Nipples ....

I some how missed all these kind words coachvicky, Lori70, and bella2013. I must not have added this my favorites. Thank you so much for your kind words and sharing your experience. Bella that Is so awesome that you got your nipples. Hugs to you

I am 2 was out from my tattooing and they look amazing. Went to my PS today for my very last appt. (until 2028ish 🙌🏼) He said I look amazing and he’s sorry but happy to see me go. It’s rather bittersweet. This is hopefully the end of the surgical journey. But I will actually miss him.

TaRenee ... Great news. I am happy for you. I miss my PS also as well as his staff. I believe, like you, these people become so much a part of our lives and recovery.

Coach Vicky

HPFULL- yes nip recon can be done later after you have healed, however if a person has thin skin or trouble healing then they may not. Your surgeon will be able to give you specifics for your case.

I had my exchange surgery (expanders to implants) 20 January 2017 and nipple recon the following October with 3D tattoos in March 2018.

The nipple recon was a surgery.

Coach VIcky

cbk, did your skin stretch easily? Did you have radiation? For me bc of the radiation the skin is fairly tight, so the ps said she wouldn't use the skin of the breast mound. In my case they're planning to graft from the remaining nipple.

I’m waiting too and enjoying the break. Need to decide if I want to bother with fat grafting.

I’m having my nipples done this Friday. Bandages stay on for minimum 5 days post-surgery and you can’t get that area wet during that time. Depending how the aureole takes on surgery it may not be necessary for me to have additional tattoo work.

Skin will be taken from my existing breast and molded into my new nipples. I have quite a few other revisions I’m doing at the same time; fixing capsular contracture on one side, slightly sizing down both implants and liposuction on donor sight of lat flap. Yikes.

I’m very interested in others input as well especially those that had surgery to reconstruct!

CBK, I had nipple reconstruction and it went really well. Don't be worried if they protrude a lot at first--they will go down! I also had some fat grafting from my stomach and that was the most painful part. I had to wear pants and skirts with elastic waists for several weeks because it hurt to wear anything that zipped. Still, I was really happy with the reconstructed nips. I had them tattooed about a year later, and they're definitely the best part of the reconstruction.

CBK you sound like me with all those revisions!! Its been a long road. BMX and TEs Jan 2017. Implant exchange April 2017. I have had 3 revisions so far, with 2 different surgeons. Scheduled this Thurs with PS #4 to do some fg on one side, then in 3 months he will revise the other side that was completely botched by previous PS and do more fg. Once that is all healed, I am having him give me the cherries on top...Nipples!!! So I probably will be looking at next spring for tats. This thread doesn't get much action, but I have it in my favorites as I am def going to proceed with nip recon. I would love it if you give updates as you heal. Best wishes for a great outcome!!

Hi CBK...one more day!! I am glad you have a surgeon you can trust and she is compassionate. That goes a long way and you would think PS dealing with breast cancer survivors would always be so, but unfortunately I have not found that to be the case. Did you have all that work..downsizing, capsulectomy and pocket work last Friday along with the nipples? I am surprised the nipples could be done at the same time as those revisions!!

My implants are pre-pec. The first PS recommended those instead of sub pec because he said it is a much easier recovery and no animation deformity. But I kind of feel like I would not have had all these complications and revisions had they been placed sub pec!! The sad part is, the results were beautiful after the 1st exchange. The problem was, the pockets were too loose and the implants were ultra high profile. They kept flipping over backwards.....flat part facing out. Not cute!! I would have let him revise but he wanted to go BIGGER which was out of the question for me. They were already bigger than I wanted and heavy! Also he does not do fg or nipples. Tried to convince me time and time again to just get 3D tats. Said nip recon just flattens out anyway, its another procedure blah blah blah. But I have chatted with women here that are very happy with their recon. I think he just didn't have experience with it.

So I moved on to PS2. She was compassionate and also did beautiful work but didn't add alloderm to one side and it resulted in that implant falling 2" below the other. Then she stopped par before I could get in for her to fix it. I found PS3 and what a fiasco that was!! He left me with a completely deformed left side. The lateral and IMF areas are completely flat due to extra tight deep internal sutures. He had me come back to fix it under local anesthesia and when he closed he did the exact same thing. So I endured the 2nd revision with him to fix his screw up for nothing. I was devastated. My beautiful reconstruction now looks like a 10 year old did it! He actually wanted me to come back for a 3rd time and let him fix it again under local AND let him do fg under local!! Umm.....NO!!!

