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Christine Handy--Breast Implant Illness Story
41 Plays5 months ago
For the FULL INTERVIEW....please visit https://youtu.be/-TG-u0DZo74
Former Victoria Secret model, Christine Handy, comes out and shares her story of Breast Implant Illness and how she is advocating for women and teaching them that they are beautiful and how to believe in themselves. She is creating a movie called "Hello Beautiful" that inspires others to love who they are inside. This is an inspiring podcast of hope, healing, and love.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Breast and Plant Illness Hope for Healing. This is Cecily Henderson, your host. Thank you for joining us today.
Introduction of Special Guest: Christine
00:00:09
Speaker
I have a very special guest I would like to introduce you to. She is a remarkable woman spreading hope, faith, and a strong message of self-love. She's also a very accomplished author, movie producer, Harvard graduate, motivational speaker, and humanitarian. Her
Christine's Journey with Health Challenges
00:00:30
Speaker
story is one of perseverance and how she overcame several severe medical complications, aggressive breast cancer, and breast implant illness.
00:00:41
Speaker
As a former Victoria's Secret model, she recently appeared during Miami Swim Week as a fierce and confident flat model. Ladies, she is a genuine inspiration, helping women realize that their beauty does come from within. Welcome to Christine. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for having me. Thank you. it It is such a joy to have you on the podcast. As I was reading your biography and your book, just getting to know you a little bit better, I felt your compassion and the light that just surrounded you. And I'm like, oh, this is wonderful. I need to share have you share your story with others because it you know I want them to have hope. So I would love for you to introduce yourself and just share a little bit about your journey.
00:01:31
Speaker
Well, my journey is long and arduous. i was I started modeling when I was a very young child. And for now 40 some odd years, I'm still in the industry. But I had a couple decades of pause because I had first a colon resection, then a very terrible situation with my arm, then breast cancer, and then ultimately breast implant illness. So you add those up and it's many, many, many years of my life in constant pain and and physical agony and a lot of emotional duress. But what I've done since then is I wrote a book about my journey. I've um become a public speaker about it.
00:02:13
Speaker
i I still model. It's probably my main job. um I'm also a social media influencer in a positive way. I'm on the board of free nonprofits, and every day I wake up, I get to serve, and I get get to give people hope. and It's so important in every capacity that I do to do that, because I remember when I was diagnosed and I felt very little hope, and that was a very difficult moment for me. so That's a very short version of what I've gone through in the last 50 some odd years. Oh my goodness. Yeah. i i can I didn't realize. I knew who you were. I knew that you had gone through breast cancer, but you went through so much more. I mean, all all the things the the terrible things that happened, I i just couldn't. It it was incredible.
00:03:04
Speaker
you know to just knowing that you had overcome so much pain. so um So I had breast implant illness, although it was not defined or diagnosed necessarily at the time, which is part of the reason why I'm rambunctious about getting this out there, because people should not be dismissed for any illness that they have that is actually re actually real. But I had breast implant illness in 2019 and 20, well, probably before then.
Navigating Treatment During the Pandemic
00:03:34
Speaker
And a lot of my symptoms were, I was very foggy. My cognitive abilities were challenged. I had a lot of bone pain. I had a lot of swelling in one of my my implants, redness, pain. And ultimately in March of 2020, I was in the hospital for for this. And there was nobody else in the hospital because it was March 25th. It was either, there was me on one floor with three other patients. And then there were COVID floors.
00:04:04
Speaker
And ultimately, they gave me IV antibiotics for two weeks, and then they sent me home with a pick line for two more weeks of IV antibiotics at my home, which you know people think i v beny antibiotics in general aren't that big of a deal. I have a liver spot. from chemo. That's how big of a deal medication can affect your body. So these are not benign actions. And and by the way, it didn't get rid of e what was happening. So now four weeks of iv and IV antibiotics. Now a month later, I'm back in the hospital for the exact same thing, more IV antibiotics for five days, five days in the hospital. Then they sent me home with
00:04:53
Speaker
bottles of medication I was like, I thought it won the lottery because I didn't have a pick line when I left the hospital that time. So now 10 days in the hospital, ultimately they said I was fine. Everything was gone and resolved. And it wasn't resolved. And so by June of 2020, I was in the hospital in emergency situation. i you know I smile about it because if you don't smile about it, it'll make you kind of crazy.
