The Day I Collapsed | Erika’s Healing Journey from Implant-Related Symptoms

I was just a tired mom that was having just brain fog. I was, I wasn't sleeping. My husband became very worried about my memory and my brain fog. There was one day I could not get up off our living room floor. My mom's like, Erica, I am 74. This is not okay. There's something wrong with you. That's when I knew I needed to get my implants out. She looks different. Her eyes are just so white like you look alive. The inflammation just came, came out of my body.

Welcome to the show Erica Raina. She's a content creator, entrepreneur and mom of two based in Westlaco, Texas. After experiencing breastplate illness and ongoing explant surgery, she felt called to share her healing journey and inspire women to prioritize wellness, confidence and clean living. Erica is known for her uncensored, relatable, down to earth style of content that blends motherhood, lifestyle and her passion for non toxic living. She also helps lead the marketing efforts for her family's three restaurant locations of Raina's Barbecue and Cocina and helps organize community events for the Raina Family Foundation. This year they held their 8th annual back to school supply giveaway, giving a thousand school backpacks to children in the community. Erica hopes her passion for creating authentic, relatable content can uplift and inspire everyone. Welcome to the show, Reina. So I've been talking offline with Erica so we just want to hop online because it's such a good discussion and I, I appreciate her coming on. She has been open with sharing her story about breast implant illness and explant surgery and coming to us and she has a wonderful family who I've got to know throughout the process and I look forward to this somewhat delayed conversation with her describing her experience with breast implant illness and explanter.

Thank you again for having me today. I'm really, really excited to be doing this with you.

I know it's, it's taken a while with the schedules and that's fault. My schedule gets to be, you know, pretty problematic. But Eric was just saying that she gives us credit for kind of raising awareness. I don't want to give us too much credit. We've been talking about it, trying to help as I think about it always Eric is just try to educate, you know, about the process. What we know is we've done a lot of explants. We've sent them off and got them tested and, and there's bacterial contamination on about 29%. We know feel like we have a good handle on genetics like we've talked about with both you and, and other clients and families. And we keep learning all the time. So we can just share more information and help out.

Yes, most definitely. And I know you helped me and my family. I know. What I honestly loved about you all is you didn't only take me in with open arms. You took my husband, you took my son. And we did genetic testing for all of us because we were trying to figure out just everything about us. Um, and I know you shared some of your personal stories and doing genetic testing on your kids to know because, you know, once I went down that rabbit hole, I have gone deep down the rabbit hole and hence sharing my story. And like I told you before we jumped on, I honestly am so open because I saw so much on your social media and others sharing their story. And I was one of those that was in denial of having breast implant illness. I had my implants in for over 10 years and I know I have shared on my Instagram, but since I'm sure a lot of people that have not seen my Instagram will be watching this. I had two back to back pregnancies and I was just under the impression that I was just a tired mom that was having just brain fog. I was, I wasn't sleeping, I was breastfeeding. If I wasn't breastfeeding, I was pumping and I just couldn't figure out why my memory was fading. My husband became very worried about my memory and my brain fog. And I will never forget the day. And oh God, I always get so emotional when I talk about it because that's when I knew I needed to get my implants out because my mom's 74 and there was one day I could not get up off our living room floor. My back was just. And every day and I was like walking hunched over and my mom's like, Erica, I am 74. This is not okay. There's something wrong with you.

And I got to meet her at dinner.

Yes, you did. When we. Yeah, when we walked in on your.

That was Dee Dee's. Dee Dee's retirement party. Yeah, that was Dee Dee's retirement party.

We were party crashers that evening. We loved it. Thank you.

That was super sweet. So for everybody listening, my longest tenured employee DD we, we had rented out the. Well, which is the.

The place we sing favorite restaurant. Yeah.

And it's a gluten free, dairy free restaurant with no, they don't use seed oils. It's wonderful place to eat. So we wanted to give her a great send off And Eric and her family did. They had showed up to eat at the well because they were in town to see me and they had closed the well for us to have a private party. But of course we included Eric and her family in the party.

