The Docs and Brands discussion

[merrix]

Wanted to move this discussion to another thread.
Not fair to make C_lab's thread switching to discussion of doctors' ethics and brands' pros and cons.

So - Boulder, Stringerbell, Alibaba and others - hope you can continue this very, very interesting discussion here.

I think you may be right about Kramer. But then again, that description wouldn't fit only him, but most of the best guys. Of course they are driven by the money interest as well. They are successful guys, good at what they do, guys with a strong ego, a strong drive to succeed in whatever they do in life. The same drive that made them fabulous surgeons, will make them earn some good money as well.
I just don't see the conflict.
I can only speak for my experience with Eid. Sure, he makes good money. He own's his private company, and the fundings he gets from Coloplast are public. But why must there be a trade-off with that and doing a fantastic job fixing us impotent poor bastards? In my case, it sure wasn't.
Let us just take the two visits he made to my hotel in NY. One at 5 am before a long day of surgeries, and one on a sunday afternoon. A sunday which I know he had some very important family matters to take care of. If he was in it 'only' of the money, why would he do that? My bill was paid already. He just did a fantastic job taking care of me.

I think Kramer is probably the same. He is in the game to make money, but his strategy for doing it is to aim to be the best damn implant surgeon in the world. Good, long-term successful business requires happy customers and a good reputation.

I just think it is funny how Kramer, by some posters here, have some glorified picture where he is the humble guy who works at a university hospital and only cares for his patients' best with no financial motivation. What a load of crap. His brand swapping has proven you wrong.
But does that make him a bad surgeon? Of course not. Considering all his former patients who praise his skills and their results, he is most likely one of the absolutely best. But he is not a saint working for charity reasons.

Regarding their brand preference, I can again mostly speak for Eid, and I do believe his Titan preference is genuine. He makes money in the process, yes, but one doesn't exclude the other. He is a good surgeon making money in the process. And like most businessmen, consolidating your purchases to one preferred supplier to get the best deal is nothing strange.
In that sense Eid and Perito at least sticks with what they believe in, and don't lose credibility by exposing their patients to their non-preferred brand for a period of time just to gain some personal advantages.
Or again, Kramer really did swap his true preference for a brief period of time before he discovered AMS was inferior after all. But if so, he still exposed his patients to lesser brand for a period of time due to his experimenting or poor judgment.

Looking forward to an interesting discussion...

[treifsnyder]

Actually Merrix, (and my name is Tom Reifsnyder, I'm not hiding my identify or anything), I'm a patient of Kramer's. you got fooled. And you're talking about something you don't know anything about.
Kramer is evidently part of a 12 hospital academic healthcare system, Maryland was part of a GPO, they uniformly pushed AMS to undercut the Titan price by 2 grand, and forced him to use it in his medical center. He did. If patients wanted coloplast he did them (me included at a community hospital St Joe's, where I had mine), but he wasn't allowed to record there due to some regulation or another. I looked on his website, he did 5 coloplast last week, 5 AMS the week before. I know all this because I went to him during this period, he told me he was an academic surgeon which he is, for the past year he can't take money from companies, and I could pick either device. (eid 200 k from coloplast, perito 700 k from coloplast)
You're just attacking a credible surgeon without knowing one iota of the story. I'm wondering, are you Eid? If you are, or if you work for Coloplast, that's fine. But just state it upfront. You had surgery, and you're doing PR for Eid now. That's cool. Don't throw in attacks of other surgeons if you don't know the deal.

[alibaba]

I see no problem with someone making money being good at what they do as long as they do what they do well. I pay my help well and they do good work, partly because I do pay them well above average. Disgruntled people who are not being paid decent money for what they do don't give a damn about what kind of work they turn out. There is not always that relationship between good money and good work. Some do crap work but think they are entitled to compensation similar to the ones who set the standard of good work for good pay.

As to Kramer's videos, there is another Kramer that has a video production company. I have a suspicion that may be Dr. Andrew Kramer's son. If you have a son with a video company wouldn't you have him do work for you? I may be totally washed up on my guess, but it adds up to me. Certainly the videos add an element we see little of by the other guys so no-one knows what goes on there. I had a doctor tell me a couple months ago that doctors do not want anything in writing, tape, or video for fear of suits. Dr. Lavine in Chicago told me in an email that it would be the one and only email I receive as he does not respond by email.

