Joining the club
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:23 pm
Hi everyone,
I wish I've registered on this forum sooner. I've read posts from here before, but missed several crucial details and hope right now it's not too late to fix them. I would highly appreciate any feedback from the fellow implantees!
To start from the beginning: my name is Anton, just turned 31, married, I've suffered from ED for pretty much all my life, it's been better sometimes, worse other times, but never been 100%.
I've been really putting off the implant procedure till very recently, Tadalafil in combination with some herbal blends seemed to get me though for some time as I tried a ton of alternatives ranging from pumps to ultrasound treatments only approved for public use in Europe and Canada (attanded a treatment course in Toronto last Spring - in my case with little to no effect, were there any benefits - they were quite short term).
So I've done my homework, read all I could find about the implants, compared AMS and Titan, which is better in each case, compared multiple surgeons and chose Dr. Niall Heney in Mass General Hospital - for his experience and a pleasant attitude.
I had my surgery done on the early morning of Friday, Oct 10th. Was implanted infrapubically with AMS 700 (I believe either CX or LGX) and now going through the 11th day of recovery working from home.
I gotta say if I don't take into account the sleepless, painful first night in the hospital I am happy with how everything looked and felt after the surgery. I've had very little bruising, and some swelling that looked like my implant was partialy inflated, when in fact Dr. Heney leaves it fully deflated till 2 months post-op. The first night in the hospital, however, really sucked. During the day I felt very little pain and discomfort I guess due to IV anesthesia. My wife stayed with me at the hospital, we chatted and joked and I was in very good spirits. Then she went home since the hospital can't accomodate overnight visitors. As the night started the IV anesthesia probably wore off and the pain increased to about 5-7 out of 10. I wasn't prescribed any sleep aids (surprisingly, I read in plenty of patient testimonies that they were given sleep meds by default to rest the first night). Oxycodone pills that I took by mouth only seemed to work for about 2 hours and then wore off. I was only allowed to take them every 4 hours. So they had to start giving me Tylenol every 6 hours in addition to that. I had to wait, watch the clock and try to think positively while the nurse paged the doctor and got me some Melatonin. That took till about 2 or 3 am, not sure. Melatoning made me relaxed however, but I barely slept and patiently awaited the morning. The thing that probably bothered me the most was the catheter. Even though I'm thankful I didn't have to get up for the first 24 hours to take a leak, that thing made me uncomfortable enough to count minutes till the morning when doctors would visit and remove it. And when the morning finally arrived and nurse and docs removed the catheter and the blood pouch both went out with plenty of burning / discomfort. But boy was I glad that cath was finally gone! I had a bit of a swelling of the tip of the glans where the cath went in, but retracting the foreskin helped me fight that.
I am not sure how much pain and discomfort the midline scrotal incision causes, but I gotta say, at least in my case muscles that infrapubic approach had to go through hurt quite a bit. So it wasn't any minor discomfort in my scrotum / shaft that bothered me. It was hurting muscles in pretty much my entire lower abdomen. So this wasn't much fun, laying down and relaxing for several days helped a ton. Right now the incision is slowly starting to disappear and I feel almost no pulling / discomfort there even when I walk.
What worries me now and what I didn't quite do, or let's even say wasn't told to do (and therefore I thought it wasn't necessary) was to pull down on my pump for the first several days after the surgery. I tried a couple of days ago, but wasn't successful with it. My doc even told me that I can try it but might not be successful. Scrotum itself however contracts and expands. When mine is contracted towards the bottom of my penis my pump is leveled with my testicle (I only have one post-birth). When the scrotum is relaxed and the testicle is just hanging the pump stays quite high up, pronounced through the scrotum skin and doesn't descend with the testicle - is it supposed to?
One other thing I paid attention to just this morning is the fact that skin around the pump is quite tough and I can't pull it away from the pump. I only today stumbled upon a post in this forum that pump may in fact attach itself to the scrotum skin when it's healing. I'm afraid that's what happened to me. I still cannot sit on any surface that pushes back on my pump. I only can sit on a chair if I put the pillows on left and right so my scrotum sort of "hangs" in the middle. So I took a warm shower and I think I pulled the skin away from the pump in some places, but still can't get it everywhere, it's quite unpleasant to do, so I decided to take a breather for now. My doc didn't mention this to me either. He doesn't schedule check-up appointments 1 or 2 weeks into recovery. If I didn't schedule one myself for next Thursday the doc would only see me in 2 months at the beginning of December to show me how to work the pump... I want to see him sooner and ask about the pump being high up / skin sticking.
One other thing that I have but that doesn't bother me is the "bent straw" feeling at both sides of the penis, about where the implants comes out of the body, but slightly asymmetrical. It doesn't hurt when I touch it or push on it, but it doesn't go away even when I pull the penis upwards into the position which it would take when pumped up. I assume that the "bent straw" would go away when I in fact start pumping up in December.
I'm hoping nothing from what I mentioned above is serious and would eventually go away with time... I would certainly hope none of that would require my doc's intervening. But the fact that he hasn't mentioned any of that to me for post-recovery and would only expect to see me in 2 months leads me to believe that everything I experienced is normal and will get better.
Once again I would love any responses / feedback. This forum has been quite an inspiration for me and made my implant commitment easier and now I'm ready to give any advice myself from my personal experience.
- Anton.
