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Everyone agrees that, immediately postop., ice is your friend.

What is the forum's on alternating heat and cold for swelling of the scrotum or of the penis or of the abdomen where the reservoir is?

What did your dr tell you

Lost Sheep wrote:Everyone agrees that, immediately postop., ice is your friend.

What is the forum's on alternating heat and cold for swelling of the scrotum or of the penis or of the abdomen where the reservoir is?

Good morning Sheep;
When I was in college, they taught us that for the first 24 hours, you use ice. After that you use heat. I am pretty sure that when they say that, they are saying that if you are treating the injury for the first time, and it happened within the 24 hours you would treat with ice. If you are treating the injury for the first time, and it happened more than 24 hours ago, you would treat with heat. Having said all of that, based on ALL the comments regarding this subject (and I believe it based on pure volume) that if you have swelling/bruising and discomfort, use ice and if you decide to treat with an Epsom Salt bath, use the temperature you would normally use and play with yourself, especially tugging your pump down, to keep it low in the scrotum with your testicles. Now, a lot of doctors swear by the sits baths but my surgeon said not to do that, especially with salt because, it messes with the dissolvable sutures. ... so I guess it would be up to the doctor, taking into consideration what your problem is and what kind of sutures have.

Larry

I could not shower for 2 days then it was back to water, after a week it was ok for frontal shower forgot when I could take a bath as I normal dont do baths.

As I said before ask your dr and follow his advise. The one thing that get a d3vation from his orders is the 20 minute ice limit. I know I blew that away and jiut legt ice place till it melted I read where al9t 9f other guys do the same thing

REST, REST REST

hturner12 wrote:I could not shower for 2 days then it was back to water, after a week it was ok for frontal shower forgot when I could take a bath as I normal dont do baths.

As I said before ask your dr and follow his advise. The one thing that get a d3vation from his orders is the 20 minute ice limit. I know I blew that away and jiut legt ice place till it melted I read where al9t 9f other guys do the same thing

REST, REST REST

Hugh;
Yup, me too. I normally don't take baths either but, damn they felt good when I did. Like you, ice stays on until peas (or corn) completely thaws and I didn't care how long that was... it just felt too good to take it off. The only real danger is MAYBE damage to scrotum skin tissue... It's not like my dick would fall off or anything.

Larry

Thanks guys. My Dr. said no showers for 72 hours from discharge from the hospital. Surgery Monday, discharged Tuesday, my first shower could be today (Friday), but sponge baths standing in front of the bathroom sink seem safer to me, for the moment, anyhow.

Dr. said noting about alternating heat and cold and no one here ever said anything about heat until they were starting to pull down on the pump, usually in a bathtub. Dr. says no manipulation of the pump at all until I see him again this coming Wednesday (9 days post-op).

As hyper-zealous as I have been in my researching the runup to implantation, I intend to be equally zealous in following my Dr's instructions.

Mainly, I wanted to know experiences here so I can ask the right questions when I see him or call the clinic. Then follow orders to the "T".

Unfortunately, I was not as thorough in my research on post-op processes as I was in the pre-op processes. My bad.

You be fine. You dont need to anylize post op they way you did preop. You body will tell you, main thing is stay in contact with your dr, rest, ice dont be a super man. If something seems wrong if possible take a pic a send to your dr.p, if not email him what going on.

hturner12 wrote:You be fine. You dont need to anylize post op they way you did preop. You body will tell you, main thing is stay in contact with your dr, rest, ice dont be a super man. If something seems wrong if possible take a pic a send to your dr.p, if not email him what going on.

"Military law is to law what military music is to music." Same thinking applies to many things military including medicine.

Dr. Shaw is a world-class surgeon, but working within a military hospital. I knew going in that communication with him would be ... spotty. I cannot email him or speak directly to him without going through the Urology Clinic first, which takes some time. That is a trade-off I pondered and then accepted going in.

Dr Eid and Dr. Kramer are (I imagine) exceptions among surgeons, answering emails and phone calls swiftly. Surely there are many others who also do, but no other surgeon I have spoken with either in my local civilian community nor the rest of the V.A. system do.

Having said that, the care I received at Elmendorf AFB Hospital was excellent and I am progressing well, but am SUPER-GLAD I have FrankTalk.org and my research behind me to allay my worries. That knowledge is powerful.

Those of you who have surgeons who will give you face time freely, count yourselves lucky to have surgeons without administrative staff acting as gatekeepers and running interference.

I was told to do ice for the first three days, and then after that switch to warm. The warmth keeps things loose in the scrotum. Do try to move the pump around and tug it down so that it does not get stuck to anything.

Warm baths are awesome; but only if you have a water tight wound closure. So, you need to ask your surgeon when you can submerse in water -- some surgeons do the water tight, others do not.

My surgeon gave me his email