This is something I have been wanting to do for some time now; I want to put my ‘road traveled’ into words in hopes it will help others who may be considering getting an IPP.
As normal, I had ED for many years and I tried everything short of the implant before I finally gave in to the idea of having a doctor shove two plastic cylinders up through the inside of my penis shaft. That for me was a big decision, one not taking lightly. As I ponder back now I keep on thinking, ‘Why did I put it off for so long?’
The thing that gave me peace about doing this was viewing the videos of Dr. Garber, from the Philadelphia area, that he has on the web. I watched them all, even the ones of him performing this surgery on other men. I also had my wife watch as much of the video that she could watch; the surgeries were not her cup-of-tea so she opted out of watching them. However, it was important to me that she also understood what would happen if I went through with this. I kept her a part of all of this as much as possible and because of this, she was a great help to me as I went through it.
Now I am not saying Dr. Garber is the best doctor for this surgery but I feel sure I can say he is one of the better ones. I would encourage any man who is thinking about this to take a look at Dr. Bruce Garber’s videos on the web and even consider using him as he did an excellent job on me. The only drawback I had with Dr. Garber was his lack of the personal touch in relations to communications. For most men I would think that the less talk about what was taking place, the better. For talking about their ED and all the fine details of what is and will be taking place is something they would like to avoid at all costs. The doctor knows what he is doing and that is all they need to know. However, if you are like me, you want to know everything. And there are many questions that come up before, during and after the surgery that you are looking for answers for. To be honest about it, some of this can be a little scary if you don’t know why something is happening to you during this process. And for me I wanted to talk about things, I wanted to understand why my testicles were so large for so long. What is that stuff that has bloated my scrotum sack and what can I do to cause it to go away. And many other questions like that.
Now don’t get me wrong, Dr. Garber did answer many of my questions but they tended to be rather short, to the point type of answers. It was facts without the why’s behind those facts many times. So I would come to places like FT to talk to other men who have already gone through all of this. The guys here are very helpful and knowledgeable and they can tell you things that no doctor can ever tell you because they have not experienced the process for themselves.
For me time was an issue as I live outside the US three years out of every four and my wife and I are due to leave the US in about two or three weeks. I called Dr. Garber in January of this year (2012) and expressed my desire to meet with him but I would need to do it soon. I wanted to make sure if I was to go through with this that I would have the time needed to heal before I left the country again. A few weeks later, February 6th I was sitting in his office for the initial visit. Surgery was schedule and one week later, on February 13th, I was laying on the operating table to have the Coloplast Titan OTR installed in my penis, belly and scrotum sack.
Dr. Garber had told me that he would be going through my belly to install the implant, however, during surgery he needed to also go through my scrotum sack so I was cut in both places. This of course increased my recovery time and recovery issues.
Some of the issues I faced in surgery and through recovery were / are:
1. A huge scrotum. I know every man has a big scrotum after surgery but in my case I had a huge scrotum this is the reason why. During my denial days of ED I tried many different things to increase my ability to use my penis. During the last two years or so I tried using the penis pump. I had two pump tubes as I did not know what size to get. The 2” inch worked but the 1 ¾” worked a little better and I was able to fill the tube girth-wise and my penis grew to 7 ½” in length which was a full 1 ½ inches longer than I ever remembered being; that impressed me and caused me to continue to use the pump for well over a year, however, soon after pulling my penis out it would retreat back to its shorter state again. It was during this same time that I felt if I could increase my penis size maybe I should try to increase my scrotum size as well.
Not only did my penis disappoint me during those years but my scrotum did as well for there were times when my scrotum would draw up so much that my balls would go inside me, completely disappear, and my sack would become a flat patch of skin which went across the area where my balls should have been hanging out of. You talk about an ego buster. My sex life was almost dead at this point, so I sought out how to stretch your scrotum sack as well as my penis length.
I started wearing balls weights on my sack and I was amazed at how much my balls and sack started to stretch out. I used these ball weights for about 1 ½ years and in fact I stopped using them just prior to my implant surgery. At the time of surgery my balls and sack that at one time would disappear now hung a good seven 7” below my crotch and when they were nice and warm they hung 8 ½” below my crotch; this was without any weights on. My penis never really responded well to the pump or any other ‘stretching’ method, however, my scrotum made amazing strides in growth which put a smile on my face.