Considering the volume of implants Kramer and Eid do, the number of comments both negative and positive on the forum here are a low percentage. Certainly most are not on FT nor probably know it exists, but by the same token, a person with issues is likely to look for internet based answers being that is now the most common resource used and stumble across the forum and leave their opinions. If that is the case, then still very very few of their patients claim any issue with their work.

Overall, any comment you read here has to be taken with a bit of skepticism. You have long dicks made longer and fatter, short dicks made shorter, implants too short but still in love with it and the job the doctor did despite admission it was not an ideal fit. Some commenters post reach beyond credibility. Given the issues some have you have to wonder it some of the implants described as outstanding are nothing but accidental luck and the the opposite for others, just accidental bad luck. How do you measure top, bottom and mediocre surgeons? There is no uniform measure grading scale. The number of unknown outcomes is larger than the known. The number of possible implant combination size, brand, model, reservoir, RTE's, method of installation, prior surgeries, doctors sorting patients to accept or not, surgeon skill, infection risk, general health, surgeon experience or student, number of implants installed experience is such a large combination of possibilities to become endless.

Back to the originating topic of surgeon compensation by the provider of implant devices. Several states forbid that in one form or another claiming it is a form of kickback that induces billing for unnecessary surgeries. That is the reason I was not eligible for the AMS patient assistance. The only reason. I am a Missouri resident and it is not permitted here. I have no doubt that medical costs would drop and patient care would become more consistent and more finely tuned to the patients needs if kick backs to medical professions and medical advertising ceased like in European nations where it is illegal. There costs are much lower. In some circumstances the extra boot helps some providers obtain better equipment, more help, better facilities, some medical care uncompensated and that is a great thing, but too many do not put that money into those things.

Bottom line is it is all about money. Accepting the insurance that pays the most. Selling the products that make the most money. Selling the product that provides free equipment or vacations called seminars to get around laws forbidding rebates back to the provider. Where does the patient fit in unless they are the patient who can pay the most? Is healthcare still a luxury for privileged few? Is the level of healthcare and distance they will go in your favor dependent on financial status? I think so. Is it the right thing? I cannot say it is but again we live in a society where class is determined by financial means, not whether you are a good person or have a need to be addressed. My last 6 urological visits were dependent on providing guarantee of coverage of the fees before they would make an appointment. Does money guarantee the type of outcome you will have?

[merrix]

treifsnyder and ednomore - I am amazed. I read my post above a few times and tried to understand how you can come to your claims. But I couldn't. I thought I was saying that all the top docs are the same. They care for their patients, but they are driven by other incentives as well. Could be fame and/or fortune.
I always said that I think Eid and Kramer are both top class. And that there probably are other as good ones as well.

I said if Eid does a revision he probably doesn't want to fiddle with bits and pieces in a concept he doesn't believe in. I said Kramer and others are probably same.

I said Kramer's brand swapping was for one of two reasons. You just confirmed I was right - it was one of them. It means he (or his employer) has other incentives than only his patient's best. And as said, I am sure other docs are in a similar boat.

Regarding brands, I am sure I have said many times that it is clear that one can get good results from both if a good surgeon does a good job. I got great results with a Titan, but I am one case, not a statistically significant population. A majority of all people get good results no matter which brand they use. I just happen to believe I would prefer a Titan over an AMS based on what I have read, heard and experienced. Does it mean I know it is better? No. It means what I said, no more, no less. And if speculating based on one's experience is not good enough here, we might as well shut it all down. Because that's all what this is about. It's what we do here. It's all we do here.

I spoke highly of Eid visiting my hotel twice, but also have said I am sure Kramer has done similar things.

I never bashed Kramer. If so I'm bashing them all since I just said I think Kramer, and nobody else either, is no saint. They are just good docs with a drive to be the best, get their portion of fame and fortune, respect in the field - and yes - a good financial compensation for it.
And I don't think there is anything wrong with that.

So I don't get you guys.

And no, I am not Eid. I don't think you really believe that, but if you do, and you really want proof I am not, you can talk to FT users who have met me in person and talked on the phone with me. Just ask me for their user names.
And I don't work for Coloplast, but I don't think you really believe that either.
And I use an alias, like 99% of all others here. Why? Well why not? I normally don't give out personal details on internet forums and neither does a large majority here. I have probably revealed more than most, including pictures.
All in the name of helping future implant patients making an informed decision.
I had good results and can only recommend others using what I did. As I said plenty times, I am sure one can get terrific results with other docs and other dick prosthetics, but I can only speak of one doc and one implant out of experience. Because I only used one doc and one implant.

