Being an online fitness trainer, Jenelle Butler, better known as @GetBodiedByJ on social media has helped literally thousands of people change their health, their bodies and their lives over the years. She’s a natural looking beauty, which makes it’s just that much more baffling why she decided to get butt injections in 2010, soon after the birth of her son.
“After I had my son I was going through post-partum depression,” Butler, explains in this exclusive clip from an episode of The Doctors. “I felt insecure about how I looked. I didn’t even know if I wanted to train anymore. I felt lost.”
The Atlanta-based mom-of-three decided to go with an unlicensed procedure.
“The word on the street was you call, you make an appointment, rent a room and bring cash,” Butler says. “You’re not supposed to ask any questions. I didn’t think I was in danger.”
Butler got a total of nine injections from this unknown man. Initially happy with the results, soon after, the silicone injections started to go wrong.
“Within two years, I started to notice issues,” she said. “I have pain if I sit for too long, sensations of itchiness, discoloration, indentations. Scar tissue has formed. It’s just rock-hard.”
Eight years later, her butt actually got bigger than the initial growth, but it the opposite effect she wanted.
“I started to hide what I got because I didn’t want people to stare and look at my butt. I did this to me. I allowed this to happen…At the end of the day, I just want to help save someone else’s life.”
Butler’s concerns intensified after she went to see Dr. Andrew Ordon, who said the implants were possibly putting her life at risk.
“It’s just a matter of time that silicone injections in massive amounts in the buttocks are going to create a problem,” Dr. Ordon says. “The big deal though, is that it could be life-threatening. Silicone in the body is like a ticking time bomb.”
According to the Silicone Body and Live Science, injected silicone can stay within the fat tissue, but it can also sometimes get into the veins and spread to other parts of the body, causing blood clots. If the blood supply to an artery becomes blocked, it can lead to limb loss.
That’s why we applaud Jenelle for coming forward and telling her story publicly, so as to help other women who may be considering this.
These foreign materials are not meant to be freely floating in the body. The patient’s immune system becomes comprised because the majority of the immune cells are being occupied fighting the foreign material in the buttocks.
Common symptoms are pain, burning, itching and swelling in the injection area, or skin changes. Patients can experience skin hardening because the pressure and scar tissue in the area (caused by the immune system’s response) impair the blood supply to the skin. As a result of the loss of blood supply, the skin tissue can start to die.
Even if women don’t experience health problems right away, they may have problems later. Mir said he’s treated women who had symptoms 15 to 20 years after their injections.
Very few U.S. plastic surgeons will treat patients who’ve had illegal silicone buttocks injections, one retired Las Vegas surgeon said. Many doctors are not familiar with the disease physiology, or they don’t want to take on a patient who has complications from something done by another practitioner.
In her video on instagram, she says, “Don’t do it. Don’t ever do that stupid, stupid stuff to yourself.”