Darnah Mercieca: 0:04

Welcome to the party, you guys. I'm sipping on green tea right now and it is so good. It's giving me life. I just recently launched my five step pre-surgery protocol and I'm so stoked about this because I've had so many women, as you can imagine, over the last three years asking me what did you do to prepare, what did you do to get ready for explant? And being a health coach this is a big part of why I created Empowered Explant is because this journey is more than just removing your breast implants. This is a journey where you get to show up for yourself and you can prepare your body for this change and you can transform your health. Okay, and it takes more than just removing your breast implants. I think so many times we get this like this false expectation on this journey that all I got to do is pop the implants out and everything's going to be fine Doesn't work like that. Sometimes it does. I'm not going to say it doesn't always. Sometimes some women are blessed with that, but more often than not, there are other things that you need to do on this journey to prepare for surgery and to recover from surgery that lead to healing.

Darnah Mercieca: 1:31

A quick disclaimer, please know I'm not a medical doctor, and this podcast does not constitute medical or mental health advice. I share from my personal experience, research and conversations with other people. If you're experiencing symptoms, pain, post-surgery complications or mental health concerns, please seek care from your medical provider or surgeon and please make any medical decisions in consultation with a qualified and experienced healthcare professional. Healthcare professional. So I put together my five-step pre-surgery protocol. It's in a beautiful 59-page PDF guide, super detailed, but today I want to kind of give you a high-level mini workshop into what these five steps are so that you can feel confident and organized. The five step pre-surgery protocol is, like I mentioned, a beautiful 59 page digital guide that I created. Here's a quick little sneak peek of it. I will post a sneak peek on Instagram for y'all and so you can see. You get this wonderful flip book and you also can download it as a PDF. And includes common mistakes to avoid my five step protocol, which we're about to go over. Quick wins and easy start guide.

Darnah Mercieca: 3:10

Frequently asked questions Post-surgery self-care tips and those self-care tips actually include I went too far. Let me go back, sorry. The planning section, just back here, also includes a surgery day checklist, as you can see. So, um, it's really cool. You can print out that checklist. It gives you what to do a week before and final tips and prep and all of the good stuff. So, yeah, you should be set up for success with this and it's like, really comprehensive. It is not blank, it's just flipping too fast. Okay, so there's a lot here, as can see.

Darnah Mercieca: 4:06

We talk about nutrition, we talk about exercise, all of the good things, emotional and mental prep, um, and it's really beautiful. So very proud of that, and right now I'm going to do a little mini workshop on it and go through what this is. So, yay, now, okay, full transparency. I was, um, I was sitting here preparing about 30 minutes before I went live and I was like, oh, let me put together some slides real quick. This is very ADD of me and it is just. It's just who I am. So I decided, 15 minutes before I came live, to put together these slides. They are nothing fancy, but it's going to help me kind of stay on track and and know what I'm talking about. And know what I'm talking about, okay. So welcome to my mini workshop.

Darnah Mercieca: 5:15

The five-step pre-surgery protocol. This is just a breakdown of it. You can consider this like the what, the what this protocol focuses on, and then, if you want the how, if you want to deep dive into this, then I recommend checking out the guide. Okay, but let's dive in in this guide. In the actual 59 page pdf guide, you can expect to learn how to find strength in mental and emotional preparation so you can face surgery feeling grounded and steady. The foods and habits that can supercharge your body's natural ability to heal, helping you feel stronger and more resilient before you even step into the surgery room. Exercises that don't exhaust you but support your body, boost circulation and set you up for a smoother, stronger recovery. How to reduce toxins in your life and create a clean, supportive environment that helps your body bounce back. And practical tips to plan out all the little details, because there are a lot of them, making sure that you're ready to take on your surgery without the stress and all of the overwhelm. Plus, you'll get a bonus printable surgery day checklist. Now that's in the 59 page guide. Today, let's dive into what the steps are. Okay, so that you can at least know what these five steps are that I recommend in my pre-surgery preparation protocol.