So, yes, that was a wonderful evening and I must say thank you for introducing me to the well as long as. As well as your patients. Because every time we are in Austin, I am that mom because my kids have a lot of allergies and I as well, after doing the testing with you, learned about my gluten sensitivities and dairy. So I go with the yeti and they are so sweet that they will make all of the different things that we want while we're eating so I can bring back with me to the river.

Yeah.

Like, she's such a sweetheart. I love. Yeah.

We'll to give a shout out to Nicole and Rich, the owners of the well in Westlake Hills and. And downtown in Austin on Second Street. They. They go out of their way and, you know, we want them to not just do well, we want them to thrive because that's. You want to have the well in your community, wherever you live in the United States or around the world, because they do it right. They're like the. Probably if we could go back in time, the. The origins of really like a family owned restaurant in the Village.

That's.

That's what it. That's how I feel like it is to me. So.

Yeah. Yeah, I definitely have to agree with you. Love that place. But going back to the story is. Yeah, my mom's. She's 74. And I'll never forget we called a chiropractor to come over and he asked, were you in a car accident? And like, no. I don't know what is going on with me. You know, he adjusted me, felt a little bit better. But there's still. I was every day waking up in pain and go to Pilates and, you know, I wouldn't really even do Pilates because she was like, Erica, like. And I'm like, I know I'm hurting. So she'd do stretches and try and make me feel better. But it was one day that I got home and I was with my baby and my daughter Eliana, and I bent over to get her out of her crib and I almost dropped her. Oh, I almost dropped her. Yeah. I'm like, I get emotional talking about it because I was shaking and I called my husband and I'm like, please get home now. Like, I can't even Carry her. I don't know what is going on. I'm. I feel like I'm falling apart. And I also had heart palpitations.

Yeah.

So I made an appointment with a cardiologist. I'm like, something is wrong. I knew I wasn't dying, but there was something wrong. And then I started seeing more and more stories on Instagram. A really good friend of mine had her implants removed with you. So the more I read and the more videos I saw of people sharing their story, I checked all the boxes and that led me to make an appointment with you all.

And that, you know, it's usually kind of what you said was a key factor, and that's by having patience on and, and you sharing your story and in front of your audience and us sharing your story, it just is going to help somebody just reflect on their situation. And for everybody listening, I don't tell anybody, get an explanation. I think there's this kind of confusion. Right. I. I just had somebody come in today and, you know, they're like, they're asking appropriate questions and everything, and, and it's a big decision. So I try to lay out all the facts so that everybody understands it. But it is ultimately your decision to make. Not. Not mine.

Yes. Yeah. I'm just the expert in doing it.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna technically execute all the steps. I have this wonderful team that at every level has got a patient of mine who's gone through the program now. So when you talk to somebody on the team, typically you're talk somebody who's already experienced what you're going to have to go through. So it's a little bit of a. Whether you're talking to Alex or violent, or you have somebody who has a different level of understanding. Like, I've done thousands of the cases. I haven't had the surgery. I can't. I can't relate to the whole situation. Experience that, that they can. And that's super helpful to me, but most helpful to, to patients of ours so that they feel like, oh, well, I can talk to them. They've had it done.

Yes.

Dr. Woodfield just does the surgery. But then all the, all the folks we have in the office that, you know, get in and out of the hyperbaric chamber or get you on and off the human regenerator, in and out of the lymphatic massage devices or red light or whatever we're doing, typically, you know, they have firsthand experience or can go grab one of the team who does. If you have a Question correct?

