Cover Story

Kimberlee Dannette Thomas is a Chandler, Oklahoma native. She relocated to Jackson County in 1986. She has five children, five grandchildren, is co-owner and creator of Eye On Magazine. She is recognized from her years of co-hosting on many Cable Channel 15 & 6 broadcast with Bud & David Black. She earned her Associates from ASUN in Fine Arts.

A Journey of Self Discovery and BII

Fatigue, joint pain, exhaustion, depression, headaches, vision loss, hearing loss, hair loss, anxiety, thyroid malfunction, throbbing pain throughout the body, shortness of breath, weight gain, cancer and the list goes on and on. What could cause all of these symptoms and illnesses? As it turns out, a lot of different medical maladies. It is that simple fact that makes diagnosing the real issue such a long and torturous road for so many women.

This story is about two such young women and their journeys to discovery, not only of what was ailing them…killing them, but of self-discovery and self-love. Along the way I will share important information cited from medical professionals and supportive web-sites. These two beautiful and courageous women are sharing their stories here in an effort to educate you the reader, so that you or someone you love may shorten the time it takes to be diagnosed and healed. Or, perhaps their stories will give you pause to do more research of your own before deciding if you wish to start your own journey.

Shannon Edwards Plemons is an Arkansas native, born and raised in Independence County. She is a vivacious and strong willed young woman. She loves her family with a fire and determination that would make a summer sunset pale in comparison. She is the mother of 4 wonderful children; Chaney 22, Cassidy 22, Chayde 17 and Creyton 15. She is also the loving grandmother a.k.a. “Sizzle” to six grandbabies. Shannon is no stranger to hard work whether it is on the family farm, on “the row” as she refers to the pipeline, or in the gym. So when she started to suffer from sever joint pain in her knees in late 2011, she brushed it off as overuse and age. In 2015 she married her soul mate, Jon Plemmons, and life was grand as they spent their days working “the row” together and evenings with the family. Two short months later her health took and abrupt turn, “Joint pain debilitated my whole body followed by extreme fatigue, thinning hair and along with other issues it all began robbing me of everyday enjoyment. I saw several physicians and underwent several vigorous tests only to be told I had auto immune disorders from an unknown source.”

Shannon would go on a daily regimen of steroids and ibuprophen. There were many days when she simply didn’t feel she had the strength to get out of bed.

“My life was steadily being robbed by this mysterious disease.” The pain was unbearable at times making it difficult to even accomplish simple tasks, “My mental drive to not fail my family and my faith in God kept me pushing forward to live.”

In 2018 her lungs started failing. She suffered from constant bouts of pneumonia and other lung related issues. In 2019 after a long series of test she was diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease from an unknown source. “My thyroid also failed so I was put on more steroids, antibiotics, nebulizers and sent for even more test.”

It is here that I want you to take note that twice in the span of four years she was diagnosed with a severe illness, but from an “unknown source”.

Shannon shared with me, “My body was growing weaker every day, a lot of times I wanted to give up but my drive wouldn’t let me. I still worked in the oil field every day and went to the gym every day, anything to try to keep my joints moving. In January of 2020 something inside me changed…I knew I was going to die.” Shannon’s skin had started aging almost daily, her hair was falling out, and breathing had become harder. Her vision was foggy and she lost total hearing in her right ear. The brain fog and joint pain were absolutely unbearable. “I prayed hard for answers, but nothing came.” Then in mid-June just a few days after her 42 birthday the answer came, “My friend Myrissa Rodely posted on Facebook about her breast implant extraction. I visited privately with her and after a brief bit of research I knew I had BII, I had 90 out of 100 symptoms.” BII stands for Breast Implant Illness. “It all made since.” Shannon recalled. She had found the “unknown source” of ALL her health issues.

Myrissa Rodely is a Newport native, born and raised in Jackson County. She attended college at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. It was there that she met her husband. They currently reside in Jonesboro with their two children ages 4 and 1.