During surgery, Dr. Garber was surprised at how big of a scrotum I had, I never told him about my years of hanging weights on my balls. Because of my extra low hanging scrotum he left the tubing a little longer than normal and placed the pump at the bottom or near bottom of my sack. Now today, the pump helps to keep my scrotum hanging low without the use of any weights.
But because of my, larger than normal, scrotum there was that much extra fullness after surgery. I don’t know all that happens inside the scrotum sack due to surgery but I know it fills with some kind fluid material, and my sack had a lot more room for this material to build up in.
Because of this extra build-up it took me twelve weeks before Dr. Garber could pump me up for the first time after surgery. It was so hard to wait that extra time as almost every man is pumped up by week five or six. However, being on the back side of that waiting time I now could not be more pleased. The extra scrotum movement during sexual activities is amazing. And having a third nut in my sack helps to make that movement even more impressive.
2. I also found that because of being cut in two places I needed more recovery time for both areas to heal. Today the one in my scrotum is invisible but the one in my belly is still noticeable. Also the one in my belly caused me intense itching during the healing process. It got so bad that I sought out whatever I could use to reduce the itching; anti-itch cream helped about as well as anything. Another thing that added to the itching was the return growth of pubic hair.
3. Then there was the tenderness / soreness on the underside of my penis shaft which extended down the front of my scrotum sack. This appeared every time I lifted my shaft up and to some degree I still have this today but I have been told that through time this too will pass.
4. Another problem I find is that my pump, which is inside my sack, is hard to pump. It is very stiff and in fact it is so stiff that my wife is unable to pump me up at this point. I am sure that through time and use that will free up some as well.
5. Out of all the ‘issues’ so far the one that still bothers me the most is the points of the cylinder tips which are located inside my penis head. In order to have a good hard erection the full length of your penis when you are pumped up you need to have the points of the cylinders go the whole way up inside your penis head because if you don’t have that you will have a floppy penis head when you are pumped up. And after talking to others who have had to deal with that after surgery that is something you want to avoid at all costs. Dr. Garber installed 25cm cylinders inside me. Now if you look at a ruler you will notice that 25cm equals about 10 inches in length. And WOW would that be a nice length to have but for me it is more like 7 ½ inches instead. The rest of the cylinders stick inside my belly. In fact, I can feel them running out the base of my shaft and into my belly area. This is normal and a major part of the support needed to have a nice hard erection.
However, because the cylinders reach so far up into my penis head it can cause a good bit of pain at times. There are a number of factors that cause this pain. The type of underwear I use is one major cause of this pain. What happens is that if there is pressure applied to the end / tip of my penis head it pushed against those tips inside and while those cylinder ends are not actual sharp points they are not bull nose either. I have purchased several types of underwear and depending on how my penis feels that day a different style of underwear can make all the difference in the world. I also find that if I pump up to 100% too often or stay pumped up for too long my penis head will be sore for some time afterwards. What I have found to help in those times is to put on an ‘extra large’ condom. You don’t want the condom to be too tight on the head as it will cause more problems than it solves then. What this does is that it keeps my head from pushing against any part of my underwear or pants; the rubber lets my head slide by the material instead of getting any kind of traction against it. However, if you use a condom then you need to cut the tip out of it so you can pee when you need to without taking the condom off. During these times I will wear the condom all day.
I have been assured by other men that my penis head will get use to the cylinder tips through time and then this will no longer be an issue. That will be great because there are times even now where I will go somewhere without any pain and my penis feels great inside my pouch underwear and then even while I am sitting I will start to feel pain setting in and the pain can become rather intense at times. What needs to happen is for me to reach down and move my penis inside my pants until the pain goes away but of course there are many times and places where you cannot just grab your penis in public and shift its position so I need to just grit my teeth and endure until I can move it.
I have told you about the issues I have had to face and resolve on my own or in some cases with the wisdom of other men here at FT but now let me share with you the blessings of my implant. I know there are those men out there who have had less than ideal results from their implants but for me that is not the case. I hope what I am about to share with you will encourage you as you consider getting an implant if you have not gotten one as of yet. And for those of you who have an implant already I wish all your results would be as good as mine.