Yes. And I think that's also very important. I'll never forget also going into surgery while you guys were wheeling me in, my hand was being held by someone who had explant surgery with you. And, you know, you just go in with that peace of mind. And, I mean, I knew I was in great hands just from our. My initial consultation. There was no needing to think about it. That same day, we scheduled an appointment and we were ready to go. And I know, I want to say I booked appointment a month or two in advance and you put me on the proper protocol leading into the explant to get my body ready for it. And honestly, I will have to say one, I do live a clean lifestyle, but again, I'm Hispanic, so I do love Mexican food. So I don't always eat as clean as I would love to, but for the most part I do. And at the time, I was very active. But once I had my daughter, you know, things get a little dicey to work out, as much as I would love to. But I can honestly say, because you had me on that protocol leading up to the surgery, my recovery was unbelievable. No one actually was like, they're like, wait, what? You had surgery? Like, I was driving right away. I felt great. Of course I wouldn't carry my daughter. But just because you had educated me on what can happen if I were to lift something too soon over 10, 15 pounds. So, you know, luckily I have a great support system. My husband and my mom were helping me around the clock with my daughter, and, you know, they put her on my lap. So when people are wondering, can I do it? I'm a mom. I have a toddler. I have a baby. I think my daughter was six months when I had the surgery. No, she was about to be nine months. Because I was like, okay, I'm going to have to wean off the breastfeeding. But, you know, I felt comfortable because I knew it was something I needed to do not only for myself, but for my kids. Because I said, I'm not living a good quality of life. I going to give my children and my husband the best of me when I'm feeling this way. When I almost dropped my daughter, God forbid, I mean, thank God I did it, but that was just that breaking point.

I have found that, you know, obviously we develop the. The sharp, you know, method, and we wrote the book about it, and we feel like it's uniquely positioned to help patients who are explanting. But it also helps patients, whoever, other other types of surgery, whether it's cosmetic or orthopedic. Cosmetic dentistry, Whatever the procedure is, you can get better prepared is the point and correct. Then it makes recovery better. I do feel like, you know, you echo a lot of what I see in terms of your ability to cope with or deal with things until it gets really, really bad and then you can't do things. And then, you know, that incident was very scary with your daughter, of course. And then, you know, we. We spoke in, you know, at this point, it was October of 23 initially. So that's obviously given you a lot more perspective because of. Of the time and you are in a different, you know, place.

Place in my life.

Yeah.

Yes, most definitely. When I got my implants, it was on a whim. I was living in Los Angeles at the time and, you know, I was modeling at the time and trying to make it. And I just got this idea in my head, you know, I'm flat chested. Everyone has implants. Why not? What can go wrong? I never knew that things could go as wrong as they did.

How old were you? How old were you when you did that?

I was 21.

Yeah. So when we're in our teen, late teens and twenties, like, it's not really.

Yes.

Baked in there that there could be any problems upstairs. You're just kind of like, I'm gonna go get that done.

Yeah. Just went with it. And you know what the crazy thing is, and I have never shared this. I shared it with you and your staff, but I have not shared it on socials. Is when you removed my implants and you told me the size when I woke up from surgery. I said, what? What? No, that's not what I got. And you say, that's what I took out my. No, I Like, I even had my implants swapped because they were too big and they went smaller. And that was, you know, you're at the mercy of the surgeon. I thought they were a certain size and they were not. Yeah, they were not.

Yeah. I unfortunately have had instances of that all too often where there's. I would not say it's a, you know, a frequent occurrence, but there have been yours. And a handful of cases where, you know, I tell folks, okay, it was this. And they're like, it's not what I thought. And I was like, well, this is what it is. And here is, you know, we give everybody back their implants. And for the person who, like, there's a famous person.

You see this? Yeah. Look at it. It's like deflated now.

Yeah.

And now I Look at it. I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, would this have happened inside of me? Would they have deflated like this? Eventually they can for sure.

I just saw a lady in the office that happened to, to be honest.

Really?

Yeah. She had deflation and has, you know, come to us and. And thought of like, it's time to. To get these out, so to speak. And so I just, like, that's. I was like, going through the whole, you know, process with her and trying to explain, okay, this is, you know, these are the expectations, etc. And it was, it was, you know, interesting to have, you know, that kind of not. Not feedback from you about, like, the incorrect or. Or lack of transparency or information or whatever. We're. Yes, say, because that's, that's where part of the frustration with this lies, certainly with patients is they don't know what they don't know. They're expecting us to explain everything, you know, in detail or all the options. So I, I was explaining to this patient like there's a lot of other options here besides she had been told she needs to get another implant. I said, no, it's not exactly true.

Correct.

