Source: TheGrio.com
An online model has written a book to warn women about the dangers that butt implants can cause after she experienced firsthand several rounds of illegal buttock injections 13 years ago that ballooned her bottom to 59 inches.
Courtney Barnes, 35, got the illegal injections at a party in 2006 when she was just 22, according. Since that time, Barnes, known as “Ms. Miami,” had become an Instagram star with nearly a million followers, but is now recounting her perils with butt implants as a precautionary tale.
The injections have now caused Barnes’ buttocks to become discolored and to sag, which has prompted taunts and mean-spirited comments from many of her IG followers. Barnes, who is now trying to get the filler removed, said she wrote her memoir to keep young women from experiencing what she has gone through.
Barnes suffered from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a mental disorder characterized by the obsessive idea that some aspect of one’s own body part or appearance is severely flawed and therefore warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix it.
“At one point I wanted a bigger butt at any cost, but now I realize it could cost me my life and that’s why I wanted to bring the awareness to other women,” Barnes said. “I was preoccupied and overly conscious of my body, of my shape, before I got my butt done.”
Before the injections, Barnes said she tried exercising and would do squats to increase her booty, but it seemed to be working in reverse. “When a girl told me about the procedure, I jumped both feet in on that. I already had weight issues and didn’t like my body, it was just a recipe for disaster,” Barnes told the news outlet.
Fortunately so far for Barnes, she hasn’t developed any health complications from the injections, according to surgeon Dr. Gonzalo Mosquera: “We see a lot of complications with that. Some patients get a lot of symptoms, a lot of pain, they can’t sleep, they can’t lean on it, they can’t rest. It’s an awful, illegal treatment. Fortunately, Courtney doesn’t have a lot of symptoms besides the size and the lumps but at any point in life symptoms can develop.”
Barnes said it will cost more than $20,000 to undergo reconstruction surgery, with the fillers removed. The procedure itself has its own health risks. Still, she says she will definitely get it done to stop the social media bullying. “I may look like a circus freak because of my booty but I am still a human, I am a daughter, I am a woman, I am an entrepreneur and I am figuring out life just like everyone else — I just want people to see me for me,” she added.
I Am Not My Body, But I Wanted a Bigger Butt is available at Amazon.