Where's my nipple?!

My sister-in-law said she had some questions that a friend of hers had asked. When they did the mastectomy, did they take the nipple? I told her that I hadn't had the bandage taken off yet, but I was pretty sure that they had taken the nipple. Then she asked if reconstruction was performed, do they give you a nipple then? I told her I hadn't investigated that but I assumed they were just rebuilding the form and not the nipple.

I went home and told Paul about this. He almost got ballistic. No nipple?! I want my nipple!!! How dare they take the nipple without telling us!!! Too funny. This obviously bothered him quite a bit and he went on Google to do a little searching. He informed me later that yes indeed, they had taken my nipple, but if we had reconstruction surgery they could rebuild the breast with a nipple if wanted. (How come I feel like the 6 Million Dollar Man - we can rebuild him!)

I saw my oncologist Wednesday morning and he said that due to the pathology findings from the surgery he felt that I should probably have radiation therapy to be on the safe side. That won't be started until about a month after the surgery to make sure that everything is healed. I will be going in 5 days a week for a shot of radiation for 6 weeks. My surgeon called me later in the day to give me more specific details on the pathology findings. She said that the tumor had been removed and the margins were clean. One of the lymph nodes was positive for cancer, but another lymph node was shriveled, obviously killed by the chemotherapy. She was very happy with the surgery and that we had gotten most if not all of the cancer. Yeah!

They don't recommend breast reconstruction surgery until after radiation treatment, and it can be somewhat difficult after that as the skin loses its elasticity. However, I am assuming that it regains a lot of elasticity after recovering from the radiation treatment. At this time I am not sure whether I will be getting reconstruction surgery or not. I am not fond of surgeries (who is?) but I will see how I do with a prosthetic and decide what will be best for me as I will have some time before making a decision. However, if I do have reconstructive surgery, I obviously need a nipple for my husband! :)