"Pepperonis"

"Pepperonis" is a silly name my good girl friends would use when they would talk about going tanning in the beds..."I burned my pepperonis".  We grew up in the beautiful VA beachy sunshine and yet it was pretty accepted to go tanning under fake light.  Yes, I did it too a few times.  Yes, I have some lovely sun spots from my sunny days.


Anyway, I am amazed that I am now considering the non-nipple sparing mastectomy again.  At first, this was my intention and then I was pretty sure that I was going to keep my nipples.  Now I'm back to wanting to totally reduce my risk as much as possible.  Back and forth...kind of crazy to think I can be so swayed by facts and emotional influence.  I guess I'm lucky to have a little time to consider all of these options with leisure to make sure I am making the right choices for me/us.


Okay, so I was reading a blog about a non-nipple sparing procedure where she had her mastectomy and then weeks later went back in to have her nipples reconstructed.  The plastic surgeon I recently saw said immediately after the mastectomy he would cinch up the areola vacancy like a purse string and form a nipple.


Here is an interesting description of how a nipple would be reconstructed weeks after the mastectomy.  Takes about 30 minutes with local anaesthestetic (so you could watch it you wanted-cool and yikes!).  You wear little plastic cups for a while to allow the nips to heal without rubbing on clothing.  Looks like your nips are constantly cold:)