Which Dr did you use and why? Did you travel?

[cth524]

I have a question regarding the Dr's that specialize in these surgeries. I am familiar with a few names that have came up in here but I want to know why did you choose them? Was it location? Expertise? I am from Tampa and I know for a fact Dr Rafael Carrion is a great doctor at USF health. He is a high volume doctor but off the top of my head I can't remember what the amount he does per year. Did anyone travel to get a different dr when you had one local? Dr Carrion is a cool laid back guy and feel he can get me to where I need to be. I've had 2 major surgeries in abdomen area which can prevent the reservoir to be placed safely he said but he would try his best to get me a 3 piece instead of the malleable. I just don't think I'll be happy with malleable but being my abdomen is so tore up he may have no other choice.

[Jage64]

I traveled 2000 miles from CA to TX to have Dr. Clavell perform my surgery. I also paid out of pocket for him to do it, felt strongly enough to pay 100x what it would have cost me to have it done through my Kaiser coverage.

I was first introduced to an IPP by stumbling on Dr. Clavell's youtube channel while looking for something to solve my ED. I had heard years ago about some deal where they put a pump in your ball sack and you pump up your dick like a balloon. It was all fun and games back then when my own dick worked, but now I needed something. Pills worked for many years, but now the side effects were getting to the point that the pain/discomfort of pills was equal to or worse than the pleasure of sex. Searing headaches, blue vision, weird appetite, acid reflux, back pain, irritability....no thanks.

I was never going to draw a syringe and inject myself with anything. That was a non-starter.

So, I made an appt. to see my Kaiser urologist after talking to my primary care physician and him telling me that he knows of men whom have had it and are very happy. He had little else to say. I met with the urologist, and he was very nice and took his time to explain things. I had a list of questions to ask him, thanks to FT, and he seemed proficient. He could only offer the AMS product, as that's who Kaiser contracts with. I didn't know what I didn't know between the 2 main implants. The most disturbing thing about meeting with him was he kept warning me about the horrors of oversizing the implant and causing erosion issues. I thought that was strange, since I hadn't read or heard of that being a big issue. When I asked him if he would lean toward bigger rather than playing it safe on size, he said he would for sure not be aggressive with sizing. Then he had me stand and he held my penis out and said "this would likely be your outcome". IT... WAS...TINY.

Right then I decided he was not the guy. He was not interested in maximum safe installation, he was playing it safe to just provide me with a hard short penis. I know how long I have been in the past, I know how long I can get in a VED, I know what my little guy is capable of, and that was not it.

I then called a very well known surgeon just an hour from my home. I thought it'd be very nice to be able to drive right home after surgery. More than a few on FT have had him perform their surgeries and are completely satisfied. I called and spoke to his staff. They were off putting, rude and inefficient. I was put on hold for 10 minutes, then when they came back on they asked what I wanted after having been through it all with another person. I was told that I could have a consultation with the doctor weeks later, and only after I went through a battery of tests out of pocket for close to $500. They would not schedule me until I paid for and completed the tests. I ended the call with them and had no intention of using that doctor.

I then called Dr. Clavell's office and was treated as I expected to be. Within a couple of weeks a video consultation was set up and I spoke with Dr. Clavell directly over a secure video link. I asked him my growing list of questions, he addressed each one (if he hadn't already as we chatted) and I felt extremely comfortable. He explained that he's on the aggressive side of sizing, that he offers both AMS and Coloplast implants and helps the patient decide on which one would be best for him. They both have pros and cons, and a doctor having just one style to offer means you get what he/she has access to, maybe not what's best for your particular penis or lifestyle.

I had already binged Dr. Clavell's youtube videos with my wife, and after our consultation we went back and watched them all again. Along with guys on FT and those videos, my questions were all answered positively. I booked the surgery a few months out to fit in with my travel/work schedule. I then proceeded to use a VED twice a day, every day, to get the tissue oxygenated and stretched out for my big measurement day in a few months.

