I am pretty tired these days, and I'm not sure how accurately I can convey how thoroughly ready I am to be done with this crap.  Really, though, I regret not getting better documentation of the whole expander portion of my breast reconstruction (I still feel it's important for people to have the option to see these procedures or treatments) so here it is... the photographic diary of my nipple reconstruction.  Please excuse me if my witty banter falls a bit flat these days... so tired... bleargh.

Many people (myself included) are curious as to how a plastic surgeon might construct a reasonably nipply-looking nipple when there is not a nipple to be had.  Apparently the process starts by making the nubby part.  For future reference, nipply-looking and nubby part are both completely recognizable words, usable in both Scrabble and all modern literature, and you will be highly regarded by the scientific health community if you use them often.

Anyhow... moving on... the nubby part of the nipple is formed by cutting a sort of flattened tin can shape out of your breasty flesh and this shape is then sewn together to form the nub.  You're welcome to flatten out tin cans at home to see this process in reverse action.  It might help.

While the presence of the nubby part does much to indicate a nipple, I have it on good authority from my plastic surgeon that a grafted-on areola is also important to the overall effect.  The skin that will be my areola was taken from just around my pelvic/hip area on either side... they use only a small circle but it's removed in a sort of eye shape so that the incision can be closed with less puckering.

I would hate to see the more puckery version.  Seriously, though, this is right in the fold where my leg meets my hip, I doubt I'll even see a scar in a couple of years.

After a wild night of celebrating the Fake Boob Fiesta, tiny skin sombreros can often be found littering the floor of the establishment.  No, wait... that's not a skin sombrero, it's my new nipple!

Since I was under anyway, the doctor also removed my port.  This makes me kind of sad... I kind of felt like a borg.  Also I'm convinced that vein-ready caffeine is going to happen any day now, and now I won't be prepared.

Tiny skin sombreros tend to come in pairs...

... and also in size large.  Or close-up.  Whatever.

After your new nipples have been properly affixed to your chest, the doctor covers them with tiny spongy nipple bundt cakes.  For protection and stuff.

Spongy nipple bundt cakes also come in pairs...

... and size large.

I felt pretty good right after surgery, but I always "feel good" when I'm trying to get out of the hospital and back home to my pets.  I swiped an extra sandwich and some saltines... it's sad when your cupboards are so bare that you're excited about hospital food, heh.  Those faint lines under my foobs were drawn on to help position my new nipples, by the way.  I think that someday I'll actually have a boobish crease there if I work at it.

So... my reconstructive surgery was at 7:45am and that night (just past midnight or one, so possibly even the next morning if you think that way, which I don't) my nipple decided to spring a leak.  I woke up my doctor and he said to just keep an eye on it and it would probably be fine... so I did and it was.  I felt bad to wake him up, but really it would be sad to die of politeness.

The truly hilarious part was that earlier that day my roommate had napped in my bed (I was being loud in the other room) with his pants on, and apparently some change fell out of his pockets.  This isn't so hilarious in itself, but when I stumbled out of bed holding my soiled pillow in one hand and a quarter in the other with some kind of drugged-up story about not realizing there was a boob blood fairy, it was hi-larious.  HI-larious.  Maybe it was the drugs.  Anyway, if there is a boob blood fairy, I am owed some serious back pay.

The other nipple was fine, which is somewhat anti-climactic.

Note: I have no photos yet, but I'm fairly proud of what I feel is an absolutely brilliant idea... I picked up some nursing bras at Goodwill and used these to hold my bandages in place.  No more tape to be allergic to; whenever I need to change the dressings I just unhook the cup, swap out the bandage, and fasten everything back up.  Genius, no?

UPDATE: A week later, the bandages (spongy nipple bundt cakes) come off.  As you can (faintly) see in this photo, I now have what passes for nipples through a somewhat sheer shirt.

A better view of the "through the sheer shirt" nipple.  This shirt looks fancy, but it's super soft and the doctor warned that I should always have a soft bra or undershirt on to protect my new nipples... apparently they're fragile.

My right nipple... looks kind of like a nipple.  My old nipples were very large and uneven and one of them was inverted; even red and angry these nipples are a visual improvement, heh.

My left nipple... even the plastic surgeon joked that the tattoo positioning makes it look as though the dragon is eating this one and... erm... doing what one does after eating something with the other one.  Pffft.  After everything is healed I hope to tattoo each nipple with a cherry blossom to blend them in with the rest of the tattoo.  I'd also like to cover a couple of my scars, but it just isn't in my budget.