I wish I've registered on this forum sooner. I've read posts from here before, but missed several crucial details and hope right now it's not too late to fix them. I would highly appreciate any feedback from the fellow implantees!
To start from the beginning: my name is Anton, just turned 31, married, I've suffered from ED for pretty much all my life, it's been better sometimes, worse other times, but never been 100%.
I've been really putting off the implant procedure till very recently, Tadalafil in combination with some herbal blends seemed to get me though for some time as I tried a ton of alternatives ranging from pumps to ultrasound treatments only approved for public use in Europe and Canada (attanded a treatment course in Toronto last Spring - in my case with little to no effect, were there any benefits - they were quite short term).
So I've done my homework, read all I could find about the implants, compared AMS and Titan, which is better in each case, compared multiple surgeons and chose Dr. Niall Heney in Mass General Hospital - for his experience and a pleasant attitude.
I had my surgery done on the early morning of Friday, Oct 10th. Was implanted infrapubically with AMS 700 (I believe either CX or LGX) and now going through the 11th day of recovery working from home.
I gotta say if I don't take into account the sleepless, painful first night in the hospital I am happy with how everything looked and felt after the surgery. I've had very little bruising, and some swelling that looked like my implant was partialy inflated, when in fact Dr. Heney leaves it fully deflated till 2 months post-op. The first night in the hospital, however, really sucked. During the day I felt very little pain and discomfort I guess due to IV anesthesia. My wife stayed with me at the hospital, we chatted and joked and I was in very good spirits. Then she went home since the hospital can't accomodate overnight visitors. As the night started the IV anesthesia probably wore off and the pain increased to about 5-7 out of 10. I wasn't prescribed any sleep aids (surprisingly, I read in plenty of patient testimonies that they were given sleep meds by default to rest the first night). Oxycodone pills that I took by mouth only seemed to work for about 2 hours and then wore off. I was only allowed to take them every 4 hours. So they had to start giving me Tylenol every 6 hours in addition to that. I had to wait, watch the clock and try to think positively while the nurse paged the doctor and got me some Melatonin. That took till about 2 or 3 am, not sure. Melatoning made me relaxed however, but I barely slept and patiently awaited the morning. The thing that probably bothered me the most was the catheter. Even though I'm thankful I didn't have to get up for the first 24 hours to take a leak, that thing made me uncomfortable enough to count minutes till the morning when doctors would visit and remove it. And when the morning finally arrived and nurse and docs removed the catheter and the blood pouch both went out with plenty of burning / discomfort. But boy was I glad that cath was finally gone! I had a bit of a swelling of the tip of the glans where the cath went in, but retracting the foreskin helped me fight that.
I am not sure how much pain and discomfort the midline scrotal incision causes, but I gotta say, at least in my case muscles that infrapubic approach had to go through hurt quite a bit. So it wasn't any minor discomfort in my scrotum / shaft that bothered me. It was hurting muscles in pretty much my entire lower abdomen. So this wasn't much fun, laying down and relaxing for several days helped a ton. Right now the incision is slowly starting to disappear and I feel almost no pulling / discomfort there even when I walk.
What worries me now and what I didn't quite do, or let's even say wasn't told to do (and therefore I thought it wasn't necessary) was to pull down on my pump for the first several days after the surgery. I tried a couple of days ago, but wasn't successful with it. My doc even told me that I can try it but might not be successful. Scrotum itself however contracts and expands. When mine is contracted towards the bottom of my penis my pump is leveled with my testicle (I only have one post-birth). When the scrotum is relaxed and the testicle is just hanging the pump stays quite high up, pronounced through the scrotum skin and doesn't descend with the testicle - is it supposed to?
One other thing I paid attention to just this morning is the fact that skin around the pump is quite tough and I can't pull it away from the pump. I only today stumbled upon a post in this forum that pump may in fact attach itself to the scrotum skin when it's healing. I'm afraid that's what happened to me. I still cannot sit on any surface that pushes back on my pump. I only can sit on a chair if I put the pillows on left and right so my scrotum sort of "hangs" in the middle. So I took a warm shower and I think I pulled the skin away from the pump in some places, but still can't get it everywhere, it's quite unpleasant to do, so I decided to take a breather for now. My doc didn't mention this to me either. He doesn't schedule check-up appointments 1 or 2 weeks into recovery. If I didn't schedule one myself for next Thursday the doc would only see me in 2 months at the beginning of December to show me how to work the pump... I want to see him sooner and ask about the pump being high up / skin sticking.
One other thing that I have but that doesn't bother me is the "bent straw" feeling at both sides of the penis, about where the implants comes out of the body, but slightly asymmetrical. It doesn't hurt when I touch it or push on it, but it doesn't go away even when I pull the penis upwards into the position which it would take when pumped up. I assume that the "bent straw" would go away when I in fact start pumping up in December.
I'm hoping nothing from what I mentioned above is serious and would eventually go away with time... I would certainly hope none of that would require my doc's intervening. But the fact that he hasn't mentioned any of that to me for post-recovery and would only expect to see me in 2 months leads me to believe that everything I experienced is normal and will get better.
Once again I would love any responses / feedback. This forum has been quite an inspiration for me and made my implant commitment easier and now I'm ready to give any advice myself from my personal experience.
- Anton.
I cannot wait to start playing with it and enjoy the benefits. Haha, worthless to say my wife is waiting as well.