Everything went extremely smoothly, I had very little pain, no bruising, minimal swelling and only needed Advil and Tylenol. I flew home 40 hours after surgery very comfortably due to the pelvic nerve block Dr. Clavell uses and haven't looked back. At 4 weeks I was cleared to cycle, and at 5 weeks for intercourse. During the surgery, Dr. Clavell was not able to force a dilator up into my glans on my left side corpus cavernosum. He stepped down dilators to see if he could work it through the blockage and increase dilator size incrementally. He couldn't get through. So, on the fly he carefully cut into my shaft below the glans and removed scar tissue that was blocking the dilator. This additional incision is what caused him to ask me to wait another week before intercourse, just to make sure it was strong enough to handle it.

To Dr. Clavell, the scar removal was no big deal. I'm thinking that for the Kaiser doctor back home with little experience in IPPs to begin with, this would have been a major deal. I'm not sure my outcome would have been as good as it is if I had gone the cheaper insurance route. After Googling the actual procedure Dr. Clavell used, I was happy to find that he had actually written a paper on the technique he helped pioneer and knew what to do, without question.

Bottom line for me is, this is not a slam dunk operation as some would lead you to believe. You're talking about your penis, your sex life, your manhood, your ego, etc. This is not the thing you shop price on, you shop quality at whatever it costs. I wanted all the options available to me, by someone who does it routinely but doesn't treat you like a routine.

So, I did travel and that's why.

[Gt1956]

Jage64, you did it the right way. Interview, ask questions & check their YouTube feed. Quality medical procedures are not something that you should rush to the cheapest provider. Fortunately you had the resources to get one of the best. Way to go.

[dg_moore]

I went to Dr Kramer on my internist's recommendation. I traveled about 30 minutes to get tbere.

[TangoGolf]

My local urologist referred me to their surgeon affiliated with their large specialized practice. He performed a few dozen implants a year. At that stage, I had done much less research than Jage64 had done before his implant.

I had read about Dr. Eid on FT and got up the nerve to call his office in NYC, about 5 hours from where I live. His staff scheduled an office visit about 6 weeks out. I figured I would get a second opinion and instead, during the consultation I got an education about the choices available, the potential complications of continued TriMix injections, the surgery itself, and reasons to choose a world class implant surgeon.

After that meeting I knew that Dr. Eid would be my guy if I chose to move forward with an implant. His extensive experience, compassionate manner, and calm confidence were the deciding factors. Four months later, I was implanted by him.

I had minimal pain and swelling, no bruising or discoloration, and was cleared for sex after 3 weeks. I have had no complications. My surgery was covered by health insurance, but my travel and lodging (for 3 overnight trips via AMTRAK and one 5 day surgery/recovery trip to NYC) were out of pocket.

Looking back, I was pretty naive, and IMHO am extremely lucky to have placed the call to Dr. Eid's office. Having my implant has dramatically changed my life for the better, and further reading on FT makes me confident that I made a good, albeit uninformed at the time, fortunate decision to proceed with Dr. Eid.

[Old Guy]

Chose my doctor because he was the only one I found locally that did implants. I knew nothing about the surgery and let doc pick everything. Sure wish I would have known then what I know now!

[crazyjoe]

My local urologist referred me to their surgeon affiliated with their large specialized practice. He performed a few dozen implants a year. At that stage, I had done much less research than Jage64 had done before his implant.

I had read about Dr. Eid on FT and got up the nerve to call his office in NYC, about 5 hours from where I live. His staff scheduled an office visit about 6 weeks out. I figured I would get a second opinion and instead, during the consultation I got an education about the choices available, the potential complications of continued TriMix injections, the surgery itself, and reasons to choose a world class implant surgeon.

After that meeting I knew that Dr. Eid would be my guy if I chose to move forward with an implant. His extensive experience, compassionate manner, and calm confidence were the deciding factors. Four months later, I was implanted by him.

I had minimal pain and swelling, no bruising or discoloration, and was cleared for sex after 3 weeks. I have had no complications. My surgery was covered by health insurance, but my travel and lodging (for 3 overnight trips via AMTRAK and one 5 day surgery/recovery trip to NYC) were out of pocket.

