I didn't have resconstruction and sometimes get an itch in my absent nipple and try desperately to find it to alleviate the itch. I usually laugh at myself and then take a couple of advil and it goes away. Probably taking the advil is a placebo effect but maybe it just dulls the nerves a bit.

I am not having reconstruction, but I get a pain right where my nipple was. Sometimes, it responds well to a tension relieving massage......as though it were from a pinched nerve.

I had double mastectomy with TRAM reconstruction. I have feelings that I have nipples. Sometimes it feels like someone is twisting them. The worse is the SUNBURN feeling. Advil or some type of different distraction is what helps. The plastic surgeon office says this is all recovery feelings. My procedure was done on 3/26/13.

For years I had an off/on pain like a voodoo doll in my chest. It isn't "phantom pain"! It's PAIN.
It isn't all in your head. The nerves they severed or damaged have not recovered. The pain is real but there is not much they can do.
Nerve tissue DOES heal and even regenerate! Unfortunately, while it is healing, there is often PAIN.
It's not whining. Just because they don't know how to help yet doesn't mean it isn't REAL PAIN.
HUGS

Yes, the itching! About once a week here. No idea how to get rid of it.