Tag Archives: nipple reconstruction

Nip, nip hooray!!!

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Nip, nip hooray!!!  I got me some nips!  Everything went as planned during the surgery and I am recovering well.  My throat is sore from the stupid ETT and my pee smells (anesthesia pee…yuck!) but other than that things are looking good!  This time they gave me these nipple shields that make me look like I have headlights (I will post a pic on the pic page).  They are funny, Liz thinks they look like mini fish bowls. Bahahaha.  They are a little difficult to hide under clothes, so I am sure I will get a bunch of strange looks when I am out and about.  I may decorate them.  No pain there though!!!! The Dr. Extended my lat scar on the right another 2 inches or so under my arm so that he could revise my muscle flap.  I think it was for cosmetic reasons to take down some of the bulk there, but that’s were I am sore. I will pos a pic of that as well.  I wouldn’t call it pain, more of a deep ache. He must have really manipulated that sucker, and the incision site burns a bit.  Not too bad!  God was looking out for me like he always does.  I am still in awe of the the skills He has blessed people with.  To be able to recreate body parts and make people feel good about themselves in what could be a truly horrible situation is remarkable.  Well done Dr. Greaney.

Lets hope the bad boys take!!! I will keep you all updated!

Addaniptomy

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Addaniptomy (add-uh-nip-tah-me):  definition- the surgical procedure of creating a nipple for someone with Barbie boobs.

Or at least that’s what my co-workers came up with when deciding on a new name for my nipple reconstruction.   Sounds so much more medical to me.  So there you have it…my made up name for what is to hopefully be my last surgery in this over year and a half journey.  Yes, we have attempted this before, and the outcome wasn’t stellar (duh, I have Barbie boobs) but if at first you don’t succeed and all that crap. 😜  One more try and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.  No biggie… tattoo city here we come.  This time, instead of just reconstructing from my existing grafts, they will be using a biological mesh under the newly constructed tissue to help add support and projection to my wimpy Casper skin. At first he (the plastics dude) had said he was going to use cadaver skin…uuuummmmm…I could have really given my nips names then…old Frank and Charlie, or whoever the past owners names were…bahhahahahaha.  That kinda weirded me out but he decided a mesh was the way he wanted to go.  Wouldn’t that be some shit if I did have cadaver skin supports and ended up having haunted nipples?!?!  Now there is a phrase I bet you never heard before…haunted nipples.  This is all set to go down next Thursday the 28th, and God willing things will go smoothly.  Yet another experience in this crazy journey.  Hopefully this time next week I will be shouting “nip nip hooray!”

One year

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One year…

365 days…

That is the amount of time that has passed since my surgery.  This time last November 13 (it was a Wednesday) I was still under anesthesia while doctors were completing my surgery.  In some ways I can’t believe it has been an entire year, and in other ways it feels like my surgery was decades ago.  I had someone ask me today if looking back I would have changed my mind.

No way. No freakin way.

I would do it again if faced with the same predicament (thank goodness that can’t happen)

The past year was quite an experience.  I have learned a lot about myself and others throughout this entire ordeal.  We are all souls that posses a body and boy oh boy did God do an awesome job when he created it.  I think a lot of the time, we as humans look at our bodies being the main entity that possesses the soul.  This is a tragic flaw of the human race.  Instead of looking at ourselves with the respect and awe that we all deserve we get hung up on the physical aspects of our being “why can’t my legs be smaller, or why can’t my nose be smaller?, Why don’t I have curly hair, I hate my waist,etc…” You get my point.  This year has taught me that God constructed my person to be an extremely tough, durable, resilient piece of artwork and I am thankful that he made me this way.  But he has constructed my soul from something tough like titanium.  I am way stonger than I ever imagined I was.  He has also blessed me by surrounding me with an extremely stong support system.  Family, friends, co-workers, doctors, nurses, physical therapists, even random strangers who reached out along the way.  What an awesome feeling knowing that I have multitudes of people who are there to cheer me on.  It’s unreal.  Hopefully someday I will be able to pay it forward to all of you who have lifted me up.  One can hope.

A lot has happened over the last 12 months.

I made it through my recovery, and I must say while it was a grueling process filled with difficult physical hurdles (did I ever mention that I hated PT bahhahahahaha) I  can look back and surprisingly not remember the pain.  There are a few things I do remember like the first time getting up to go to the bathroom right after surgery (OUCH!!!) the drains, and that stupid seroma a.k.a my third boob.  But, the majority of the pain I experienced I cannot remember.

I made it through the implant exchange with flying colors! I went back to work with full ROM in my arms.  It’s hard for me to explain what a big deal that is for me.  Since my lats are in the front now, I had difficulty doing a lot with my arms.  I went from having T-Rex arms to being stronger than I think I have ever been.

I switched jobs. I loved my PACU job and miss all of my co-workers there a ton, but I had the opportunity to work in the NICU which I have always wanted to do.  How blessed am I to be fortunate enough to help prevent myself from being a statistic of breast cancer and score my dream job in one year?!?!? Extremely.

I had nipple grafting surgery.  Unfortunately this was not successful, but if at first you don’t succeed, try,try again.  And I will.  I have an appointment in December to see when we can go ahead with the next attempt.

