I had what's called a double mastectomy with free nipple grafts. Above you'll get to read about my surgery and recovery experience with Dr Garramone and my friends. All the super awesome photos you'll see throughout the links were taken by Jess T Dugan.
After my drains and bolsters were removed, I was instructed to keep the tape on my incisions for a week, put Xeroform gauze and Neosporin on my nipples for two weeks, and then another week just putting Neosporin on my nipples (all of which was secured and protected by bandaids). I was able to resume using my forearm crutches and lift heavier things at six weeks. I think I was fully able to lift my arms at two months.
Also around two months, when the ends of my scars where the drains used to be didn't ache as much when touched, I started to massage them with cocoa butter with vitamin E. I kept this up for a little while, but didn't really notice a difference in appearance of my scars or nipples, so I stopped. I did, however, continue to use it on my nipples every so often because the skin would get dry every so often.
I'm fortunate to scar really well, so avoiding things that might harm my scars has pretty much been all I've needed (waiting one year to go shirtless in the daytime*, taking care to not raise my arms too much, complying with lifting restrictions, simply just giving them time to fade, etc). However, others may want to consider treatment ointments and tapes due to personal preference and need. In that case, I would urge you to seriously do your research on ingredients in products and not immediately gravitate toward something just because it's expensive. A high price tag is not an indicator of effectiveness!
To this day, I still love my chest. I don't experience erotic sensation or much tactile sensation in my nipples, and I'm still numb in some places around my scars. I don't consider these things to be a problem, as I didn't have a happy relationship with my chest before surgery, and I don't typically notice where sensation is lacking unless I'm actively paying attention to it.
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*This bit was not included in my post-op instructions, but in my research over the years, that was the one rule that many surgeons had in common. My biggest reason for choosing to do this was because I have sensitive skin, and I didn't want to risk exposing my chest to sun-damage.