You could have them removed. You could have a removal on a lift. You could have a removal lifted fat transfer. There's all sorts of mutations of. Of breast surgery that we do now that I just don't feel like it's really well understood. I hope it becomes more and more the. The norm that that's an easy discussion or people have watched or learned enough from what we're trying to. To share that they can make a better decision.

Yes, I know. I also have not shared that I had a fat transfer with you guys. And looking back, I feel like I wish I would have done it just all at once. One thing. Just get it over with. Yeah. But I was also that stage of my life where my daughter was a baby and I should. I shouldn't. I. But now I feel someone would ask me. I feel like I would have just done it at the same time because my recovery, even with the fat transfer was just a walk in the park. Easy peasy. I think I drove on day two.

I think the. The. And I had a consult with somebody earlier today, in fact, and running the sharp method, the. The system we have in place, I think with preparation leads to, for me more comfort with doing more surgery at the same time. So doing an explant with a lift and a fat transfer or doing a fat transfer, I don't feel.

Like you have to break it up.

Yeah, I don't feel like it's too much. And there's always concerns about toxicity and things in our patients. But we look at all that pre op, we look at toxicity, burden, and we work with you to get that down pre op. So the more Runway we have, to Erica's point being a revisionist, we could get back and, and do it all at one time. And we had talked about that, you know, with her, that was not her focus at that time.

So, yes, that was the least of my worries. I just wanted to feel good. I didn't care what I look like.

Right. And that's, you know, ultimately, first and foremost, we want everybody to get feeling well as soon as possible, always. And that being said, I know there's going to be concerns down the road and whatever we can do to help with those, you know, we will so. And arrogant, like she said, has had a fat transfer now. And I always, I always, since we brought that up, I always label the discussion or define the discussion this way. A fat transfer can't give projection because an implant presses tissue out. Fat is, you know, compressible. It's soft. It's not going to do that. And it's nice for volume. But if you want to match, like volumes, and the average match would be like 305, 350, something like that, that's typically two transfers. And it's not hard to do. It's just. That's the, the nature of what you're doing. And it's always better to be. Eric is not a big person. So I had a patient today. He was a little bit older than Erica, had a little bit more body weight, and I was like, oh, well, this becomes a much easier discussion because it's. If you take someone who's a size 6 and make them a size 4, take out their implants and do a lift and add fat, you're. You're basically doing a holistic mommy makeover. You're not really. Yes, you're not really. You're not going to get the same transformation. But most people don't want to be bigger. They want to be smaller anyway, and they don't want to be the same size. I all the time get the. Don't make me bigger. I'm like, well, it's impossible. How am I going to do that?

Like, that was me. I remember I kept calling the office and I'm like, okay, I just want to make sure. I want to be like, barely an A cup. I just, you know, just want a little bit. Just the tiniest thing.

Well, right, that's. And the thing with that is it was.

It does. It sits very differently than.

Yeah. And it doesn't look impressive from a. And maybe this will make sense. If you looked at breast photos your whole life with breast augmentation that became your norm when you looked at fat transfers, you'd be like, well, that's not a very good result. Well, that's the opposite way to look at it. Because the fat transfer results are never going to look like a breast augmentation result with an implant. Because they can't.

They can't. Yeah.

So it's not a fair fight. It's not apples to apples. Like, you don't compare a fat transfer to a breast dog with an implant. Just makes no sense. So I remember I have this patient, we use her, just kind of give an example and. And people look at it. Oh, that's nice. Like, that's. Because what you think is an augmentation is an artificial result. This is actually a real result.

Real, real tissue.

But that's the mindset. It's.

It's.

Yes, that's the problem.

That, that is really a problem. And I mean, I, you know, I fell into the problem and that's why I got my implants to begin with, just to fit what I thought was the look to get jobs in Los Angeles.

Like, oh, yeah, I've heard that. That story. I understand it. The modeling. Alexi Pana shared her story about how she was pressured over and over again to get implants by her. Her representation agent. I, you know, I don't want to overspeak it, but I was like, oh, man, that's.

Yeah. And it's crazy because I, you know, I was working at the time, but when I got my implants, I started booking jobs. I was so booked. I was turning down things at one.

Point because of that.

