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.
