Bilateral Mastectomy with nipple & nerve sparing

I think you can find pictures online. Unlike nipple removal, the nipple sparing with give the breast a more natural center of balance. Try looking up my breast cancer doc. Mayo would be posting patients pictures. There are laws about privacy there.
I was not able to keep my nipples, but for the most part i look the same as i did. Also, many pictures are taken before, so that helps with what the after will look like. If you have a plastics Dr and a breast surgeon you trust, know your looking and feeling beautiful is there goal too.

I'm very interested in hearing what Mayo told you about the success rate of the nerve-sparing + nerve grafting to restore sensation. Did they say if you would eventually get sensation back to your nipples too? I was told by a very experienced and respected breast surgeon that the nerve grafting doesn't work but I'm still considering it for upcoming surgery. Also I've seen pics from post nipple sparing with reconstruction and with good surgeons you seriously can barely tell anything was done, its truly amazing how good of a job they can do these days.

Hi Kelly,
I'm 3 weeks post-surgery from my nipple sparing mastectomy. I just had saline added to my tissue expanders so my breasts are almost the same size as they were prior. I am having the DIEP Flap procedure in December. My nipples look almost normal and I do have a little bit of sensation but I don't expect to have full sensation in the future. I should also mention that I had a bilateral mastectomy as I has DCIS in both.
I was able to find good post-mastectomy pictures on plastic surgery sites. I could compare implants vs. the flap procedure.
I wish you all the best, good luck with your surgery!
Mary
https://www.breastcenter.com/result-photos/nipple-sparing-mastectomy-photos/

I am still really drowsy from the surgery today. Happy to share that information when I am a little more with it :-). Thanks everyone for the replies so far!

Speedy recovery from your surgery. I will take some time though. It has been 6 months for me. I had the same procedure for dcis grade 3 on right and given elevated risk outcome for left I decided on double mastectomy. I’m just starting to feel like myself again. As the days and weeks go on ther will be less pain and more mobility. I do have some kind of sensation in certain spots but I was told it does take a while for the nerves to grow back if and when the do. Just has 6 month mri follow up done. He feeling or none feeling does take some time to get used to. Best of luck and health!
I had immediate reconstruction after surgury

@bolfk didn't realize you just had your surgery - Wishing you a fast recovery and hope you feel better soon! Take it easy and rest.

Hi. The best to you on your outcome. That's the best! I am seeing this doc, but I was not able to do the direct to implants...nipple sparing yes. https://www.michaelbatemanmd.com

So, my understanding is that Mayo has been doing the nipple sparing for about 10 years. I’m not sure how long the nerve grafting has been done there. As for the nerve supplying feeling to the breast, it is really hit or miss on if it works. The only downside that I saw was that it takes about 10-15 min extra for each breast in the surgery so a little more time in the OR. I went for it as I didn’t think there would be any additional risk so why not try? That was my logic.

@bolfk Thank you for the info and I hope you heal up soon. I'm going to look into that also for my next surgery to see if its an option for me. Good luck to you for your healing.

The "why not" is that nipples can get their own cancer, it's rare but does happen. Pagets, it's a type of cancer that affects the nipple, is slow growing but it's still cancer. I know, because I had it for a number of years, had breast cancer in 2005 & had a lumpectomy - this year, when I was scheduled to have the Pagets taken care of after putting it off for a number of years, found that cancer had also returned to that breast. I had a double mastectomy 3 months ago & did not want the additional pain and recovery time that reconstruction would require. Good luck on a speedy recovery.