Yeah.

I mean, it was crazy. And she's like, yeah, I mean, she said this. It's very similar. But then was very unhappy overall.

Yeah.

With that.

Yeah.

And became ultimately dissatisfied. And all the things.

If I would have known now, all the things that I know now, I. And you know, honestly, I've just really, really changed my life since going into your office and getting an explant. And now there's. You can't find chemicals in my house. You're not going to find anything with red dye. Try and stay away. We do stay away from gluten as much as possible because we, our entire family is sensitive to gluten. I cook all the time. I also Share, like clean recipes. Because a lot of times, and you know, that's what I love about social media is like, right now we're educating people of what there is, you know, and that's the whole point is to educate people that think like, oh, no, I can't do that. No, you can. It's pretty. It's simple, you know, watch a podcast, watch a video. People who are sharing their stories because it's doable. And that's why I'm honestly just so happy sharing my story, as I've honestly met so many Women through the DM on Instagram and recently just got some messages on TikTok from sharing my initial explant story from January and asking so many questions, so many questions. And I think it's important so you don't feel alone. And just how you said almost everyone in your staff has had an explant. You feel that comfort and peace and, and knowing what you're doing. And ultimately everyone makes their own decision. You know, I have a lot of people in my life that have implants and, you know, not everyone is affected. And to each their own. I know, just for me, right, they were killing me. I mean, I'll never forget the thermography in your office. They're like, you are the worst case scenario we have ever seen. I'm like, well, that would explain why I feel like I'm falling apart.

Well, that's, you know, and I get asked all the. Can I clarify exactly, you know, who is going to have the problem? And of course I can't. You know, I have very strong feelings about who is more susceptible, either through genetic testing or our toxicity burdens test or gut tests. It's more of a compilation of things rather than one thing. But recent papers were published that patients who have harder capsules are having more of an immune reaction, which makes total sense. And I just feel like I've been like the. What do you call it, I've been put up now on different videos and people are just trashing me and stuff. It's. It's fine. I don't. Yeah, it's. It is what it is. You know, ultimately, if you aren't feeling well. I always say the same things, Erica. You know, this is a chronic inflammatory process, breast implants playing a role. You know, there is going to be environmental toxins. You know, you have some genetic, you know, challenges with detox. Like many, many of us do.

We live in a toxic environment.

Right? I mean, it's not anything new. I mean, it's just. Is what it is and you know, having better gut health and having a better diet and you know, all the things will ultimately help you. And then like you said, like every, it's not everybody's, you know, they're not going to all want to come see me, that they're not going to be able to come see me. We created that program really so that you can either, you know, be one of the millions of people who already stalk me, but then take advantage of, you know, what we've shown works well. I mean, it's proven, you know, now, case over case, year over year that we understand how, how better to prepare patients. That's probably the biggest contribution I like to make is, you know, helping you and other patients, you know, with this problem. But like on a whole, just helping patients prepare so that when they have a procedure, whatever it is, they recover better so they, they can get back to doing, you know, they're taking care of their families or doing their jobs or they just want to like live a life.

Live a life. A quality life.

Yeah. And the surgeons, to be fair, all the, the post op stuff, that's not the best use of typically a surgeon's capabilities. Right. They're technically the operators and I was just super curious about it and then built the team over time, which is, it's, that's been a challenge. You know how that is running businesses and yes, team buildings very hard. But I'm super fortunate. I, I really am.

Yes. No, yeah. You have a great, great team. A great team. And I just again, everything that from the following day post explained going in and using the hyperbaric chamber, which we now own. You do have one now. We did get one because I'm telling you, we. I've gone down the rabbit hole. We now a functional doctor out of Austin. So we still go to Austin all the time. We're there almost every two months. Okay. Hence me always visiting the. Well, I'm surprised I have not ran into you during lunch.

My daughter works there.

Does she really?

So we had to not, not that we don't go there probably as often, but she worked there all summer. Oh, well, it's, it's, it's, it's great for me because now she understands, you know, all the things that we talk about and emphasize, you know, in our practice and at home. Like there's, that's great food. Like you just don't really understand.

