5 Years post surgery - cratering

[Bris_Tits]

Hi folks,

Its been a long time since I was last here but I see theres still activity in the forum which is a good sign

I had glandular excision in late August 2008 and have had mixed results. I say mixed because the one nipple is largely normal, but since 1 year after the surgery my other nipple has an ever developing crater that has also actually been slightly painful for the last year.

I'm been trying to understand the long term healing process for this surgery so as to avoid any further development of the cratered nipple. I first noticed it almost a year to the day after the surgery when I reached my arm up in the shower and felt a sharp tweak in the affected nipple. In the lead up to this I'd lost a fair amount of weight (fat and muscle) after stopping gym in mid 2009. I'd gone from about 71kg to 64kg which doesn't sound a lot but is actually about a 10% loss in weight.

I avoided any large ranges of motion in the arm relevant to the affected nipple and things remained stable (albeit unsatisfactory) for the remaining few years till a year ago when the pain increased and the cratering became more obvious.

I've just started back at the gym and am putting on a lot of muscle, and plan to put on even more which will see me get back to my old weight about the time of the surgery. Will this help or hinder the cratering problem? On the one hand I imagine that adding muscle will help 'fill out' the crater area. On the other hand I imagine that it will cause expansion of scar tissue which is currently interwoven with the few remaining strands of gland that are keeping the nipple from being a complete crater... ie: that it might cause it to collapse more completely?

I did revisit the treating surgeon about 10 months ago where he simply suggested ongoing massage as if this would help. Is there merit to doing this given its so long since the surgery now? I never did much massage of the tissue post surgery because after 2 months rest with no gym I figured the return to gym would give it all the 'massage' and stretching it would need...

Keen to get your insights... particularly as to how to manage it from here...

[Poobs]

A picture might be helpful. What did it look like immediately after surgery?

[Bris_Tits]

A picture might be helpful. What did it look like immediately after surgery?

It looked quite good after surgery. Definitely no cratering observable for the first 9 months at least I'd say from memory. In terms of pics I've got a great pic showing the gland but the restrictions on upload are too strenous at 128kb so you'll have to use your imagination lol.

Now about scar tissue / progression and how doing gym now might affect it...

[Poobs]

After this long your scar tissue isn't going down any time soon. You'll need cortisone injections for it.

I had quite a bit of scar tissue and lifting made no difference, I needed injections. Now my pecs look great. Obviously having big pecs helps as well and mine are pretty big (I have a four plate per side wide grip bench press) and I definitely think it helps with overall appearance.

Your best bet is to go back to your surgeon though. It seems odd that you'd develop cratering 9 months after surgery. No idea what would cause that.