of surgery, you know, how much has surgery changed? There's been changes, technical changes, advances, you know, microscopes, instrumentation, patient, you know, a person who's got a lot of inflammation, not healthy, lots of risk factors. They're always going to have a tougher time. You know, the, the classic. As you know, nobody in my practice gets fed strange snacks after surgery. No jello and odd things.

I really appreciated that.

Yeah, it's, you know, baffling, you know, cheez its and like whatever other.

Gatorade.

Gatorade, yeah. So, you know, we give people coconut water and we have like this little basic gluten free, you know, crackers. So, you know, it's just strategically you have to understand and ask why. And then obviously when you don't know something, you know, it's hard like that all that trust factor that you're mentioning, People are like super distrustful now.

Yeah, I see that often.

Well, you did brain surgery and I kind of knew you for a period of time before you ever came into our practice. And you need some time obviously to recover and that's gotta be such a huge thing to recover from. And then I know you felt better, but just like mentally it's gotta be a very big deal with your little ones and your husband who's obviously paramount to getting everything organized and, and Helping. So I guess that that period between the recovery from that and then your next step is when you came to us in Austin.

Yeah, that's where you come in. So. And people, you know, when I shared, it was one of those things about like, I had a consult with you. So just to give everyone context, I had brain surgery February 1, 2023. And I had a consult with you, Dr. Whitfield. Gosh, it was maybe June. It was like four to five months after brain surgery. Because I was like, I want these out. Obviously had to prioritize the brain surgery. And I just had so much peace. I was like, this is my guy. And I remember doing a zoom consult because I'm don't live in Austin. I'm a couple hours away. And I kind of told you my story and I was like, so when would you be willing to operate on me? And you're like, when you're ready, we can get you scheduled out. And I had told you kind of briefly sparknotes version of my brain cancer story. And you were like, yeah, I guarantee you your natural killer cell function suppressed. And I was like, wait, how did you know? Did someone send you my labs? And you were like, no, I just, I got a feeling. And I was like, this is my guy. Because you hadn't seen my labs and you knew and you just understood. That's where a lot of things, I think a lot of surgeons just, they do the procedure. But as you know, in your team, and that's why I obviously chose y'. All. It's so much more than just the surgery and just the follow up appointment. It is, what do you do before? How do you get your detox pathways open? How do you decrease inflammation? And then the procedure itself and then the recovery, which we can talk about, but so I knew I wanted to do it. But brain surgery, recovery, even though I, you know, I didn't have to go to speech therapy or occupational, I was technically cleared two weeks after to drive. I wasn't on seizure meds, steroids, pain meds. I had a pretty kick a recovery. But with that being said, you know, my body, my nervous system needed time to heal. And so my doctor in California was like, yeah, you need them out. This is part of your healing, even from cancer and getting your immune system ramped up. But she said, you have to wait a year. And I was like, no, I don't want a year. You know, that's so long. But looking back, it is exactly what I needed. Just personally, I'm not saying everybody needs that. Between Two surgeries. But brain surgery, the way that affected my nervous system, I was having issues sleeping and just. It was really. It's a difficult surgery.

I'm glad you brought up sleeping. That has to be one of the things that's really thrown off with that surgery. I know people probably underappreciate what I'm saying, but you can emphasize that because you can't recover without sleep.

No, and I will say I've never had sleeping issues in my life. You know, when I worked with patients over the years and they talk about insomnia, I'm like, so what do you do? Do you just sit there like, why don't you close your eyes? I mean, I knew it's real, but I just never understood because I've never experienced it. And that was my biggest issue. After brain surgery, I could not sleep. I couldn't turn off. I mean, it was pretty miserable. And I'll never forget meeting with my doctor and she was like, okay, Taylor, I know we're natural, but like, we've got to sleep. We're gonna get a sleeping pill and play. And I was like, what? No, I don't want that. And she. But I was remind how important sleep is for healing, especially for the brain, even with a concussion, you know, low stimulation rest. So I did, I had to take a sleeping pill for almost. I took hydroxyzine. So it's actually like calming and can just help me because I couldn't turn my brain off. And so, yeah, that was really hard. Thankfully I sleep now. Great. I just pop a couple magnesium, you know, unwind. But I was doing all the things before and nothing was working. So I'm really glad I waited and got my nervous system more regulated.

Yeah, this is a huge point for everybody listening. I think people get confused about why I discuss hormones and sleep so much. But so say after surgery and we'll talk about Taylor's surgery in a little bit, which went extremely well. But after surgery, if you're having to go take a nap in the afternoon, there's a couple things wrong. And then, you know, when you get into your nighttime routine that further make that erratic. So you're going to be getting up in the middle of the night, you're going to be doing things. And so like everybody has to understand and we can ask Taylor how she did it, but you basically got to have a six and a half to eight hour window of uninterrupted sleep to get to deep sleep to recover. And if you can't do that or you're Taking something that prevents you from doing that, or your diet's all out of whack, you're not going to recover and you're going to stay swollen longer, you're going to have more fatigue, and it's really going to start to wear on you. And she can probably highlight how difficult it is to go without sleep for multiple days in a row or the wrong amount of sleep multiple days in a row.