I am hoping PS4 is the last PS I have to go through. We are on the same page, I just have to hope and pray he can fix this mess. At the rate things are going I am probably looking at Oct for nipples. Do you know how long after nipple recon you have to wait for tats?

Shoregirl- My PS is everything you could hope for in a Dr. travels overseas once a year with her own group to Africa and other underserved areas to donate her surgery services; burn victims, cleft palates etc. Honestly she is one of the reasons I made it thru these last two years; always provided a sounding board for the insanity I felt I was living through!

Yes all of those revisions were performed in one surgery plus the lipoectomy on my back. I developed a hematoma after exchange surgery on my lat flap side which turned into capsular contracture; since I knew I needed other revisions and nipples we left it to do it all at once. I downsized my implants very slightly 50cc on each.

I know pre vs sub pec.....so much to consider. My PS is not a fan of fat grafting in the least either so if you are comfortable she pushes for sub pec. But I could have went either way.

You had a very rough go of it. I don’t understand why surgeon could not make implants fit in pocket of the size you desired? Well hopefully all this can be remedied in time.

My PS says depending how this surgery takes I may not need tattooing. It’s a waiting game to know. She showed me some of her reconstructions where the aureole didn’t need to be tattooed!

SuQu31- I never had nipples that caused me problems in cold situations. Haha. My friends were all like why nipples they are such a pain? Never a pain to me! I’ll let you know how they look tomorrow after bandages come off. My PS does the nipple reconstruction when not combined with other revisions sometimes under a local; depending on the patients ability to handle it. But it sounds like you are having exchange and possible nipple reconstruction at the same time. Wow you had lat-flap with original BMX? How are you feeling with it?

suqu31

Hahaha! I don’t go until later this afternoon 😬. So nervous. Can’t see a thing behind the bandages I think they are actually stitched on. The bandages are these little yellow mounds that are covering my hopefully new nipples.

Yeah tell me about it with the lat flap, I had mine because my skin on right side would not support the size implant I wanted. It was the easiest surgery I had yet. I had no down time, I didn’t even take pain meds post lat flap. I went to PT after my first final exchange and my PT guy was brilliant. He had experience with ladies with lat flaps... so happy with him. He got me back into weight training. Which I can’t do now but I’m going to ask today to be sent back to PT after this surgery to recover better. I fear all that strength I built up I’m going to lose being stagnant here for so long.

Ok .....let’s see what the unveiling brings!! Be in touch later!!!

CBK, glad the nip recon went well! Don't worry if they protrude too much at first--they will go down! Mine are just enough that if I ever did go without a bra in public, the nips wouldn't be really noticeable.

I think you're supposed to wait at least six months until you get the tattoos. My tattoo artist wanted to make sure they were completely healed. I think I waited nearly a year but that was mainly fitting it in. My tattoo artist was about two hours away and had a waiting list. I could feel pressure during the tattooing but no pain. It only took about 15 minutes!

CBK I am so happy for you!! Now I understand how you were able to downsize and get nips at same time....you only went down 50cc. My 1st downsize was only 30cc and didn't affect my bra size. But with another 95cc downsized in Dec, if I had nips they would not be centered that was why I was asking.

I see you are in NJ. Not too far from Vinnie in MD Vinnie Myers in MD. He is supposed to be the best. There is even a thread on here just about ladies going to Vinnie! If you do want tats, I would recommend him vs your ps nurse. My 1st PS tried to convince me to have his PA do tats on me but he told me they do fade and I would need touch ups. I have also heard from some ladies that the medical grade tats do in fact fade and one gal even said ended up looking like the Target emblem!! There is another artist in Massachusetts that specializes in nip tattoos, here is his website Tat Artist Mark Corliss.

My ps told me he can make nipples by twisting up my breast skin or he can use the scar from my dogear incision that needs to be revised. Thats kind of interesting. I would think the scar tissue might not flatten out as much?