Darnah Mercieca: 7:09

Preparation protocol, step one mental and emotional prep. Now, I just don't think that this is talked about enough in this space, in this community. The mental and emotional prep is so important. So many times I talk to women after they've explanted and some of them are a mess. Some of them are great and they're like, oh, this is amazing. Some of them are a mess and I always find that the women who are really struggling emotionally during their recovery and their healing journey often are the ones that did not do any kind of emotional work prior. They didn't address any of their past emotional wounds or their whys or, you know, even really dive into why they got implants to begin with. And so healing past emotional wounds is huge. Reframing thoughts is really big. I have a whole podcast episode about changing how we talk to ourselves and just really reframing, rewiring our brain to start treating ourselves with love, talking to ourselves with love and having more loving and compassionate thoughts, and then bring ease to stress and worry. It's super easy to get into a spiral in this, especially with so much unknown leading up to surgery and even afterwards. But you know, really bringing in some techniques to bring calm and peace into your life, creating a mindfulness routine, bringing in some meditation, deep breathing visualization, meditation, deep breathing, visualization. There's a lot of great tools and techniques that can ease anxiety, ease stress and worry, and that plays a huge part in your physical recovery. It plays a huge part in how your body responds to surgery. So please spend time on this area. So please spend time on this area.

Darnah Mercieca: 9:35

Step two is pre-op nutrition. Okay, first up, I just want to say that quite often we get told that all we have to really do is change some of the things we eat or take or whatever, two weeks before surgery, and that's usually like our medical advice from our surgeon, which is accurate, because we have to follow that to make sure that we are safe during surgery. But there is so much more you can do to optimize your results, to optimize your healing, so much. So these are four points that I cover in my protocol for nutrition. First up, anti-inflammatory diet. Get on it. If you want my eat and don't eat list, go to. What is that link? Go to eat list. Yeah, I think that's it. Let me just test it. Yeah, eat listempoweredxplantcom. Okay, that will take you to my anti-inflammatory eat and don't eat list, so you can print that out. You can stick it on your fridge. Um, that's a great free resource for you, uh.

Darnah Mercieca: 11:08

Number two supporting gut health. Your gut health, uh, directly impacts literally everything. It's so important and it helps your detox system as well. So your gut is going to be pretty torn up from the surgery, the anesthesia, the antibiotics, all of that. So supporting your gut health prior to surgery super recommend that. Let me just turn my do not disturb back on, because it just turned off.

Darnah Mercieca: 11:46

Okay, enhancing immune function Once again, using nutrition to really bolster your immunity. Going on an anti-inflammatory diet and supporting your gut health is going to help with that inflammatory diet and supporting your gut health is going to help with that. But really making sure that you are focused on immune health because your immune system comes into play big time during surgery and surgery recovery. And also you want to stay healthy leading up to your surgery, because any illness can also affect your surgery. It might even delay your surgery, so that's also important. And then increasing protein hugely important for recovery. I have a whole podcast episode on that as well. Recommend going to listen to that. But leading into surgery, you do want to increase your protein intake. This guide talks about what that looks like in detail, but also you can go to the podcast and listen to the podcast episode. I have a free guide also on protein planning, specifically so that you can go and make sure you could do the calculations and make sure you're getting enough protein.

Darnah Mercieca: 13:08

All right, next step three pre-op exercise. So there's a lot of conversation about exercise after surgery and kind of the rehabilitating back into normal. You know, re-strengthening, regaining mobility, all of those things. But exercise before surgery can be really impactful as well. It's how you can get your body ready for what's to come and also it helps with your circulation. It helps prepare your body for surgery. So better circulation, better blood flow all of that actually impacts how your muscles and recover. It just affects everything as well as your strength. There's so much that happens after surgery and you are going to need your core and your legs and your glutes to be strong. That's why strengthening legs and core and glutes is really important. You're not going to have your arms, you're not going to be able to lean on things or push yourself up or anything. So really making sure that those foundational muscle groups are ready to support you and then getting good sleep and rest is critical as well.

Darnah Mercieca: 14:38

Pre-surgery, not just post. So all of that is I elaborate on it a lot more and give you some ideas for what types of exercise you should be doing prior to surgery. Also being gentle and strategic, like I point out here. Being gentle and strategic in your exercise approach because it's not just about like slamming it before surgery and getting as fit as you can, because a lot of the time I know I speak for myself when I say this, but my goodness, I felt like crap. I had symptoms, I had BII, I was not feeling well at all, and so it took a lot out of me to show up for exercise Um. But being strategic with your exercise, being gentle with your exercise um, and doing the right exercise leading into your surgery can be so helpful and it can really help you recover faster afterwards. So if you're concerned about the length of your surgery recovery, it would definitely be incorporating exercise into your pre-op protocol protocol.

Darnah Mercieca: 16:14

Okay, next up, step four toxin cleanup Even beforehand. So even though you've still got those implants inside you, you can start cleaning things up and getting your body ready to be able to detox effectively. Now, this is not starting a detox protocol necessarily. This is not starting an aggressive detox. So I don't want you to think that. I want you to think about this more of like a detox prep. But you are supporting your body in being able to detox naturally on its own. Your body is detoxing right now. Even with implants inside, it's just really struggling. All of the all of the detox areas in your body are blocked and overwhelmed and all of those things. So this is just about supporting your detox system so that when those implants do come out, your body's like oh my gosh, I can actually start detoxing effectively.

