Nipple Sharing Graft

Daninayd · July 2013

I had a bilateral mastectomy on June 12, 2013. My surgeon was able to perform nipple sparing procedure at the time. Both nipples survived and look very healthy. However, after the final pathology report was released, the right nipple was sitting under DCIS and the bs recommended the right nipple to be excised. My plastic surgeon would like to do a nipple sharing graft from the left nipple in order to restore the right. I have been researching internet to find any pictures to see how the results may look like. I do not have access to the picture board on this side. Hopefully, at one point it will be granted. At the moment, even with the expanders my breasts looks pretty good. The incisions healed nicely and look like a tiny line drawn in the fold of the breast. The nipple grafting will be done in September during the exchange surgery. I am not sure how successful are those surgeries and would love to hear any personal experiences with that. Thank you in advance for sharing your stories.

Daninayd · July 2013

Bump

BayouBabe · July 2013

I posted about this same thing a while back, as this is what my PS is hoping to do in a few months after my exchange. I did not get any responses from anyone who has experience with this, nor have I been able to find any pictures on the picture forum or else where. I am guessing this means it is not done often? Please post again after your procedure in September. I am anxious to hear from someone who does this procedure and how happy they are with the results. If this remains a possibility for me, it won't be done until about December. Best of luck!

Daninayd · July 2013

Quick update. My ps will excise the nipple and areola during my exchange surgery. He will graft a skin from my abdomen and placed over the removed nipple and areola. The nipple sharing will be done at a later time. I will need some fat grafting to fill my upper poles and hopefully this will be my last painful procedure. I would love hear other stories.

Daninayd · July 2013

btw, my ps showed me a few pictures of nipple sharing. They look fine just a bit smaller. The problem with the reconstructed nipple is that it will never be able to erect when it is cold the way my spared nipples behave at the moment. I feel so bummed that after the exchange I will look cosmetically worse than I am at the moment with the expander. The real nipples make all the difference.

anniegrace · September 2013

I had a bilateral mastectomy. They did a nipple sparing technique on the right side but not the left where the cancer was localized. After the bi-lateral and breast reconstruction, my right nipple and areola was positioned so far to the right of the implant that it looked very unnatural. My nipple also protuded more than I liked and could be seen through tight work-out shirts. I felt embarassed because it was so far to the right and way off-center. The implants were positioned perfecly. My areola and nipple had always been off center and having larger implants (large B or small C) compared to the size A breast I naturally had, made the areola and nipple appear even more off center. As a result, last Friday (Sept 13th), I had what is called a "Nipple Reconstruction with Nipple Sharing." My areola and nipple on my right side was repositioned to the center of my breast and the nipple was divided and grafted to the left breast (not sure of the proper terms to use). I am hoping this works and the new nipple on the left side gets enough blood supply. It is too soon to know. I am being careful. I am reading about this and it is not normally done. Unfortunately, I can't remember if my right nipple protuded when I was cold or aroused after the bi-laterala and reconstruction and hope that if it did, it still does. I haven't had enough time to get used to the implants and completely know my body in this new way. I was numb in both breast and in the right nipple and areola and do not know if it responded as it did before the bi-lateral. I hope the right still looks good and the left does as well. After it heals, I will have an areola tatood around the nipple. There is not a single post of anyone sharing whether the nipple sharing technique "worked" or was succcessful. I hope to remember to post the results once the bandages are off and it heals. Breastreconstruction.org states nipple sharing is not done - "Historically, one technique included sharing a piece of the nipple from the opposite breast. This surgery is not used today, because it transfers breast tissue to the reconstruction that could potentially form a new cancer.". The breast cancer specialist who performed my bilateral removed the nipple on the left due to it potentially forming cancer and spared the nipple on the right due to her not being concerned with it carrying cancer so I am not sure if breatreconstruction.org statement applies to me.

baron25 · September 2013

All I could do was lay perfectly still and even then the spasms kept coming.For the next week, I lived on pain meds and flexeril.As soon as the expanders were removed on April 21,I felt better.I should say I do have fibromyalgia.I never felt like the doctor believed the pain I was having.He said he had never had anyone have their expanders removed because of pain.I still have a lot of tightness on the top of my ribcage where the Alloderm was sewn.I was not having expanders for implants,I was going to have microfat grafting,

Not-Me · September 2013

I am scheduled to have the nipple procedure on Wednesday. I am not exactly sure how it works, but they will be formed out of the existing skin/tissue in the area. Needless to say, I am fairly nervous about this as it is done in the office. Anyone else have this done? Thanks!