Have a good weekend boys.

[RelievedofED1]

Everyone here has a good point to make which I am sure is heartfelt. And yes some of our posts regarding the surgeons can get close to adoration or hate as if the surgeon arbitrarily decided to do a really good job or botch job on us.

Clearly those of us that look for a penis site and then continue to post after surgery are a different lot. We are very invested in ourselves initially since having hardware shoved into our penis that guarantees it will never work on its own again is scary. And then if it goes well we can be somewhat gleeful. Pheww dodged a bullet. Or really pissed both at ourselves and the surgeon for going through the time and expense and hope only to have a dysfunctional penis that in some ways is worse than before if it doesn't go well. Honestly the choice of implant can't be solely about quality since I haven't seen anything other than opinions from people who use or have one or the other. Until a double blinded controlled quality study or the FDA shows me proof that one is better than the other I think implants are like medications and other prostheses that as doc's we gravitate to for good reason and sometimes no reason other than they are available to us or our patients (lower copay etc.). Oh that medicine was so scientific and easy to figure out the first try.

Equation of: Patient "Dr. Bill" plus the microbiology on my body that day plus the condition of the OR and OR staff plus my future use of the product and what I do with it plus good or bad luck equals brand X and not Y with guarantees. I am sure Dr Kramer wishes he had that formula to tell what would have worked for me with 99% accuracy. It doesn't work that way. No two people are the same unlike machines that usually fall within certain spec tolerances ( minus the occasional lemon even with them).

I called Dr Kramer because of his videos. Many many of them that over and over showed the same skill and efficiency of hand moment. And they were soft movements. Hard to explain but I have seen surgeons that were like bulls in a china shop and surgeons that worked like watchmakers. Dr Kramer is a watchmaker.

I then went to Dr Kramer because he reached out to me after a random email from me and then he and his staff continued to reach out when I had addition preop questions. My surgery went great. My AMS is great. My followup from Dr Kramer was great. Others have had the same result with both Dr Kramer and an AMS implant. As he told me my size fit an AMS and it would potentially be less noticeable in my suits as I speak in front of crowds on a regular basis. That said I still wonder in the back of my head if a Titan would have given me more girth than I ever had. Maybe instead of the 5.5 inches that I get now with stimulation that rivals my best ever I could have gotten 6 plus. Why I would want that with a post menopausal tiny wife who has always struggled a bit with my size I don't know. Part of the crazy penis centric brain part we all have especially many on this site. I still think we all should have to see a counselor to beat in to us what is realistic to expect post op from mechanical parts being shoved into our penis. It will make it hard but not bigger or beautiful. You will feel the tubing, you will feel the cylinders, it will not be the same as it was before and you may have bad luck. And that sucks. The good news is that some of us who have nothing to gain by promoting our surgeons will brag about our guy because we were treated with respect and we dodged a bullet and have a dick that is great to play with now. Both AMS and Coloplast brands.

Back to the point of the thread. There are many good docs skill wise. The best are likely to be high volume as they have had a chance to practice more but there are some naturally talented who are lower volume. And there are some who have a great bedside manner whether done to promote their practice or because they really care. I would caution everyone to find a surgeon that can show evidence of both skill (get references and statistics re volume and infection rate and redo rate) AND bedside manner. DO NOT SETTLE for one or the other. As to the choice of brand I think unless you are honestly in the top 5-10% of size requiring greater than 22-24 cm both will work perfectly well. Bigger than 24 and I would push for a Titan but what the heck do I know I am not an implant surgeon. I vote for a doc over choice of implant every day. Glad I had Dr. Kramer.Glad I got an AMS CX. But maybe I could be ridiculously girthy with a Titan whoops there goes the penis center again........ Crazy!

[LMCatman]

Weighing in with a "brief adoration" (or great gratitude) for (high volume) Dr Perito. Dr Perito's personal interest in fixing my "seriously fucked up dick" and his obvious pride when he showed my wife 'look....it's perfectly straight' goes along with Merrix's "high volume world class surgeon" recommendation.

Not knowing of this forum before my first implant by my wife's urologist, 'it's not rocket science', he told me, I would have saved $3k or so and a year of pain by reading your posts. But as so many posts are about failures and revisions, I might have simply been scared away. After my RP, my urologist showed me an implant and I said 'oh man, that's gotta hurt like hell' and didn't consider it for 2 more years.

