Don’t Forget About The Nipples
Did you know that, as of 2021, Breast Cancer has become the most common cancer globally? Early screening is so important and starts with an at home breast exam. However, I can’t stress enough how important it is to go to your yearly physicals, mammograms and to follow your doctor’s recommendation.
How to check your breasts for lumps
With October being Cancer awareness month, I can’t help but be reminded of Dana, our wonder woman feature, who shared about her breast cancer and reconstruction journey. I’m going to be sharing part of her story here but if you’d like to read the entire story. . . read it here!
Dana was one of our very first wonder woman features and quite frankly, she has had a hand in changing my life. You see, when her story was first dropped into my inbox, I was crafting an entirely different blog for the future. One that was around giving up the bra for a set of pasties. You know, those silicon shaped flowers or circles you stick over your nipples. You don’t have to worry about being a weather forecaster with your hard nips, wear your white shirt fearlessly. . . you get the point.
While I may not be living the bra-and-nipple-free “style” as much as I was 3 years ago, I have a whole new appreciation for my breasts and nipples. Don’t forget about the nipples. . .
I wouldn’t say that when I was originally crafting my pasties article that it was because I have shame around my nipples. . . I just really prefer to have everyone’s eyes (ahem) “up here!”
Dana’s perspective made me seriously consider not having nipples at all. Perhaps I have been taking them for granted, so much so, I literally cover them up for myself and other people. Incredible breast cancer survivors, like Dana, find their journey of recovery goes far beyond reconstruction. Once the body is healed, women want to still feel in-tune to their femininity and feel good within their own skin. Finding Pink-Perfect nipple prosthetics changed her life. Visit their website here.
Dana’s story is inspiring as she saves her own life by advocating for her health and shares the surprising trauma that comes with losing your nipples after breast reconstruction.
Here is Dana’s Story:
The impact of my most difficult battle in life led me to who I am today and what I do for a living. I truly believe that maybe I went through it and survived, just so I could help someone else make it through! Here is how it happened. . . As a child, I had watched my grandmother battle breast cancer and then pass away from it. Later I also watched my very dear mother, whom I was so very close to, go through the same battle. My mother's 21-year battle ended in October, 2017. I saw them both go through it all: mastectomies, radiation, chemo, losing their hair and eventually their lives because of breast cancer.
So I made a decision to be proactive and start getting mammograms earlier than recommended. I started at age 38. I had my second mammogram at age 42. . .
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It was after the second mammogram…
…that my doctor called and said they saw suspicious calcification in one breast. He commended me for requesting to have a mammogram done earlier than he recommended. He explained that they wouldn't have seen the change in my breast if I hadn't had an earlier mammogram done to compare. After the phone call, I started feeling my breast and felt a lump in the area where they detected the calcification! It was very firm like a marble and felt shockingly similar to the cancer tumor I felt on my mother.
I then had another mammogram with magnified views, an ultrasound of the lump, and two biopsies.
The radiologist said they found ALH: atypical lobular hyperplasia. They said, "You DON'T have cancer, so we recommend you wait 6 months and then get another scan." However, my OBGYN referred me to an oncologist surgeon anyway. I decided to go see her immediately.
My mother was tested for the genetic link for breast cancer…
…and, surprisingly, it was negative. Honestly, throughout this whole process and all the tests, something in my gut told me that lump WAS cancer! I was shocked when the genetic counselor said, "Dana, you’re more likely to get hit in the head with an airplane than to have cancer!" After all the consults and multiple recommendations… I still elected to have a double mastectomy with reconstruction.
I consulted with a plastic surgeon who recommended I have a skin-sparing bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction. He explained that if I kept my nipples the risk of cancer will go up because cancer could form around the nipple. Also, there was a risk of the nipple dying after surgery as well as a risk of the areola spreading out quite large.
Finding all this out was traumatic, thinking I would lose my nipples.
I liked my nipples!
To the surprise of all the doctors…
…they found two invasive breast cancer tumors when the pathology report came back from my double mastectomy. The oncologist surgeon called me and emotionally exclaimed, "Dana, you were right! That lump was cancer and from now on I will listen to my patients if they are adamant and have a gut feeling like you had! You absolutely were an advocate for your own health and saved your own life!" If I would have waited. . . the cancer would have spread.
Thankfully, over 3 years later, to this day, I am cancer-free!
This leads me to explain the immense devastation I endured from losing my nipples. I was ecstatic that I was cancer-free but extremely horrified that I lost my nipples! I hated to hear it when people said, "But at least you have your life!" That didn't take away the pain of not having a part of me that made me feel feminine, beautiful, sexy and whole!
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No nipples for a year!
I had to wait 8 months to heal before trying to reconstruct nipples and then wait another 4 months for areola tattoos. Such a long process after my double mastectomy! When it finally happened, unfortunately, the nipple reconstruction FAILED! It healed so well it flattened out (or some would say collapsed) and left me with no projection whatsoever! This happens because the skin is so thin after a double mastectomy. I still had the plastic surgeon tattoo areolas which made me feel a little bit better but I was still completely devastated!
I even ended up trying 3-D nipple tattooed. Unfortunately, they were just "okay," because they didn't give me a realistic look and had no projection whatsoever. The tattoos also faded within months and I was left with this emptiness and a feeling of not being complete. A very important part of me was still missing.
Not having nipples impacted me deeply.
My self-confidence was much lower and I was feeling undesirable. It was a deep painful wound. The absolute worst battle for me by far! I happened to be searching on the internet to look at others who had been through what I have been through and that is when I stumbled upon Pink-Perfect.
I found nipple prosthetics that looked so realistic, natural, and super easy to use!
I was in shock! I was so excited I couldn't wait to order a pair! I remember being so happy but also feeling a bit frustrated that no one had explained to me or told me that there was such a product out there. This could have saved me from all my emotional pain I went through these last 3 years! Suffering from insecurity, feeling unsexy and inexplicably feeling incomplete.
I'll never forget the feeling I had the first time I put on the Pink Perfect nipple prosthetics: I remember looking back at my reflection in the mirror and getting goosebumps looking at myself with a shirt on and seeing nipples pop out for the first time in 3 years! I finally felt complete again!
After receiving these absolutely gorgeous nipple prosthetics from Pink Perfect, no longer did I have that daily reminder every time I was naked that something was missing. Finally, I can actually stop and look at myself in the mirror! I see my reflection now with confidence! I can now confidently change with the lights on or take my bra off without a thought! I was finally feeling complete again! My family even said they can see and feel the positive impact these Pink Perfect prosthetics have had on me. I can say with confidence that Pink Perfect nipple prosthetics changed my life!
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After receiving my nipples, is when a chill came over me!
I knew in my heart I needed to help others like me! I now understood why I went through what I went through, as I stated in the beginning. Maybe we go through it and survive it just so we can help someone else make it through!
I didn't want anyone to ever have to endure the heartache, pain, tears or devastation that I went through: not knowing that there WAS a solution to help with the quality of my life after losing a precious part of myself. I wanted to prevent that from happening to anyone else!
“I can now confidently change with the lights on or take my bra off without a thought! I was finally feeling complete again!”
— Dana
Ladies, I hope you are moved by Dana’s story as much as I am. Her story reminds me that I need to be thankful for my body is the way that it is. I am sure that I may not be the only one who needs that reminder. My pasties article will continue to sit in my drafts and I hope if you consider not wearing a bra. . . skip the the pasties too.