BREAST IMPLANT ILLNESS

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    • info/resources
    • Explant info
    • About Me/Contact
      • Tara Hopko
      • Contact
      • My B.I.I. Story
      • YOUR story
    • BLOG
    • Survivor stories
      • Laura Bowden
      • Robyn Towt
      • Dee Hicks
      • Cindy Leach
      • Tara Armstrong
      • Roxane Vermeland
      • Kim Barden
      • Andrea Ottaiano
    • SHOP
      • My Book
      • Journal Your Journey
      • B.I.I. products I love

BREAST IMPLANT ILLNESS

BREAST IMPLANT ILLNESSBREAST IMPLANT ILLNESSBREAST IMPLANT ILLNESS
  • info/resources
  • Explant info
  • About Me/Contact
  • BLOG
  • Survivor stories
  • SHOP

Tara Armstrong


BII & CANCER WARRIOR

I'm tired...

If someone had warned me in 2013 that having a prophylactic double mastectomy with immediate implant based reconstruction would ultimately give me a much harder to detect cancer than the breast cancer I was trying to avoid, I would not be the bald headed, blank-breasted person I am today. 

If my surgeon had actually been honest with me in 2013, I would have never consented to breast implant based reconstruction because it demolished my life and continues to do so. I not only had symptoms of Breast Implant Illness, but I also had symptoms of BIA-ALCL that followed numerous surgeries and a multitude of complex complications. I went from working full time, plus coaching, to barely being able to work part time. Currently, I am on FMLA (unpaid) because I ended up getting Multiple Myeloma from my breast implants, and on 3/11/21 required a stem cell transplant to treat said cancer. Thusly, I am currently depending on the kindness of friends, family and strangers donating to my gofundme in order to live/survive. I am exhausted from trying to heal from damages that seem irreparable at times. My story is one that has many twists and turns and normally this is where I would break it all down, but rather than relive it, I want to give ya’ll the biggest lesson, LOVE YOURSELF as you are at all stages of healing. Love yourself so much that you won’t feel the need for a toxic medical device to define what society tells us is a feminine look. Learning to love yourself will save you from; implant induced itchy unbearable rashes, skin necrosis, implant failure, implant induced Increased cancer risk, hair loss, chemo, doctors calling you crazy and gaslighting you, losing friends, losing your sense of self, implant induced increased anxiety and depression, brain fog, pain—physical and emotional, etc. It literally took a pandemic to distract the doctors and hospital admin who blacklisted me (telling everyone I was crazy and blocking me from getting the PET CT I needed) in order for my primary care doctor to sneak a PET CT order in that finally lead to my Multiple Myeloma diagnosis last year. I lost so much and almost died because I thought I needed to look a certain way. I was terrified of life sans breasts. I was horrified of life without hair. My body has been a horror movie plot for almost 8 years. So, unless you want to live in a slow motion real life medical horror movie plot, implants are not the answer. I had not only faced my biggest fears, I have been forced to live them. And it’s a hard story to digest, but it is my hope that perhaps my story will help others out there know they aren’t alone and that flat out loving yourself is so much easier than 8 years of a medical nightmare. 

💜Tara


BLOOD RUST

BLOOD RUST~ by Tara Armstrong

Blue Lux, my most Crimson 

of truths.  

Where logic overrules emotion  

confronting a confounded 

fracture of  

practice, a rupture from 

one's breast.  

Incisions ooze chaos 

revealing beauty  

as they break down wounds 

to their 

etiology, a darkness that's 

been dwelling  

within for decades.   


Dearest Surgeon, grab 

your spade— 

spare me your scalpel—

release me  

to the dirt. I don't know how to 

flirt with 

life any longer. Don't hand me 

your displaced  

hope. My mutation is strong, 

depression stronger,  

don’t you remember what you 

saw under  

that light whilst you filleted me 

on your table?  

Paring down the mounds of 

flesh, skin   


sympathetic to surgeon’s steel

—my cage; 

blood-rusted shut. Don’t let 

my deeply 

anesthetized smile sway you, 

it's my mask.  

You're familiar with those, 

aren't you? There's  

no light left in me. You should 

have called it.  

Death has been a way of life for me. He  

came for my dad, but refused 

to let him wave 

goodbye to me. You came to 

remove the death  


of my father so I won't become

him. Bye-bye  

breasts. I sound so ridiculous. 

This carving 

has somehow killed the rest of 

me. I don't  

recall you warning me about all 

of the potential  

afters. After there will come 

sharp pains. After  

there will become what you'll 

see as just remains— 

remains sad, 

remains withdrawn, 

remains silent,  

remains hopeful for that 

perpetual black knight.   


Death becomes that pink 

ribbon, a reminder of 

how she didn't have cancer, 

but had the cancer surgery. Death of her breasts 

killed friendships,  

her job, her marriage, her 

dreams, her family, 

her.


Tara's Journey


    Tara Armstrong~ In the News

    Iowa city woman grapples with breast implant illness

    Iowa city woman grapples with breast implant illness

    Iowa city woman grapples with breast implant illness

    👇🏽

    read article

    Woman warns of breast implant complications

    Iowa city woman grapples with breast implant illness

    Iowa city woman grapples with breast implant illness

    👇🏽

    Read article

    what to know before you get plastic surgery

    Iowa city woman grapples with breast implant illness

    what to know before you get plastic surgery

    👇🏽

    watch video

    blessings for tara

    Cancer is something Tara was trying to avoid with her reconstructive implants, however, cancer is exactly what she received from her "safe lifetime devices"! 

     if your called to do so, please consider blessing Tara with a gift to help ease her burdens while she goes through cancer treatment 💞

    taras Go fund me

    Dear Tara

    Thank you for sharing your raw truth with the world! You are a brave badass and I know you've got this! Keep fighting and continue smiling along the way. A true warrior continues the battle, even when they have nothing left... that is true heart... that is your heart. Thank you for being my Warrior of the Month! ♥️Tara

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