Looking back, I was pretty naive, and IMHO am extremely lucky to have placed the call to Dr. Eid's office. Having my implant has dramatically changed my life for the better, and further reading on FT makes me confident that I made a good, albeit uninformed at the time, fortunate decision to proceed with Dr. Eid.

Totally agree -- at first i did an office visit with a local guy who does a lot of implants at a local prominent university hospital -- he said I would lose 20% of my length because the tubes wouldn't go into the glans. I checked with the guys here and they said ditch that guy. Re Dr Eid, from this Forum I knew he was the most experienced and expert implant doc. So I had a telemed appt with him and went straight ahead. Loved the guy! And though my surgery was complicated by extensive scarring from injections, from his experience with complications he managed to drill through it in a 2 1/2 hour surgery. My healing was nearly instantaneous and I am very happy with my implant. I traveled a 3 hour flight to do it with him and would do it again in a heartbeat. I am glad to hear he may have restarted his practice yesterday.

[Txagq8]

I had not done the amount of research that a guy should (in retrospect) but I had done some. I had not been on this site for long.

I looked at 4 doctors: Eid, Kramer, Erin Bird (at Scott& White in Temple, Tx) and Bryan Kansas in Austin, Tx.

Unfortunately, Eid was a non starter. He didn’t take my insurance. Unlike many, I’m not made of money so my insurance was going to have to be accepted.

Kramer did accept my insurance. I would have had to travel to BWI. No big deal. Except getting answers from his staff was like pulling teeth. I called up wanting to know things like—-can I send you medical records ahead of time?to what address? What do you want in way of referrals? It got to where I couldn’t get a straight answer or a call back, much less coordinate for a Dr visit without a 3.5 hr plane ride. I’m not exactly Mr. Patience, so I said screw this.

My regular urologist was a guy in his late 70s named K. Scott Coffield. I thought the world of him then and still do. He no longer did surgeries or I would have just dropped my trousers and said “cut.” He recommended Bird, and I was going to use him, but there were some scheduling problems. We had met our catastrophic cap for year-if I got it done before end of year I would have no co-pay.

Dr. Kansas was able to put me on the table on Dec 31st. He did a great job, no complaints, and his support staff was superb. He didn’t lie, I lost some girth but no loss of length. It took a while to all come back. I bruised badly but recovered quickly. They (his clinic) would simply ask me how soon I wanted to come back in as I healed up and learned how to use the implant. In retrospect I think I would have done better with a Titan, but truthfully the end result with my LGX has been pretty amazing (girth is the only complaint, everything else especially my angle) is like being a horny 17 year old.

Temple & Austin are both 1 hour drives, I’m in a small town. Big question: who will do a revision when I wear this one out? I guess I’d talk to Dr. Kansas first, but I would want to know plan for fitting me (right now I have 5 cm of RTEs, and supposedly that’s not ideal). I might be inclined to head to Houston and talk to Clavell (3.5 hr drive, but this is Texas. We don’t think anything of driving 6 hours to go someplace lol)

To me, the best thing about my choice was being close enough to see the Doctor every other day or twice a week for the first three weeks or so. His PA actually watched me inflate & deflate until I was comfortable. It sounds ridiculous after 3.5 years but that first week, you’re still sore, bruised…you worry about pumping it up then not being able to deflate it. Follow up care in person might not matter to everyone but it did to me.

[Lost Sheep]

Welcome to the forum, cth524 and thanks for asking this question. It is an important one.

Once my surgery was authorized, I spent over a year selecting a surgeon. Two local surgeons, one in Seattle and extensive (emailed) conversations with Dr Kramer and Dr Eid (who had been mentioned extensively in this forum). Then a recently assigned surgeon figuratively (and literally) fell into my lap. I met with him once and was impressed with him, especially when he told me that if he were not in the miltary, he would make male sexual health (and implannts) his specialty. He listened to me and accepted my thoughts and I felt I was a part of my health care "team".

[Floridaspeedo]

I met with 2 doctors who performed implants Dr Cordone and Dr. Perrito.

I made my decision based on scrotal versus infra-pubic and I spoke with patients from both.

My decision was informed and I was wiling to accept the results from my selected physician.

Very happy.