Darnah Mercieca: 17:23

So steps one to three help with this. So the nutrition, the exercise, the mental and emotional health side of things that all helps your detox system, which is great news. Then step four sorry. Then you want to support your detox system. So you've done those three things. Then you want to start focusing in on like okay, how do I support my liver, how do I support my digestive system and make sure that I'm peeing and pooping and all of those things that are essentially your body detoxing. So all of this comes into play and then you start to support your detox functions. You support your organs, you support your detox pathways and then you reduce and remove environmental toxins, because the last thing you want to do is add more to the load that your body's already carrying. So chances are there are toxins in the products you're using household products, body care products, makeup you name it. Toxins are everywhere in the food you're eating, it's everywhere. So, taking steps to start eliminating toxins where you can and this is a really big one so I give you more tips about doing that in the guide. But, yeah, I really recommend giving some, making some swaps. Now, you know, looking at giving yourself like a bit of an audit and then deciding what you can start swapping out, okay.

Darnah Mercieca: 19:35

Step five finalize your pre-surgery plan. Okay, so you've put so much effort into getting here right. You are preparing your body. You are taking care of all of the last steps that I've spoken about. You are taking care of all of the last steps that I've spoken about. This is a really important part of it, because overwhelm, stress, those nasty late night rabbit holes that we go down and dive into and can't pull ourselves out of, the nerves and anxiety that consumes us as we are getting ready for our surgery. It's not healthy and some of it's inevitable, because it's just a part of this journey, but there are ways that we can prepare and plan in advance to circumvent some of that unnecessary drama and headache in our lives, and that is my goal with Empowered Explant is to empower you with what you need to make this as stress-free as possible. So get prepared in advance, be informed and ask questions. Okay, ask the questions you need. So many times women are afraid to ask questions to their surgeons. Um, they're asking questions into facebook groups that need to be going to their surgeons. So, yes, use the facebook groups they're amazing and supportive and ask questions like in the groups as well, but ask questions to your surgeon, get informed. The resources page on the empowered explant facebook uh website sorry, the empowered explant website is a great place to start. So that's empowered explantcom forward slash resources super helpful. I've kind of curated a really nice bunch of information there that you can go to and get a well-rounded grasp of what all of this is. Also the empowered explant podcast over 60 episodes now of just binge worthy material that is empowering and informative and educational and and accepting and loving and kind. So go and check that out. Get testing if needed or wanted. The PDF guide includes two pages of tests that you can get if you need or if you want.

Darnah Mercieca: 22:36

Make time for self-care. Please make time for yourself leading into your surgery. Please make time for yourself leading into your surgery. Life can be so frantic and it feels like we can. We've got all this time in the world, especially if your surgery is a few months away or six months away, but gosh, that time goes so fast. So making time for self-care I think just any time in our lives can feel challenging, but is one of the most rewarding things that we can do for ourselves. Know what you need to do once two weeks out from your surgery. Be prepared for that in advance. Have a list of that and then have a checklist for your surgery day so that you're not getting to your surgery day or the day before and scrambling going I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. It happens. It happens more than I care to admit or see. So that is another thing that I've included in this guide for you. So, yeah, you might have some things you want to add, but it's pretty comprehensive and there's a great surgery day checklist in there that you can print out Um and some things to keep in mind for that week pre-op. So I'm all about making this as stress-free as possible.

Darnah Mercieca: 24:10

I'm a pretty organized person and I think that that's why, going into my surgery, I felt pretty calm and ready, because I was just like huh, kind of done all the things and like all of these lists and all of this that I am giving you I also had for myself. I'm just I've just refined it and made it better and everything for you. Obviously mine was just on like paper written down, but yeah it's. It's just so important to have all of the planning taken care of so that you can focus on you, you can focus on your emotions, you can focus on nurturing yourself and healing and all of those things, and it also eases anxiety.

Darnah Mercieca: 25:02

Anxiety really comes from the unknown, and there's so much unknown on this journey, so why add to it Like? That's why I'm always like control what you can surrender the rest. Control what you can surrender the rest. It's like my favorite, probably my favorite mantra on the explant journey. All right, so if you want the beautiful 59 page digital guide, visit presurgeryempoweredexplantcom. That's presurgeryempoweredexplantcom. Ps. It's only $11. That's it $11 for all of that that you just saw. I am not, you know, I just want to get this out and um, and I figured you could buy me a fancy latte for it and then we're good.