How.

Good the food is. Because when people say, oh, if I, I tell them like you got to cut out gluten, you gotta Cut out dairy and you want to be really careful with, you know, seed oils. And they're like, well, what am I supposed to eat? Like, well, pretty much you can eat anything. You just don't really understand what real food is. It's not that. It's not, there's, there's tons of options. It's like every fruit, every vegetable.

Yes.

Pretty much real food. Or, you know, we're in Texas and if you eat meat, that's fine.

Exactly.

A steak is fine. You know, I, I just chicken, you know, all the thing. I'm like, when people ask me that, I'm like, really? We have some kind of disconnect here because that should all be like something we're passing on to our kids when they're young so they don't, you know, misunderstand like how to protect themselves is really through their diet and from their environment. And all those things will probably hold them in, in good stead for as long as possible. You know, obviously I operate. I don't, you know, sit around and prescribe medications and do all the things because that never made a lot of sense to me anyway.

Yeah. So I will say, I know you do the en bloc, so you don't have that, those nerve pains. I never had to take anything at all.

We're super fortunate with anesthesia. They do ultrasound guided nerve block for us. Then we do nerve blocks in the operating room. And for the most part that takes care of the overwhelming majority. And then Erica, like she described, didn't really need much in the way of pain medicine, but we always have it available. Somebody could have, you know, a pain medicine need and we definitely want you to use it if you're having that need. That's. I don't do anything or spend any time patting myself on the back thinking that everything is going to be perfect all the time. But we have a lot of strategies in place already through our preparation process and pre op process to really just try to make it as smooth as possible. I don't really want patients getting narcotics. We already don't use drains. So we're really trying to limit opportunities to have infections or, you know, pain problems to the best of our ability all the time.

Yeah. You know, looking back, I, I thinking about one of the stories I shared and when I got those results from you all from the pathology, which I think is, is just so important and I love that you do that because I don't know if you recall that my implant, one of them came back with four bacterial infections on it.

Yeah. So We've been doing that PCR testing since 2019. So that's what Erica's talking about. When you do a traditional test, you do like a Q tip swab and send it off, and then the lab will tell you what's there. We transitioned out of that in February of 2019 to a PCR test. Remember, from the pandemic, you could do an antigen test, or if it was questionable, you could move to a PCR test. PCR test looks for the different DNA fragments, and we test for 150 different bacteria, fungi, which is mold and mycobacteria. And she had that on her implants. And then the pathology part, we send off to look for cancer.

Yeah, that. I just think I'm like, what if I would have waited longer? Like, God knows.

Yeah, I. I don't. You know, and people ask me, like, when does that happen? And, you know, the. The thing. The answer is life happens. Like, that happens through the course of your life. You know, it's not something indicative of when the placement happened in the initial operation. That's just not really an occurrence. It's all sorts of precautions are taken by everybody who puts an implant. So that's the least likely. The most likely is like the lady I talked to today who had a skin. A skin problem and she had open sores. And I was just like, oh, oh, oh, yeah. It's just like, well, just.

Body's probably rejecting.

That's the problem right there. I was like, yeah, anyways, that was like. I was like, this is bad. You need to, like, think about this. And then, you know, you know, get in touch with us. And if you're having or experiencing things like that, you know, try to reach out. We're happy to talk to you, but. Or reach out to Erica. They'll. They'll be happy to share things that, you know, answer questions. But yeah, you don't have to go about it alone. There's. There's more than enough people, you know, who are experienced now and supportive of.

Yes.

And sharing content and. And be able to answer questions. So.

Yeah. And I also remember when you asked me if I used asana, which we have asana. And you asked me, how do you feel after you use a sauna? I'm like, oh, my gosh. I've never thought about heating plastic in my chest at least once to twice a week at the highest temperature that the sauna goes to. I'm like, here I was thinking, oh, I'm sleeping so good. I was probably just doing a number on my Body, right?

