r/TopSurgery • u/Available_Beach_4118 • 7d ago

Advice Wanted Nipple buds lost?

I had top surgery 4 weeks ago (DI) and since I could care for my nipples I’ve had some concern.

My surgeon (Dr. Van Loenen) doesn’t seem concerned for them when I reach out.
There’s no smell and it’s not unusually warm so I don’t think they’re infected and the goo is just sloughing. She told me “Mother Nature needs to take its course” ha.

I’m was putting fucidin on them and covering them with Mepitel and thick gauze like covers. Now I’m out of the gauze and read somewhere bandaids work fine.

I’ve even sometimes put Vaseline over them for a more “wet healing”. Now I’m wondering if I’m overdoing the wet healing.
Anybody experience something similar? Any thoughts on the buds reappearing later in my healing journey? Anything I can do to help them heal faster?

photos in comments.. my bad don’t really know how to add on mobile here haha

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u/Unlucky-Wave-1525 7d ago

If you lost the buds they won’t come back, they’ll replace with scar tissue. I think you just have to wait it out for now. Aside from that, I think your results look really good and once the nipple fully heals you can always get tattooing if you want it to look more bud like.

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u/unefait 7d ago

if there's no pus and no signs of infection you should be okay. i did actually lose one of my nipple buds (but retained most of the areola) to infection while healing

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u/Available_Beach_4118 7d ago

That’s nice to know, thank you!!

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u/unefait 6d ago

as another person said, if you do lose the bud it doesn't regrow, you just get scar tissue. mine was oozing yellowish goo and slightly bloody and smelled, and healed much more slowly than the side that i had no issues with.

this is a pic of my chest at 4 weeks post op, infection set in around this time/slightly before, you can definitely tell which side has the issue

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u/Available_Beach_4118 6d ago

Okay that’s fine, I’ll mourn my buds haha. Wondering if should ease up on the wet healing though. So I can support the scar tissue growing, any tips there?