Daninayd · October 2013

Anniegrace and Notme, I was wondering how you are doing after your surgeries.
I am scheduled to have my exchange surgery on Oct 16th. At that time my ps will excise my right areola and nipple. We found out after my nipple sparing mastectomy that the right nipple was sitting on DCIS. After removing the NAC the ps will take skin from my lower abdomen and create the areola. At later time, after everything heals, he will do a nipple sharing graft from my left nipple.

As the surgery is getting closer I am getting nervous about the outcome. During the exchange my doctor will do a fat transfer to my upper polls. I have some weird divots in front of my armpits after the breast surgeon removed my lymphnodes. My ps thinks that this cannot be fixed.

Dani

aakriti90feb · October 2013

i have got a bit sad with your story,hats off to u that you were able to write it, i sometimes feel pain in my right breast and afraid to go to doctor,please tell me to conquer this situation

toni67 · October 2013

My surgeon wants to take some skin and fat from hip and use that to make a new nipple. It's been three years and I've yet to finish my reconstruction surgery. I'm thinking about just buying the pasties. I'm really not looking forward to any more surgeries.

Daninayd · November 2013

I am two weeks post exchange. During the procedure my ps had excise my right nipple and areola. He took skin from my abdomen (which left me with long scar) and closed the wound with the new graft. In addition, he did a fat transfer to my upper polls to fix some divots. After one week he took of the graft bandage and graft was purple. The blood supply was not good. I started immediately a Hyperbarric Oxygen Treatment. One week after I can see a small improvement but this treatment takes time and it is not a magic bullet. I am praying for the graft to take. We put ourselves through some much pain and disappointment could be emotionally devastating. I actually love the new boobs. They look perfect, with the exception that one of the areola is still dark and struggling to survive.

My nipple sharing graft will happen during another procedure in December. I hope that the graft will heal by then.

chrisden · November 2013

I am going to have the nipple sharing surgery on November 11th, I have breast reconstruction on my left breast and a small implant on my right breast to make them even, they are better than they were but I know they will never be the same, I am hoping this will be my last surgery with the exception of tattooing as I have been post mastectomy since 2009 and it has been a long hard road. I have not found a lot of information about nipple sharing via photos or survivor stories and that has been very frustrating, so I am promising to share my outcome once I've had my surgery if for no other reason than to give the next survivor a little more to educate themselves with. If anyone has a story or photos regarding nipple sharing surgery I would be grateful for the onformation.

Daninayd · November 2013

Chrisden, I hope that you have a successful surgery and easy recovery. I have not seen nipple sharing photos online. My ps showed me a few pics in his office. The patient ends with two small nipples. He sasy that the surgery is easy but I am afraid. I am still trying to heal my areaola graft and it seems to take foreever. I am exactly 3 weeks post and I am changing 2-3t imes daily the bandages for the areola graft.

The HBO treatments are definitely helpful. The graft looks much better now and I am hopeful that it will survive. The new skin underneat is pink. Hopefully, I can put the whole experience behind me.

Sneakychiquita · November 2013

Chrisden - Good luck with the surgery and please do follow up with us here. My surgeon has recommended a nipple sharing surgery down the road because my remaining real nipple is very long and I'm hoping to come out of this not requiring a bra most of the time (I'm small breasted and I'm still in the TE stage). My main concern is losing sensation in my remaining nipple from this surgery because I like the fact that it still works ;-)

Daninayd · November 2013

I am exactly 5 weeks post exchange surgery. The grafted areola started to heal but very slowly. In addition, I am doing a hyperbarric oxygen treatments every day that is suppose to help with building the healthy tissue under the graft. The middle portion of the graft started to scab. I am not sure how much of it will survive. I was hoping to have my nipple sharing graft this year but I do not think it will happen this year. My areola graft is still healing.

Crisden, I am curious if you had you nipple sharing surgery. If you did, how did it go? PLease share with us your results.

chrisden · December 2013

hello everyone,

I am 3weeks out from my nipple sharing procedure and it looks great! Both the donor site and graft are healing, in fact the donor site looks like nothing was ever done to it (other than it doesn't' protrude as far as it did before), and to answer your question Sneakychiquita it still works fine it does have sensitivity and becomes erect, I am very relieved at how well this turned out, funny thing a few days after surgery while my grafted site was still bandaged it felt like I had my nipple back again and it was itchy much like before my mastectomy, I didn't realize it, but to promote a healthy environment a "bandage" coated with an antibacterial agent was sutured to the area around my areola and was removed at the office 2 weeks later, it was a little irritating because it pulled whenever I lifted my arm too high (which I wasn't supposed to do anyway) and I have 4 sets of holes that are also healing around my areola. All in all I feel very good about this experience and I would definitely do it again. I hope that helps, if you wonderful women have any questions please ask and I will do my best to answer if I can!

chrisden · December 2013

hi Daninayd,

My graft is healing very well, it is pink and the doc is saying it looks like 100% took! I didn't realize how often these do not take! I'm glad I didn't know, that would have been one more thing to fret over for nothing. a week from tomorrow I go back to see if it's healed enough to stop using the antibacterial pads with gauze everyday. Looking forward to getting back to "normal". I hope you are making progress with your areola graft, are you still considering any more work after this procedure?