1. Before surgery my girth, when I could get an erection, was 6 inches. After surgery my girth changes with conditions, let me explain. If I am in a non-inflated or even sometimes in an inflated state and I am not stimulated by any outside influence my girth is more like 5 ½ - 5 ¾ inches but in an excited state I am once again very close to 6 inches. It is amazing that even with those two cylinders inside my penis shaft I can still grow in girth as blood fills my shaft area around the cylinders and it stays filled until I want it to go down for the most part. I even get morning wood sometimes once again. This is great because a smaller size girth is much easier to hide inside your pants when you don’t want to put on a show for others in public.
2. Then you have the issue of not getting hard when you don’t want to get hard. I think we can all remember those days when we would see something that would grab our attention and cause us to feel that bulge build inside our pants even when we did not want it to. With the implant you can be exposed to as much stimulation as the world can throw at you and your bulge will not grow until you pump yourself up.
3. Next is the tremendous ego booster of knowing you can get an erection anytime you want it, as often as you want it, have it as hard as you want it and have it for as long as you want it. Even before ED that would have been an amazing ability to possess but after ED it is more like a miracle. For many weeks after being able to pump up and even now at times I find myself thinking I have to focus on my erection so I don’t lose it before I am done needing it. Men, that is no longer the case; it is there for you for as long as you want it. Although Dr. Garber told me not to pump up and keep it pumped up for like a month at a time because then it will not want to deflate. Out of all the blessings of an inflatable penile implant, to me this is the pinnacle of benefits.
4. For me another tremendous blessing is something that is not to be able to happen with the Coloplast Titan OTR unit. Because of the materials used in this type of implant girth growth and length growth is to be impossible, however, I have already told you about my girth growth and now I am about to tell you about my length growth as well. Yes, you heard me correctly; my penis gets longer when I am pumped up.
When I first noticed this I thought I was measuring incorrectly; then I thought maybe it is a fluke and everything just needed time to settle in inside me. It has now been over four months since my surgery and I still grow when I pump up and it is more than just little. When I am deflated as far as I seem to be able to deflate myself I measure 4 ½ inches from the base of my shaft to the tip of my penis and if I do a bone pressed measurement is measures 6 inches in length from the bone to the tip of my penis. Then when I am pumped up the whole way I measure 6 inches from the base of my shaft to the tip of my penis head and the bone pressed measurement is 7 ½ inches. Guys, that is a 1 ½ inch increase in length from deflated to an inflated penis. Whoa, does that ever make me feel like a man once again. I can never remember being that long before unless I was inside the penis vacuum pump.
The first time I had sex with my wife after I was able to pump up my implant I reached places inside her I never felt before. In fact I started hitting a bone inside her which caused me a great deal of pain, the cylinder tips in the penis head issue, and so I had to learn to adjust how we had sex to avoid that area until that soreness issue passes for me. Let me ask you a question, “How would you feel if all of a sudden you had an extra 1 ½ inch in length on your penis?”
What is happening here? I am not sure but it may be that during the deflated state my cylinders move back further inside my belly area for some reason and then when I pump up the cylinders push their way out making my penis an extra 1 ½ inch longer. Another possible reason for this growth is related to my extra large scrotum which I told you about before. As I said, Dr. Garber left the tubing extra long so the pump would reach further down inside me scrotum sack. I have noticed that during the deflated state the pump in my sack rides higher in my sack and my scrotum is actually a little smaller which is normal for a man. Then when I am pumped up the pump hangs lower in my sack as my sack hangs lower. This pulling of the tubing attached between the cylinders and the pump could be causing the cylinders to move forward. Of course that is only a guess and it may have nothing to do with that. I emailed Dr. Garber and asked him if he had any idea about what may be going on but he did not have an answer for me. And that is fine; I don’t need to know why I just enjoy the benefits of it. And once again, it is much easier to hide a penis shaft that is 1 ½ inches shorter when deflated inside your pants.
So in closing, if you are considering an implant know that it is possible to have your cake and eat it too; for as long as your want. Anyone that would like to ask me any questions I would love to answer them if I could and if you would rather email me you can do that at den5576@gmail.com.
God Bless,
Dennis
