Kate Michalkova, a 44-year old former fitness competitor from the United Kingdom, has been "left in agony" by her breast implants which cost her about $6,000, the Daily Mail reports.
According to the newspaper, after undergoing the surgery in 2012 and increasing her bust size from A-cup to 34D, Michalkova was feeling "amazing", but four years later she started suffering from symptoms such as chronic fatigue, anxiety, heart palpitations, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome and swollen lymph nodes.
"I opted for the safest ones possible, and yet they've completely destroyed my body. I have been begging doctors for help for years and none of them connected my pain to my breast implants," she complained. "It wasn't until I saw people talking about it on social media that I even heard of the illness, and after joining a Facebook group of women suffering just like me, I finally felt like I wasn't alone".
The situation was further exacerbated by the fact that her implants’ manufacturer, Allergan, issued a recall for its products worldwide due to their alleged links to Breast Implant Associated-Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, a “rare but highly treatable form of cancer," the newspaper notes.
Having been forced to give up competing and even full-time work in 2018 due to her condition, Michalkova, who now works part-time as online fitness coach, seeks to save enough money to have the implants removed.
"I paid £5,000 for these implants, and now I have to save it all up again to get them removed just so that I can try to live a normal life without constant pain", she said. "They still look beautiful, but they're killing me and I feel like I have no choice but to have them removed."
