Sarah Phillipe’s Chronic Illness & Healing Journey
Hi, I’m Sarah Phillipe. For much of my life, I lived under the illusion that health, success, and confidence came from control. I was a nurse for over 13 years, deeply immersed in conventional medicine. At the same time, I was obsessed with fitness and self-improvement. I worked out constantly, followed the trends, and finally, after years of desiring breast implants, I got them to “complete” the body I thought would make me feel beautiful, confident, and enough.
But within six months of surgery, the unraveling began.
What started as occasional fatigue quickly spiraled into brain fog, anxiety, gut issues, mood swings, hormonal chaos, neurological symptoms, and debilitating pain. I no longer recognized myself. And yet, every doctor I saw either dismissed me, offered a pill, or told me I was perfectly fine on paper.
I wasn’t fine. I was breaking down from the inside out.
Eventually, I realized that if I wanted to heal, I’d have to take my health into my own hands. I pursued training in Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, ran lab work, and uncovered a storm of dysfunction: adrenal issues, SIBO, parasites, hormonal imbalances, chronic Lyme, Hashimoto’s, neurotransmitter deficiencies, immune dysfunction, and a laundry list of symptoms to go along with it all. I radically changed my diet and lifestyle, addressed the chronic infections, supported detoxification, and started to see improvement, but I wasn’t fully well. Something deeper was still blocking my healing.
That “something” was my breast implants.
Infertility & the Decision to Explant
I’d spent so long believing I needed breast implants to feel beautiful, feminine, and worthy. But deep down, I knew they were also contributing to the decline in my health. And when my husband and I began trying to conceive, I was confronted with a new kind of heartbreak—infertility. I did everything in my power to fix it: changed my diet again, did mindset work, joined a fertility program, got rid of everything in my life that was toxic and didn’t align with having a healthy pregnancy. I lived as though I were already pregnant. There was even a time I considered PRP ovarian rejuvenation, IUI, and IVF, but at the end of the day I knew those things weren’t what God wanted for me.
Behind my efforts was a belief that if I could just get pregnant and give my husband a family, then I’d be complete. Then I’d be happy. Then I’d finally be able to give God the glory. All the while, my body still bore the weight of chronic illness, painful cycles, and a diagnosis of stage 4 endometriosis.
Eventually, after years of physical healing and internal wrestling, I said yes to what God had been whispering all along.
On October 11, 2017, exactly six years after they were placed, I had my breast implants removed. I had reached about 50% improvement in my health by that time, and after my explant surgery, more began to shift.
Within days of my explant, friends and family said I looked lighter & brighter. I felt it too. But I knew the real work was still ahead and it wasn’t just physical. It was emotional. It was spiritual. Intellectually, I knew this and still I chose to focus on the physical side of healing. Over the next couple of years, I was able to restore my health, but I still hadn’t become a mother.
Motherhood Was an Idol
Over the next couple of years, I was able to restore my health, but I still hadn’t become a mother.
What I didn’t see at the time, and what God eventually showed me, was that I had made becoming a mother an idol.
I wanted something that was good, but I was pursuing it in my own strength, hoping it would heal what only God could touch. I kept praying and begging God for a baby, but when the answer didn’t come, I kept pushing. And I put my desire to be a mother before God and it left me hopeless and broken.
And yet, in my deepest pain, God saw me.
God’s Redemption
Growing up in Christian school and going to church, I had always known the “right things” to say. I believed in God and Jesus as my Savior, but I didn’t know His heart. I was living in a spiritual desert: disconnected, ashamed, and stuck in cycles of striving and performance. God started to get ahold of me and I began leaning into Him, not just as a concept I’d grown up hearing about, but as my Heavenly Father and my Redeemer.
He left the 99 to come after me.
He broke through the shame of my past—shame I had already confessed but still carried. Shame the enemy used to whisper that I was a hypocrite. That God didn’t care about me. That I wasn’t worthy. That I couldn’t be forgiven.
But God tore down those lies. He broke through the walls I had built to protect myself. He reminded me that His love isn’t earned, it is freely given. He showed me that His goodness isn’t based on the outcome of my prayers, but on His presence in the middle of my trials.
In His kindness, He even removed the idol I had made of motherhood. Not in punishment, but in mercy. He took away the weight of that longing and replaced it with peace and joy. Through friendships, biblical truth, and a hunger to finally understand who God is, I started reading the Word daily. I began to see Him. To hear Him. And to truly walk in the freedom of His love.
Endometriosis & Excision Surgery
My healing journey didn’t end with explant sugery. I later had to undergo excision surgery for stage 4 endometriosis—something I tried every holistic route to avoid. But it was necessary, and I’m grateful to say I’ve fully recovered. I’ve reversed nearly every symptom I once battled, including Hashimoto’s, IBS, anxiety, mood swings, chemical sensitivity, and menstrual cycle irregularities and pain. And while my body was being restored, so was my soul.
Fully Surrendered
Today, I am no longer striving. I am surrendered. Lord, have your way. Your will, not mine.
God has given me a new identity—one rooted not in how I look, what I achieve, or whether my deepest desires come to pass. My joy is no longer based on circumstance. My peace no longer depends on outcomes. I am held, healed, and deeply known by the One who never gave up on me.
And now, I help others find that same healing, both physically and spiritually.
I walk with men and women through their own health challenges, spiritual confusion, and emotional pain. I help them uncover the root causes—physical, emotional, and spiritual—that are keeping them stuck. I use the same foundational, holistic, and faith-based tools that changed my life to help them find freedom in theirs. I am no longer focused solely on Breast Implant Illness, because I believe God has called me to a broader mission: to support anyone seeking whole-body restoration and soul-deep transformation.
If you’re ready to stop striving and start healing—body, soul, and spirit—I’m here. And I’d be honored to walk with you.