Yeah, I mean, it changes everything. Like, for me, I couldn't function. I couldn't. It was awful. It was so miserable. I'm like, no wonder this is a tactic for training in the military. Sleep deprivation, it's not good. And I'm a pretty optimistic person, but man, when you operate off of no sleep, your brain does not go to healthy places, you know, and so, yeah, that was really crucial for me to get. And not just the sleep aspect, I think, you know, nervous system's a big buzzword, but like, really what is it? You know, it's like regulating stress, having an appropriate stress response. I think we can all agree this day and age is hustle, bustle and go, go, go. And. And cortisol's high, you know, and we've just normalized it. And I think for me, what surgery did is, you know, I own three businesses. I had a wellness center, a private practice, and I did online stuff. And for me it was like, just because I can do all these things doesn't mean I should. And so I had to step back and reevaluate my own life to get stressors off my plate and be really conscious about, you know, my commitments. What do I say yes to? I don't want to be stressed and over committed and, you know, even if I have full long days of working, I still, to this day, even a year and a couple months after brain surgery, I consciously take brain breaks. You know, I'll go unplug, listen to some frequency music, lay on my PEMF mat, and yeah, just really focusing on stress and regulating your nervous system. Deep breathing, it's all the free stuff. You know, people are like, give me the device, give me the treatment, give me the supplement. And it's like, no, like, go put your feet in the grass. Like, go take some deep breaths in the morning. Disconnect from technology. Go sleep. You know, it's the free stuff that I think is so easy to implement. Go take a bath. You know, that's de stressing, but no one wants to do it. They want the quick fix or even they'd rather pay money. You Know, like they'd rather pay for a device or a treatment. And so.

Yeah, yeah. Preparing a little quick. Obviously quick fixes are, you know, akin to what's going on currently. And we constantly remind people like, there is no way around restorative sleep. Yeah, you can't do it.

It's so important and so healing and so necessary.

Yeah, it's pretty funny. Like, you know, I can sit there and we can all be super motivated to assign blame. I'm not doing as good as Taylor did on the Internet. And, you know, I underwent surgery with, you know, Dr. Whitfield. Why am I not doing this? Well, Taylor has put a ton into her self care. So, like, if. If you're trying to take shortcuts in self care, I. E. You know, not sleeping enough, not getting enough dietary protein and not using the correct supplementation, not finding ways to lower stress, not all right, then your expectation should be not.

Yeah. And that's what I do have to tell people. You know, I'm like, people try to compare. Even brain surgery, they're like, my dad went to the same surgeon. His recovery is not like yours. And I'm like, you just can't compare. But I hope that if anything, me sharing and my story and all the resources that I do, that it motivates people to be like, wait, you know, like. And I know some people are like, well, I don't want your body. You had brain cancer. But I will say taking care of your body and, and focusing on stress and like, really taking it seriously and eating clean. Like, for me, it doesn't feel like a chore or a diet or a job because it's like, I want to eat clean because I know I'm a better mom, a better wife, a better colleague. You know, like, I just. Life is better, you know, it's not. It actually gives me more freedom. You know, it's not restrictive because it gives me freedom to feel good and maximize, you know, what I do every single day. And I just have to say this because I know people are going to wonder I was sick in 2012 and people are going to ask, well, why didn't you get the breast explant sooner if you were in the health and wellness field? And so I just want to speak to that. That's kind of on my heart. I just feel like that's important because when I chose to share this on social media, I didn't know if I was going to share it. You know, I'd already showed so much of my cancer journey, been so vulnerable And I was like, I don't know, like, my pastor follows me, my father in law, like, none of them even know I have implants. I felt like, this is weird. I'm going to really put this out there. But the more and more I thought about it, I just felt this, like, really strong conviction to share it. Because I was like, I know this is going to help people. And I know me being vulnerable, even though it felt really personal. I mean, I asked my husband, he was like, no, it aligns with everything you do. You're sharing your story, you're helping others. But I was like, oh, God, like, you know, I'm gonna announce that I'm getting my tits out when people don't even know I have implants because I'm pretty conservative. Most people wouldn't even know. And so I just want to share. The reason I did not get them out before is I always kind of knew about it, like this whole biotoxin thing and breast implants. And I talked to patients about it, especially with autoimmune issues. But for me, I started to feel better after I got sick, so I didn't necessarily think it was fully that. And then my husband was an Air Force pilot, so we were living in the military on a military budget. We didn't have the funds to do an explant. Okay. Like, looking back, I'm like, I would have done anything. I would have taken out a loan. You know, I probably wish I could have gotten more creative to come up with a way to get them out. But I didn't get it out just because it was more of a life, you know, where we were at in life as an Air Force pilot and moving all around, and financially it didn't make sense. And then I had kids. You know, you gotta kind of factor in kids and breastfeeding. And so I wish that I got them out sooner. And I just want to say that because people are like, well, if you were healthy, why didn't you? But it just wasn't in the cards for us. And this is part of my story and my timeline. And getting cancer was really the kick yourself in the butt, get these things out, you know, like, you got to get your immune system in track. And so that was my story in my timeline. But if you have the opportunity and the means to do it, do it asap. Even before having kids, do it between having kids. That would be my encouragement. I don't know what you would say.

