These things are quite common, actually, and they may involve either the skin of the breasts, the nipples/areolae, or both. The good news is that in the vast majority of cases, these things resolve with time as the tissues heal; the bad news is that it is uncomfortable until that happens. The things that I have found to help are the things that I learned from doing microsurgery on nerves too. In many instances, when people have injuries to the nerves of the hands and fingers, they can become very hypersensitive as things recover. Often we use "desensitization" therapy to help things along. It seems counterintuitive at first, but in reality it works. The tendency is to avoid touching the hypersensitive areas because it is uncomfortable; sometimes people even put on protective clothing or things like silicone gel pads or "pasties" to keep things from touching the affected areas. These measures actually work against us, as the brain simply "turns up the volume" on the injured areas thinking that there is no sensory input coming in. The thing to do is to bombard the brain with CONTROLLED sensory input so that it becomes "retrained" for that area of the body, and it "turns down the volume" on the sensory input. Thus, I will have my patients perform a sort of desensitization regimen themselves, and it goes like this: they start off simply touching the affected area a couple of times a day, just laying their hand on the skin and allowing the contact and heat to stimulate the area. Then, when they can tolerate that, I have them get a nice, pleasant smelling and feeling body butter or oil and gently and lightly rub or massage the affected skin as they tolerate, gradually working up to full rubbing, or massage of the area. This may take several weeks, but the progressive stimulation seems to help. Other non-pharmacologic measures that may help are cool compresses a couple times a day to the affected areas, and elevation by wearing a good bra, even while sleeping, sleeping propped up a bit, and avoiding activities that stress the breast tissues, like running or bouncing, until things get better. I would also suggest avoiding intentionally applying heat to the area, like heating pads or even hot showers, as that will actually increase blood flow to the injured tissues, increasing swelling and thickness of the injured tissues and nerves, and possibly delay the recovery.As an adjunct, when necessary, I'll also use some medications that are more likely to help this type of nerve pain better than simple narcotics. In fact, there is evidence that ongoing narcotic use beyond the usual few days to a week that people need for acute surgical pain recovery can actually lead to INCREASING pain and chronic pain syndromes. Thus, I stay away from narcotics as much as possible. I use NSAID's, like Motrin/ibuprofen/Naprosyn/naproxen/Aleve, if you can tolerate them, as they will help not only pain, but also inflammation of the affected nerves. Then, if we are convinced that the pain is truly of nerve origin, and we need something in addition to those medications, I may add in medications like gabapentin (Neurontin), or Elavil, in low doses, as these will also affect the pain pathways in the central nervous system. These are all prescriptions, though, and they will need to be discussed with and prescribed by your doctor.These are some of the things that I do in situations like this to help my patients get over the hump. Every doctor has his or her favorite way to manage these things, though, so don't try anything without checking with your surgeon first. And most importantly, don't get discouraged as these things almost always go away. Good luck