Myrissa shared that she, “knew from a young age” that she wanted breast implants. “I was never blessed in the chest department. I felt having implants would give me more confidence.” However, she also knew that she wanted to wait until after she had her children to have the surgery. After the birth of her first child she attended a consultation with a surgeon in Jonesboro. Myrissa felt certain after the consult that she would have the surgery, but she also knew she wanted another child so she waited. In 2018, two months after the birth of her second child she attended her second consult. Myrissa shared, “In that consult, we talked about what size implant would best suit my body as I wanted to

look natural and not have big breast as that was never the goal. The surgeon did a great job helping me pick the perfect size for my frame. We discussed a lift as well. We never discussed Breast Implant Illness.” Myrissa paid very close to $10,000 the day of the second consult in order to secure a date of November 29, 2018 to have her implants and lift done. Myrissa was extremely pleased with her result, “My surgeon did a phenomenal job. For 8 months I was happy, healthy and confident just as I had hoped.”

Shortly after the eighth month mark Myrissa started having some issues, “At the time, I didn’t know what it was. I contributed it to the fact I was about to turn 30. So, after a couple of months with joint pain, random throbbing pain through my body, hair loss, shortness of breath and extreme anxiety I decided to call and schedule an office visit with a general practitioner.” It had been a while since she had seen anyone in primary care and felt she needed to become an established patient anyway.

Myrissa’s primary care physician listened to her concerns and symptoms and followed up with blood work. He also offered her a non-controlled anxiety medication which she declined in favor of modifying her diet and adding exercise to her daily routine, which they both agreed was a good choice. A few days later she received a call from the nurse informing her that she had a positive ANA (antinuclear antibodies) test. Myrissa recalls, “She told me that in many cases those are false positives. However, the doctor wanted me to come back in for more blood work to rule out any autoimmune diseases. Luckily, that test did come back negative.” When she went for her follow up appointment her doctor explained that her ANA was extremely high and he thought she might have Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis. “He wanted to keep an eye on things and told me to come back in if any new symptoms arose.”

A month later Myrissa would suffer a near debilitating anxiety attack while driving, “I had to pull over and calm myself down because anxiety kicked in and I thought I might pass out.” She contacted her doctor who placed her on a heart monitor for 24 hours and ordered a stress test as well as an echocardiogram. Based on the results of the monitor she was diagnosed with Supraventricular tachycardia and placed on Metoprolol. On a subsequent follow up she was placed on a low dose of Buspar, “The Buspar led to daily headaches, so I stopped that after three weeks.”

For another month Myrissa would quietly suffer. Only her husband knew the depth of her pain, “All of my symptoms were starting to consume my life and no one other than my husband even knew because I had no choice other than to go to work, take care of my kids and put on a smile.” Myrissa trusted her primary care provider but she still felt as if she was only treating symptoms and had no real answers as to the cause of her sudden illness onset. “I knew something wasn’t right. So, I asked myself, what have you changed since you got sick? The only answer I could come up with was that I had implants.”

Myrissa did a google search to try and get answers but she wasn’t finding a whole lot. She found an article where the FDA admitted that “maybe” breast implants were making women sick. The article was dated May 2019 a mere six months after she had her implant surgery. She felt there had to be more out there, “I needed more information and there is a Facebook group for everything today. I came across the “Breast Implant Illness and healing by Nicole” group and it had 112,000 women in it.” Myrissa began reading story after story of women who suffered many of the same symptoms she too struggled with. They had their implants removed and were stating that they felt like a completely new person. “I immediately knew what was wrong with me. It may sound crazy and sometimes Facebook can do more harm than good, but I am so thankful for that group and those women in it who vulnerably shared their experience.”

Nicole Daruda, founded www. healingbreastimplantillness.com in 2013 to share her story of Breast Implant Illness. It has since become the culmination of breast implant illness stories and medical information from over 100,000 women in the Facebook group, Breast Implant Illness and Healing by Nicole. Nicole states on her site, “Our personal experience of breast implant illness is the foundation of our wisdom and may it be of benefit to you. If you have breast implants or are thinking of them, please read this website and then join the Facebook group for support and access to important research.”

There is much more to Shannon and Myrissa’s story. I invite you to join me in the December issue where we will discover more about Breast Implant Illness, visit briefly with the doctors that performed both explant procedures and visit with the ladies concerning their recovery and life after explant. N