A Pivotal Surgery Experience
00:05:22
Speaker
My chest was excavated ah at like eight o'clock at night with total strangers and nobody I knew in the hospital. Nobody could come into the hospital with me. It was June of 2020. There was nobody allowed. And I woke up without a breast. I mean, i I broke up with a concave chest and I had no idea what was happening. I had no idea.
00:05:45
Speaker
I mean, when they wheeled me back, I had 104 fever. I didn't even know really where I was. It was kind of not just loopy from the medication, but I was kind of loopy like 104 fever as an adult is really high. that was That must have been terrifying. It was terrifying. In fact, this is so crazy. i had my implant had eaten The infection in my implant had eaten a hole through my skin. oh my do so i'm I'm on the hospital bed and I'm obviously laying down. I can't lift my head because I was so sick. And so find so this doctor comes in with with ah an instrument that was kind of a long metal thing and I kind of could kind of see out of the corner of my eye and he put it in the hole.
00:06:32
Speaker
He wanted to see how far it went in. Gosh. And it went to the implant. And I jumped. I mean, the pain was so grotesque. And I went flying up off that bed. And they were immediately, that was it. They came over. They gave me some shot. They wheeled me back. And I woke up. And I had no idea what had happened. And I could feel in the middle of my chest, you know, kind of that space. If you have, if you have breasts, there's that space between. I could feel, cause I didn't want to touch the empty cavities because it was so painful. And I could feel that and it was really bulging and it was so swollen. And then I kind of moved my hand over and I could feel the vacancy. And I was like, what just happened?
00:07:23
Speaker
And it was a horrible moment for me.
Inspiring Others and Returning to Modeling
00:07:26
Speaker
And it was months later, months later when the physical duress was gone, finally, months, where I woke up one morning and I said to myself, I have to call my modeling agency. I have to go back to work. Because at that point, I was getting so many messages on social media from women who were like, how do you go outside without a prosthetic? How do you go with that tight shirt on and feel so confident and look so pretty? How do you do that? And I was like, I got to get on a bigger platform like New York Fashion Week or Modeling modeling in Miami Swim Week or with partners like Victoria's Secret to model lingerie without a chest to remind people
00:08:05
Speaker
Their self-esteem is their job to nurture. Their worth, my worth was not negated because my chest was excavated. I am whole. I am beautiful because my character is beautiful and I believe in myself. But if you don't believe in yourself, then you're gonna wanna cover up the scars. I don't need to cover up anything. So that experience led me to go back into the modeling space, like I needed another job. But I was like, okay, I got to go back into the modeling space so I can help other women. And man, we have made a splash. My modeling agency, my met my manager, the brands that hire me, we have made a splash in the fashion world. We have just taken it by storm and said, really hear me roar.
00:08:55
Speaker
Wow, what a calling. Oh, my goodness. And God's just going to keep putting these amazing things in your path because women need to hear this. yeah They need it.
Impact and Legacy of Christine's Story
00:09:07
Speaker
Oh, yes. They're so much easier. I don't need it when I was doing it. But my 20-year-old or my 30-year-old version of me, I needed somebody like this to say that. I needed it so badly. And I didn't i never saw that, especially in the modeling space. And interestingly enough, there was somebody that was working walking in Milan Fashion Week this past season, and she has a scar on her face, and they said, how did you get the confidence to model? She's beautiful, young. And she said, there is a woman in the United States named Christine Handy. And she was the one that inspired me. You have no idea who you're inspiring.
00:09:49
Speaker
um You know, so amazing every single one of us has a voice. Even if we have just a whisper, you still have a voice. And then the next day it might be a bigger whisper and and on and on and on. Use your voice. You have one to use it. We are a gift to the world. We should help other people. That is a privilege. that all of us have. We can focus on that or we can focus on what we get. It's so much more joy by giving out.
00:10:25
Speaker
Wow, Christine, thank you for the inspiring words. I feel like I've had a feast today and that the the upliftment and the light that has come from you. Thank you so much. and I just feel very honored and to have you today. Well, again, storytelling is unifying. So we're here to unify. Absolutely. Well, I just appreciate your advocacy efforts, your kindness and love, and for sharing your personal story with us, giving us words of hope. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you to those who are joining us on this podcast. Always remember, there's hope for healing. Christine, God bless.