Sneakychiquita · December 2013

Hi chrisden,

Thank you so much for reporting back with your progress. I still haven't even had my exchange surgery so planning my nipple is a bit premature, but it's something I think about all the time. I'm glad to hear your surgery and recovery went well. Fingers crossed you return to "normal" soon. Please let us know how things turn out with more time.

Daninayd · December 2013

Chrisden, I am very happy for you that your nipple sharing was a success. It gives me hope. I hope everything will be perfect for you.

I am almost 7 weeks post op and my areola graft is 70% healed. However, the remaining 30% seem necrotic. The dead area created a one sentimeter diameter scab (size of a dime). It stayed the same for last two weeks. I just completed 20 sessions of hyperbarric oxygen treatment, which is suppose to help with healing and salvage the graft. Initially, I saw huge improvements but in the last two weeks things stayed the same. I was told that the HBO treatment can save the struggling graft but it cannot help the dead tissue. I am going to see my plastic surgeon tomorrow for a check up. My plan was to have the nipple sharing graft on December 10th but since my areola graft did not heal, I will have to postpone the surgery to early February. Hopefully, by then the areola graft will be in good shape to allow for the nipple sharing addition.

I am crossing my fingers to get back to normal soon. I am still wearing small pads to protect the areola and I am getting tired it.

Daninayd · December 2013

I saw yesterday my plastic surgeon, who did like the improvement of my graft. I had an opportunity to discuss with him the small tweaks he needs to make improve the breasts. My next surgery will be in early February to do have the nipple sharing procedure, some fat grafting and swapping my saline implants for silicone one. Due to a mix up, i woke up after my surgery with saline implants instead of silicone as discussed. The doctor apologized long and sincere so I was able to put this bad experience behind me.So I am really hoping that next time it will have a good outcome.

Daninayd · December 2013

I am two months post op and my skin graft, which was as big as dime finally started to peel off. I am a bit scared because the surface underneath is not fully healed and it is ozing constantly. I hope to have healed areola graft for Christmas....

Crisden, please let me know how you doing. I hope that everything has healed now and you have two healthy nipples.

Daninayd · December 2013

Today, the scab from my areola graft finally fell off. The area is almost fully healed. I will need to use a gauze pad in the next few days but the worst is over. It took 11 weeks for the areola graft to almost heal + 20 HBO treatments.

Daninayd · February 2014

On February 5th i had my bilateral exchange from saline to silicone. During this time the ps did the nipple sharing procedure. I wil go to see my doctor in three days and hopefully my new nipple will be pink. I had a rough time healing the the reconstructed areola. i pray that i will be lucky this time.

Daninayd · February 2014

my nipple sharing graft was a success. Both nipples are a bit smaller but look grat. I need only the nipple tattoo and three months and hopefully be done.

Sneakychiquita · February 2014

Good to hear, Daninayd. Congrats!

Lisamarie6864 · May 2015

Hi all,

Thanks for your posts...they were informative and encouraging. I just had the nipple sharing graft done on Monday along with some fat grafting. I had a larger nipple on the healthy side and my PS thought I would get better results with the nipple sharing. I still have the protective cups on so I don't know what it looks like. I will find out this Friday when I get the bandages off...hopefully it took. Will post after my appt

Daninayd · May 2015

Lisamarie, keep us posted and good luck. I hope that graft is successful. I know that his procedure is very seldom done.

I still have not done the tattoo on my reconstructed areola. But I will do that in September.

Lisamarie6864 · May 2015

Had the unveiling today....not too bad . The color of it is a dark purple but my PS said that was normal. Got the plastic protection cups off. I have ointment to put on it and some gauze. I have to be real careful and protect area. Hope it just keeps healing ;

Daninayd · July 2015

Very happy that you are doing well. I believe that you are all healed now and even enjoying some swimming.

nurseiam · March 2016

Hello Ladies! I am new to this forum. Had my bilateral mastectomy with tissue expanders on 2/8. lost the nipple on the cancer side but spared the nipple on the healthy breast. My PS actually encouraged nipple sparing because she said it gave her the option of nipple sharing. Since Feb. I have been searching in vain for information or photos of nipple sharing reconstruction and finally landed here. Most of the posts are 2-3 years old but I hope by now, some of you have successful experiences to share with a newbie. Thanks!

Nipple Sharing Graft

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