My nipples. Yes, both of them.
No I haven’t had them reconstructed, but try telling my brain that they ever disappeared into the little dish for the pathologist.
Dr D has explained the concept of ‘phantom nipple pain’, to be much like amputees who’ve lost a finger/hand/arm/foot/leg etc.
Immediately after the mastectomies my brain was absolutely certain my left nipple was still there. I experienced an intense, red hot poker kind of pain, very specific to where my nipple used to be. Even after the explanation that the nerves (angry at being cut) were still registering pain and my brain just wasn’t processing it all yet – I still had to peek inside my top to get a visual. Yep – gone! Definitely not there!
As my family will attest – these little episodes left me in stitches (okay bad pun, even after the stitches had dissolved I was still laughing!) at the strange sensation. It was only the left one though, never the right.
Until now. For some unknown reason, my right nipple (well, as far as my brain is concerned) has decided to make a comeback after this last surgery.
Weird. But funny.
Encore Performances 
Leave a comment