I think you highlight something I'll speak to a little bit from my perspective. So I get asked, do I encourage people or warn people or. I'm trying to provide everybody as much information so that someone like Taylor can make an informed decision. I don't make Taylor's decision for her. So everybody has to get the information, decide for themselves what fits. And obviously, hers came later. And she's discussing, like, how that happened for her. As more information comes to light. I think I've demonstrated through our experience, we know there's about a 30% biofilm rate that doesn't happen overnight. That's life. So everybody can get biofilm. Biofilm's a bacterial contaminant. We'll say on any device. Hip, knee, breast implant, dental implant. I mean, I had Kelly Blodgett on the other day, and he talked about root canals. It just grossed me out.

Big one.

Yeah. So, you know, that's just part of the world we live in. You mentioned genetics. I leverage genetics heavily in my practice, and we look now, even at drug metabolism, to better characterize how someone like Taylor would respond to. To choices we make in the operating room about medications. And I know there's a lot of concern about medications, and obviously, I use medications preoperatively to calm the nervous system. As Taylor's been describing. When you're ramped up, it's a little bit more challenging for us to take care of the patient. We do things for inflammation and for nausea prevention, because, once again, we're trying to be proactive. We're not trying to react to somebody like Taylor having a problem after surgery. That's not my game. My game is to make sure everything's been looked at and addressed to the best of our ability up front. But that's a personal decision everybody has to arrive at once they've got the information. And like you discussed, place in life support from their. Their spouse or family or whoever that is. That's a big component. Taylor has a great spouse. Was with her all the time, super supportive. So we know that's a key element as well.

I know. I was so blessed. I'm like. I've heard the stories about, you know, spouses that are against it. And I'm like, I'm so grateful. I also think after going through what I've gone through, he's like, honey, whatever we need to do to get you healthy to live a long life, let's do it. And for me, that looks like moving forward with explant as soon as I was able to.

Right.

I don't.

The spouse element is odd to me. I think it's it's just odd. So I see a lot of libido suppression with breast implants when we just look at hormonal analysis through, you know, free testosterone and the hormone levels, and they're all messed up.

Yeah.

Feel good. You have no energy, your libido's decreased, your hair is falling out, you're inflamed.

Like, why wouldn't you want your spouse back?

Why? What are you doing?

Yeah.

Seems stupid.

Like, this physical thing, and then you trade it for quality of life and energy and fun and memories and everyday.

Life makes no sense. So disgrace. And I'm glad you brought up the diet point. So Taylor really helped put the well on the map in Austin. As long as we are discussing this, we. We try to get everybody to eat a really low inflammatory diet. And for us, that's no gluten, no dairy, no processed foods, you know, refined sugars, no seed oils for everybody who's listening. And there's only a few places in Austin that do that. So we give our. Our patients gift certificates to the well, which, if you follow Taylor, you've seen her. I saw her in pajamas at the.

Well before she went home a couple days post op. I was like, hey, doc, I'm in my jammies, but I'm getting the good food before I head home. It was amazing. I loved it.

Yeah, it's. It's. So I have a lot of meetings there, and I'm constantly, you know, seeing our patients, and I see them really soon after surgery, which is a testament to both them wanting to get out. And obviously they feel, you know, better because it is a big deal after surgery to get up, get moving. You know, people come to my office the next day for hyperbaric oxygen therapy and lymphatic treatments with the Balancer pro and red light therapy. All the things that really, you know, we know, will help you do better, quicker. And that's a testament, you know, to everybody's interest in coming to Austin and partaking in the. In the program we have. But then, you know, going out and getting, you know, back into doing some things that are normal, having a meal and functioning.