Yeah. You know, I got in a bunch of trouble for that because the process is leaching. So when you heat something up, say like the, the, the plastic water bottle, the phthalates which are in the plastic get into the water and then you, the water, then you increase the phthalate burden. Like, none of this is that complicated. Chemical leaching has been around. You know, it's, it's a known process. And people got all pissed off at me because my patient Lauren, she always joked with me that she's like, I'm melting my implants. And so on her show we said that. And then, oh my God, you know, everybody got pissed. And it's still like the thing that they like to poke at me about, which is fine. You know, the, the correct terminology is it's leaching out of the shell. So the heavy metals or chemicals or whatever the shell components are, and there's a bunch of them, you guys can go online and look them all up. But that's where Lauren Bostic, my patient, had just a whole sheet, a whole page of heavy metals coming out, coming out of her system. And she would go into the sauna and feel really, really bad afterwards. And, and I, I don't, you know, have a handful, a hundred, or any kind of number to tell you, like, how frequently that will happen. I always say, like, if you go in your sauna and you don't feel well after you get out of the sauna, I wouldn't keep going in the sauna with your implants because I don't know how to, how to guide you. Like, that's a fair statement. I don't know how to, how to guide you. I do probably have the worst heavy metal test by a sauna user in the world in Lauren Bostic because she had a barrel sauna that went up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit or something, and she would go in there multiple times and stay, you know, for over an hour, her husband said. And I was like, well, that's, that's.

Probably not, that's probably why the test came out like that.

Yeah. And then after we did her surgery and repeated the test, they were all gone. So that's really the, the take home is. Yeah, everybody's different. And, you know, whether you, you know, want to buy into that or not, that's what happened.

And that's true. But I mean, the proof is there, right? I mean, I've done my thermography post explant and, and everything was green. In which I've shared the Images of the before where I was just totally inflamed. Red all over to post explant, and it was green, and it's just night and day. And, you know, I know everyone is different and everybody is different, but I know for me, the following day. And I'm sure you recall my husband saying, she looks different. Her eyes are just so white. Like, you look alive. And I've always been about a size 4 or 6, but when I had my explant, it was just like, the inflammation just came out of my body, and I was like a.02. So everyone was like, what? You're so skinny. And I'm like, I'm not doing a thing. It was just the inflammation, right?

Yeah. I think what happens is the, you know, the body's holding on to the. The fluid, and then whether it's a. A few weeks or a couple months, I've always given that range of, you know, the first three months, I see people lose like this. We'll just say £10.

Yes.

And it's really just fluid. I mean, nobody's losing muscle mass. They're not losing, you know, fat or. It's not any of that. It's just fluid. To me, it's just moving mostly out of the, you know, the abdominal or the, like, the trunk area in general, because people just hold on to a bunch of inflammation that way. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. That was. That was really crazy for me because I was like, whoa. And then I started noticing. And my friend that had an explant with you, I think she had it two years prior to me. Four years.

Yeah.

She was the one who. The day before my explant, she said, take a picture. So take a picture before so you can look at the difference. A month or two months. Which I did. And I'm like, I am so happy Lisa told me to do that because, you know, you see yourself in the mirror and, you know, you don't notice it. People are like, were telling me, but when I saw that, I'm like, oh, my Lordy, I look so different, right?

It is. Yeah. And, you know, I don't. I probably don't do as good a job with those kind of. Right. We used to do a lot more, like, right before we go back photos, and we probably should be doing more of those so that we have a few of those that are really striking like that. Because it does happen, you know, pretty routinely.

Yes. I mean, it's just crazy what having a foreign object inside your body will do to you.

Yeah. Over time, definitely a lot of chronic inflammation for sure. Well, I think first of all, I'm so happy that you and your family, you know, continue to come and and visit. Obviously, Austin go the well, we look forward to seeing you again. But I want to make sure that everybody can follow you because you share a lot of really good down to earth content. So what is the best way to follow you so they can learn more?

My Instagram is Erica Marie R. Awesome.

So we'll put that in the show notes too for everybody. Thanks again for joining us. I really appreciate having you on.

Erica. Yes, thank you again for having me. I hope my story inspires some women who are on your page. And again, feel free to message me if anyone has questions. I am more than happy to help and tell you about my wonderful experience with Dr. Whitfield and his team. Sam.