The thing that I am most proud of that I have accomplished this year was that I hiked the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim.  My good friend Regina asked me to hike with her and I am so proud of us that we did it.  This truly showed how “recovered” I was.  I spent 3 days carrying a pack that weighed 30 lbs. through the Canyon on a 24 mile hike.  I was worried that my lack of muscles in my back would make this too hard.  It didn’t.  Yet again, another example to the strength God instilled in my body.  AWESOME.

If you would have told me a year ago that I would be where I am now, I would have laughed in your face.  This year was far from rainbows and butterflies, but it has shown me what I am made of.  I am sure there are more hurdles and bumps to come, but that is life.

Oh what a difference a year can make.

I finally have me some nips!!!

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I finally have me some nips!!! Woooohoooo!  Everything went well today.  I got taken back to pre-op at 645, had to pee in a cup (oh joy), do a CHG bath, put on my purple sumo gown, answer some questions and sign some papers.  They started my IV, and the transporter came to get me and take it over.

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Nothing better than a purple paper sumo gown that blows up with hot air when you are cold.  Seriously!  The procedure took ably 1.5 hours, went to PACU, was there for ~25 mins then went to ambulatory.  I wasn’t having much pain but they wanted to give me a Percocet for the ride home so I ate some peanut butter crackers and a ginger ale.  Soon I was ready to go, got dressed and out I went. All before 1300!!!!! AWESOME!  Everyone was so nice, fortunately I had a lot of the same nurses and transporters so they recognized me from the last time.  It couldn’t have gone any better!!  I have posted a pic of what the reconstruction looks like on my pics page!  They did an awesome job.  Never in a million years would I have thought they would look so good!  He must of had to really manipulate my lat flap because I am sore on  the outside and I am a bit bruised, but only on the right…I go back in 2 weeks for a follow up, and then get my tattooing done in 3 or so months!  Thanks for all of the messages, phone calls, and well wishes!  I appreciate all of them!!!

Is this it?

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Is this it? Am I finally on my way to my last surgical procedure? Well yes I am! Hopefully this will be the last one!!!  It’s 506 am and right now I am on my way to Jefferson in Philly.  My mom came down last night to take me to my procedure.  What on Earth would I do with out her? Luckily I was scheduled to be the first case and need to be there at 700!  The 415 wake-up was a tit-bit early.  Bahhahahahaha.  Boob humor cracks me up.  So today I am having a bilateral nipple reconstruction.  I can’t believe the rough stuff is over, and I am already at this point.  The doctor said that it should be a 2 hr procedure give or take a little.  That’s a piece of cake compared to the 12.5 hr mastectomy and reconstruction I had. :)

Here is a little diagram from breastreconstruction.org that shows kinda what He will be doing today

 

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Pretty neat!  I will soon have 2 new body parts! I am so ready to have this be done!!!  Ok, time to get those volcanos 😉

 

Nipple reconstruction

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So I am finally onto the last step.  I had an appointment with my plastic surgeon last Friday to re-evaluate my readiness for nipple reconstruction.  The last time I was there, my scars were still too active to be able to proceed with this step.  He wanted me to wait a few months to see if things would settle down and “fall” into place.  Bahahaha.  Literally.  I have noticed that I am not symmetrical, but I didn’t know if it was just me being overly critical because I obsess a bit over this, or if I really was a little “off”.  The appointment went well.  He agreed with me that things were not symmetrical, and said that he could fix that when I go into the OR to have my reconstruction done.  He told me that it’s hard to get the placement correct because you never truly know how the implants are going to settle into the pocket he created.  I can’t say enough how much I like my plastic surgeon.  I really think that’s a large reason why everything has gone so smoothly for me throughout the entire process.  He was very pleased with how things were progressing.  Apparently I scar well.  That sounds like a bad thing, but it’s not.  My lat scars have almost completely disappeared, and none of my scars are raised like a keloid.  That’s ++ for me!  It never fails, during my plastic surgery appointments  I make him laugh (inadvertently) with something “random” as he says.  So as I have shown in a previous picture, my nipple grafts have hair on them.  Eeeeeewwww. Nipple hair.  Say that out loud.  It makes your nose wrinkle in disgust just saying it.  This REALLY bothers me.  The skin grafts were taken from my back, and apparently I have a hairy back.  It’s not like its dark hair, it’s very light and fine like my arm hair and you can barely see it, but I KNOW it’s there and it needs to go.  So, I flat out asked him how to get it to go away.  He laughed and said “I love how you had a major operation and the only thing that has really bothered you throughout the process is a little bit of hair on you grafts”.  He said the only thing that will really get rid of the hair is laser hair removal.  Just the thought of having that part of my body lasered makes my non-existent nipples hurt.  The only stipulation is that I have to have it done at least 2-3 weeks before my nipple reconstruction is done.  Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, it’s scheduled for July 17th.  I finally get my nipples!  Woohooo!  Anyways, I researched some places that do laser hair removal treatments, called around, and luckily I have a consult tomorrow and if I decide to go ahead with it they will do it right then.  I love it when a plan comes together.  😉 Talk about awkward phone call.  “Uh, yes, I am calling because I want the hair removed from my nipples”  I wanted to dig a hole and place my head in it.  Thankfully, they didn’t even seem to think it was odd.  I know they are professionals and do this all the time, but still… So, tomorrow I embark on yet another experience I never in a million years thought I would have…nipple laser hair removal.  Bahahahahaha. Thank the Lord that I still don’t have much sensation, because from what everyone says about laser hair removal, it feels like someone is flicking you with a rubber band over and over.  Great!!!  I will let you all know how it goes!