i'll give you a few basic replies, the op-experienced can answer other questions better.
- all breast tissue is gland, but the term is usually applied to the denser more fibrous kind that doesn't expand out, for whatever reason. it's as permanent as it gets short of a miracle, which i have not yet seen reported here, there is no other way to get rid of it.
- pain depends on the case. some have described it as like after a brutal workout. follow your doc's advice for recovery. some take it real easy for a week, a few others didn't have much difficulty getting around and thought they could even drive after a day or three, but play it safe, most won't do that. it's best to skip working out for at least a month, you paid to do this right and you want it to stay that way.
- timetable varies because scarring and swelling do also. some are mostly there after a week or two but realistically most can't be judged till anywhere from three months to a full year. rule one is don't panic after the op, and rule two is, everyone does anyway. sometimes it takes a whole thread to make them calm down
- pain: see above.
- going wrong is the exception and not really enough to worry about. most of the time it's in cases like a general surgeon who figures it's no different from carving out an appendix and cosmetics is unimportant, rather than a gyne-experienced ps.
- price varies especially by location. plan on $4-6000 US for total package costs, a surgeon's fee might run 2-3k of that but depend on severity etc, rest is usually anesthesia or hospital. in rare cases you might get it done for 1.5-3 total cost, but if you were in a costlier place like new york they might quote you 6-9k. i've even heard of 11-15 or more but that's complete robbery, you're only getting ripped off of your hard-earned savings, the top people are too honest to try that. there are some cases of people getting it done who've been happy for just several hundred plus a grand for the plane ticket and hotels, making it half the us cost with a vacation thrown in, in mexico, peru, india, costa rica, etc. it can have risks too, though they're sometimes exaggerated, which have been debated to death back and forth, but the fact is there do exist skilled surgeons in the rest of the world too, as well as charlatans, travel for ops is becoming a small industry of sorts. insurance rarely covers it in the us since they dismiss it as cosmetic unless it induces physical pain (apparently the traumatic other kind isn't real), but you could use the site search engine to find out about the new york case where a judge ruled it had to be covered.
- by nipple you probably mean areola, the around 2 inch area the nipple sits in. this normally seems to shrink after the op, ask your ps about. don't try to mess with it for maybe another 6-12 months if you don't have to. in extreme cases where a lot of skin had to be removed that wouldn't adjust normally, they've been moved. i doubt yours is that bad.
- for a so-cal surgeon, read through the us section of the find a surgeon in your area board off the main page, there are a few. you can also use the site search engine again.
- it would return for the same reason it appeared, irregular hormones, though i would think it would have less tissue to grow out from the second time. i'm not sure how you'd detect irregularity without tests though unless you felt a significant, non-minor irritation in the area again. but even senior-onset gyne doesn't strike everyone.
other people may have more detailed answers than this. for stories, there are very good ones in the "your stories" section and elsewhere, for the rest, the rest of the boards. i went nuts for months reading this website when i first discovered it. congrats on finding it