So, yeah, you don't want to be cooped up in a bedroom all day. And, you know, as a former nurse and ICU nurse, we encourage, get up, get moving, get those bows going. You know, I think when people are like, oh, I just had surgery and I want to lay here, it's like, no, get up, get the blood flowing. You know, it's good for your mental health. Obviously, you don't want to overdo it, but I remember, you know, we walked on a little trail near my mom's house there in Barton Creek. And I, my husband was like, are you sure? And I said, yeah, this feels good. Fresh air, sunshine. I want to, you know, you can't push yourself, but just even for five, ten minutes, you know. And yeah, I think resting and giving your body the rest it needs after surgery is important, but really fueling it. And one thing, I appreciated you guys, you know, the electrolytes, the minerals, the protein that really, really helps, you know, it's not just. And I think that's where a lot of people, at least a lot of questions that I got and probably a lot of questions that your office gets is, well, what's the big deal? Okay, maybe you're a great surgeon, but I don't understand, like, why the follow ups, why this? And you know, I think it's, it's not even just the surgery itself. It's the preparation before surgery, you know, the protocols, the opening up, the detox pathways, the cocktail of medications that you take before surgery. You know, it all sets the foundation and then the surgery itself happens, but it's also the follow up, you know, and the recovery and nutrition is so important and obviously not overextending it exercise wise. There are a lot of, you know, do this, do this. But I also think that it's just so important and then the continuity of care is what's really important after as well. Like, it's not just like, okay, you had surgery, have a great day, see you for your post op, have a good life. You know, there's the constant check ins and I think also some people that have a lot of underlying issues, which is probably most patients, I would assume, you know, sometimes they have other things that they need to address and sometimes they do need practitioners. I don't know if you would agree with that. But to dig deep and figure things out sometimes, like, sometimes, you know, I think people get their implants out thinking that everything's going to change overnight. And for some people it literally does. And some people it's like you got to stay the course and let your body heal and repair and detox.

Yeah. I think, you know, the expansion of the, and the program along those lines is how do you help patients who preoperatively have a bad toxicity test and how do you frame it for them? So it makes sense that just doing this component, which is a surgical component, and excluding all the other components is not going to resolve the whole issue. If you had chronic inflammation and the implant is part of it, as it was in Taylor's case. Doing that portion will help. But she was doing all these other things to look at her own personal genetics and open up her drainage pathways, which she's highlighting. And then if she had a bad tox test, you have a strategy and tactics to take care of that test and making sure your gut microbiome, your gut health is improving. And if you had an overgrowth, like she mentioned, a parasitic overgrowth at one point, addressing that, looking at specific sensitivities to foods in your diet. Because there's a very famous person spending millions of dollars on themselves every year to not die. But I didn't hear one thing about whether or not they're checking a sensitivity test. I'm sure they did for this person. But they're not really highlighting that to the general population because say, for instance, if they have somebody who doesn't metabolize sulfur well and they're just pounding them with cruciferous vegetables, that's not going to make that person better. Just raise my hand because I don't metabolize sulfur. Well, I know this. So yeah, I have to have a different diet than Taylor does. Than you would listening. I know that. You know, I, we, we look at genetics to make sure that we understand glucuronidation. These are all things that are very specific.

Yeah. But it highlights the importance of bio individuality. And like not every patient, even if patients that come through your office have the same symptoms and they both have implants, like the approach is going to be different when you gu work with them on a personalized level. Because someone might have bacterial overgrowth and dysbiosis in their gut. Another person might have H. Pylori. Another person might have suppressed secretory IgA, which their immune system's not. So it's like even if two people have the same goal and same symptoms, the causes, the underlying contributing factors to inflammation could be totally different. And that's where I feel like personalization aspect is so, so important.

That's why we do so much preoperative testing or run sharp so detox program that runs for a year in parallel with my functional practitioners versus my surgical recovery program, which is surgical follow up and examination of those areas that were treated. And then we have supplementation follow up for the year. So we are continuing to decrease inflammation. There's all, there's always a method to what we're trying to do. It's not a single modality approach because that's not going to solve this complicated equation.

Right.

Well, now Taylor's retired, so do not hit her up to take care of you on the Internet. I want to thank her for definitely, you know, being on the show. And, you know, she still has an online community, so I'll let her speak to that and ways to interact that way.

Yeah, you're sweet. So I am super passionate about education, and I've had a blog for a long time and just continue educating people online and equipping them and empowering them to make healthy choices. And. And I did close my practice down this year for obvious reasons. I really needed to focus on my health and being a mom. And we do have an online community where you can just literally join a Facebook group for $39 a month, no strings attached. And we equip people with resources. I have a nurse practitioner that helps run that with me. We do live zoom calls once a month. We really create a community for people to share resources. What supplement worked? Hey, what did I do for my kids? Eczema. And every month we have different topics. So we did parasites last month. This month is blood sugar. And so that's where I get to kind of just fuel my desire to continue to help people. But it's not a working one on one private practice concept.

Well, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate having you and it's great to see you and I'm glad you're doing so well.

Thanks for having me document.