Before my first implant I read that approximately 5% of implants require revisions. I had hoped to be in the other 95%. Wrong again! I think most of us in this forum regularly are among the 5%.

So, one more (adoring) Thank you to Dr Perito as I totally agree on the "world class surgeon" concept and "doctors are professionals who generally make (a lot) of (mostly well earned) money.....

And Alibaba.... I feel for you. I was fortunate to be " fucked up" for only one year.... Good Luck!!!

[dirtman1993]

Dr. Kramer implanted me with the LGX and couldn't be happier. Minor pain, no loss of sensation excellent blood flow so the head fills about every morning. Everyone can claim their doctor is the best and if all goes well I can understand that. I know doctor Kramer gave me the choice of Titan or AMS. I read all I could discussed with him the pro/cons of each and selected AMS based on all info and his suggestion. My surgery was very successful and couldn't ask for more. Girth/length coming back and works very well. 10 to 15 pumps and hard as hell and ready for action. Main thing is, it works as it didn't before. That is why we all went for the implant. so we could have sex again with a shot, pills, pump or whatever.

If you were going for a dental implant, would you let the dentist select or would you tell him what to do? After being examined, stretched before surgery my doctor selected what he thought best. Glad he selected AMS as I really didn't want to walk around with a partial erection from the Titan.

Good luck to all

[dg_moore]

Dr. Kramer implanted me with the LGX and couldn't be happier. Minor pain, no loss of sensation excellent blood flow so the head fills about every morning. Everyone can claim their doctor is the best and if all goes well I can understand that. I know doctor Kramer gave me the choice of Titan or AMS. I read all I could discussed with him the pro/cons of each and selected AMS based on all info and his suggestion. My surgery was very successful and couldn't ask for more. Girth/length coming back and works very well. 10 to 15 pumps and hard as hell and ready for action. Main thing is, it works as it didn't before. That is why we all went for the implant. so we could have sex again with a shot, pills, pump or whatever.

If you were going for a dental implant, would you let the dentist select or would you tell him what to do? After being examined, stretched before surgery my doctor selected what he thought best. Glad he selected AMS as I really didn't want to walk around with a partial erection from the Titan.

Good luck to all

When I got my implant in 2008 Dr. Kramer demonstrated the LGX and the Titan and discussed the similarities and differences. He asked which I preferred, and having no knowledge base on the subject I asked which one he recommended. He recommended the Titan, saying that the differences between the two are not significant (remember, this was 8 years ago) but he was inclined toward the Titan for me. I never got the slightest impression that he was in the tank for AMS or Coloplast, and as was mentioned above, he is a professor of urological surgery at a state medical school, and not in private practice, so he is bound by rules that do not apply to docs in private practice.

[Xomanow]

And no, I am not Eid. I don't think you really believe that, but if you do, and you really want proof I am not, you can talk to FT users who have met me in person and talked on the phone with me. Just ask me for their user names.
.

I'll go on record here to confirm that Merrix is not Dr. Eid nor a spokesperson for Dr. Eid. I spoke with and visited him while he was recouping in NYC and the following week had an appointment with Dr. Eid myself........ I think the statement suggesting that premise was posted in half jest, but just the same, I'll lay it to rest ........ I have since changed my username because it was also my facebook name and if googled, I would also show up here......

[conway_96]

I've read almost every post in this section. I also regularly check the post history of each user when they make a post.

My observation: I would be shocked if there weren't any fake accounts among us.

In merrix's defense, he has a full journal with very detailed posts. He also partakes in discussions that have nothing to do with Eid. Is this proof that he is not Eid, or not in any way connected to him? No. Maybe he's just really, really dedicated to the deception.

But his posts are much less suspicious to me than the users who cannot muster a single comment without name-dropping their amazing doctor. It's fishy when 95% of your short posts serve no other purpose than to praise a specific surgeon.

Anyways, here's a thought - if the forum admin is reading this, is there any way you can check a users IP address when they make a post? I had a blog a few years back and could see the IP address of each person who left a comment. If my understanding of IP addresses is correct, this would be an easy way to expose some fake users. If merrix's posts are coming from NYC, or anywhere other than where he claims to be (Europe, Southeast Asia?), we will know his account is fake. Same can be said about an identical IP address appearing under different users.

Thoughts?