Nipple reconstruction

I went to amy black website on facebook for nipple tattooing.  Her pictures are VERY good.  I would like to know how many she has done and see more pictures though. 

I am having my nipple tattooed on Dec. 19th. Woohoo! The finish line of my BC reconstruction journey! I found a blog online that explained the entire tattoo procedure from one BC patient. I thought I would share that here.

http://nancyspoint.com/tattooing-the-final-step-in-the-long-winding-road-of-breast-reconstruction/

Hi ladies, congrats on your new nips.  I got mine yesterday.  Went to PS today to get bandages off. I also had fat grafting from my tummy to tops of implants to get the upper pole more even.  I love my new nips, I don't want them to shrink. They are perfect.  We are doing the gauze with the hole in it approach for the new nips right now. The nurses at PS said I need to know how to cut a snowflake and being in FL I wouldn't know. LOL....I told them I am on the lookout for elementary school children..cause I know they are cutting snowflakes for school this time of year. I am sure my co workers with school kids know. I told them I remember 3rd grade.  Anyone had super bruising from the fat grafting? I am in a lot of pain but the boobs seem a lot more numb since I got the nips. They just cut a piece in the middle of the breast on the skin.  I love mine, they look nothing like I imagined they would...they look so real! Like the old ones only slightly larger.  Is everyone happy with theirs?

On December 31st my New Years Eve celebration will include, a ride to the hospital, a ride into the operating room, fat grafting and my new nips.....hope they look like this: ⊙⊙

Di

Off to have suture removal surgery. Yippee.... My PS has to knock me out so I'm not looking forward to it. I have some sutures on the native lifted/augmented side that decided not to dissolve. They keep trying to come out and seem to be infected. Hopefully this is it for me other than areola tattoos. I'm 3 weeks out from my new nip and it looks pretty good! I'm going to have him tidy up the sutures while I'm there. Send out a prayer that all goes well please!!

Despite surgery starting almost an hour late and me not having eaten for 14 hours and being very grumpy, all went well and I'm home. Took about an hour. PS said I definitely needed it as I had a couple of nicely infected sutures which down the line could have cause real trouble. They just didn't want to dissolve or come out! Now I'm all cleaned out on my lifted/augmented side and he tidied up my new nip (which still has lovely long sutures sticking out!) as a bonus. And I got a lovely long nap which was nice since Tamoxifen has decided it's only real side effect for me is to give me nighttime muscle/joint aches which wake me up each morning about an hour and a half before I actually want to get up!

People, I had to really fight my PS to get him to pay attention to this problem and do something about it. Glad I did. Really pays to be proactive about your health!

Good for you lala.  I am having the same thoughts.  I am a week out and my "absorbable" stitches don't want to absorb.  They are tight and uncomfortable,sore and bruised.  Whine, whine.  I look like they went driving and threw me out of the car...lol.  Very bruised. PS says if they don't absorb, she will need to remove them.  I told her its a week later and I still get drops of blood from the new nips when they get wet in the shower. She only said be sure to keep some paper towels handy so the towels don't get stained. Hope they don't get infected. Do the majority of PS recommend ointment or not?  We are using gauze on them like a bandage and it seems to be get ting stuck in the stitches, not working real well.

probably a dumb question... Does doing the origami nipple make your foob smaller?

Got my tattoo today on my origami nipple!  Didn't feel a thing!  I use bacitracin & gauze for 4-5 days & can shower. I go back in 8 weeks to see how it has lightened & if it needs any touch-up. This marks the finish line on my reconstruction!  However, they are going to do a laser treatment on the scar on top of my DIEP flap to lighten the redness from the radiation damaged skin included in the scar.  I am so happy!

Congratulations Sharon!

  Tomorrow is my 1 year date since my BMX....and I am closer to the finish line....New Years Eve is my nip and fat grafting PARTY with my PS in the operating room of the hospital, since medicare is changing the rules and I can't have the surgery in my PS's surgical suite at his office  Love all his staff! (has to be a separate building). I hoping all my foobs surgeries will be over and I will only have to wait for tattoos.

Avoiding holiday crowds....since I do not want to get sick between now and the 31st.

Di

I have been hugged by my oncologist who I absolutely love.  She is great and I feel she really cares so I feel very comfortable.  Also my female Gyn always hugs me she also had breast cancer so she gets my issues well.   I guess I never gave it a second thought.

The only time I felt uncomfortable was when my last male Gyn gave me almost too many compliments on my breast reconstruction.  He did not do anything inappropriate, maybe he was just being nice but I felt a weird vibe.

Janet my last visit was not as nice. I am very happy with the work my PS did but my expectation were a bit high. Our last visit I was still talking up tweaking things. Even though he agreed some things are not perfect he did not think it was worth additional surgeries risking infections. I had wanted some fat grafting to give me more upper pole and he cannot do that at the hospital that takes my medicaid but agreed to do it for free for me if I wanted but I would have to pay for the anesthesia $2500 which I do not have. His last words were kind of like well you should be happy you had no breasts when you came to me after your BMX and now you have what looks like breasts on your chest. I did not like that. But I am trying to lose weight and I may go in for some more lipo.

My uni nipple has shrunk considerably also, I had it done last May. I am having Vinnie do the areola tattoo and hopefully he can help with the illusion . Otherwise I am just going to let it be, don't want anymore surgery to fix it. 

nips & revision for me on new years eve.....if the nips don't work, I will have them snipped off....still planning a vinny trip too.