Nuguy2 begins his journey

[nuguy2]

Saw Dr Jones in San Antonio on Monday, April 8. He considers me a candidate for implant and has no problem with Medicare .... he is confident they will still cover implant. I did encounter a snag however .. His exam revealed that I was retaining too much urine .... so I do Flowmax 30 days to see if that solves the problem. He indicated that we should fix that before doing implant.

Dr Jones worked for/with Dr Scott at Baylor who I understand developed the implant over 30 years ago. As I understand it AMS grew out of Dr Scott's work .....Dr Jones uses AMS implants. He uses the scrotal approach. The surgery is done as an outpatient with general anesthetic and last approximately 40 minutes. He has done over 1500 implant and performs about 100 per year.

He does recommend use of VED if patient wants the maximum length implant. He uses the LGX model but says he prefers to make the decision which to use during the surgery. He says the choice should be based on the anatomy of the penis that the girth only device works better for some patients. . Following his protocol for pumping you pump up until it begins to burn/hurt and hold for 10 minutes once per day.... he recommends 4-6 weeks without curvature and longer if your penis has a curve.

Hopefully when I go back in early May we can set a date for surgery .... I am ready to get on with it.

[Dave92014]

Best wishes! Sounds like you are on the right track with a good doc.

[inthezone]

Hi Nuguy2,
Sounds like you're doing your research, which is good. Give yourself a few hours a day of reading posts on here and it's amazing what accurate knowledge I found that also led me to an AMS 700 LGX. One thing my uro said was he thought if someone had limited hand strength and dexterity, the Coloplast had an easier pump to use.
The pump up to discomfort has proved to be a minor issue for most everyone here from what I've read.
Actually, because I was 39, the doc took out my urinary cath and thought for sure I could pee before leaving the hospital. But I couldn't and had to be re-cathed... even with the morphine i.v.... OUCH, so I wish I had opted to leave it in after surgery.
Urinary retention was a beast for the first few days after surgery - and I'm 39!!! I went home with a urinary cath for post-operative 36 hours, and so did the guy in the bed next to me.
So yes, I can sympathize with the need to get an urinary retention fixed first.

[nuguy2]

Got clearance on 5/9 to have surgery; Today the date was set for 6/11 ......... Pumping daily and counting down the days.

[nuguy2]

Guess I am in final phase of journey before surgery. Did the pre-admission testing thing at hospital yesterday.
Waiting surgery on June 11th now. I believe that I have collected all the recommended supplies including the
inflatable cushion to ride home on. It will be day surgery but we plan to stay at a motel that night since I need
to be back at 8 am next morning for catheter removal ... we are about 45 mile from dr/hospital.

Thanks to all of you for you support and information.

[Dave92014]

Best wishes on your surgery. I seems you have everything well lined up.
Dave

[GaryRN]

Nuguy,
Please follow your surgeon's instructions to a "T". Also plant to be off work for 2 weeks. It takes those 2 weeks to get over the worst of the post-surgical edema, pain and healing. You will start to feel better in the 3rd week. Use those Icepacks and motrin, and minimize the narcs. When you take the narcs, you can take a stool softener daily.
Stay of your feet as much as you can those first 2 weeks. Elevating your hips above your heart helps drain any edema you will get from the scrotum. If you scrotum gets itchy, try some Benadryl cream or ointment. That helped me a lot. At night before bed time I used A&D ointment on my scrotum and that helped a lot, as my scrotum was grapefruit sized and tight. It looked like a small bowling ball. I used men's string bikini underwear, worn backwards, for support for the large scrotum. I used suspenders as well to hold them up and that gave me a lot of relief. When I slept I had to learn to sleep on my back with my legs open. I put a rolled up face towel under my scrotum for support and that took a lot of soreness out. Now use baby oil on my scrotum and penis when I wake up and go to bed. I bought a handheld shower to gently wash my scrotum and that is a blessing.

I hope some of this may be helpful to you. I had a terribie time with edema. Surgery is different for all of us, and I truly hope you have a better experience than I did.
Another hint: write down your pre-surgical flaccid penis length, as well as your erect penis length if you remember it. It had been several yours for me having an erection.
Anyway, may God guide those surgeon's hands to do the best for you and may you have a speedy recovery.
Thanks, Gary

[Neisseria]

You don´t have to write down the erect length as you remember because 1) you can loose size with time 2) the correct parameter to take is the Stretch length for an implant

[nuguy2]

Well the day has finally arrived ..... I report in at hospital at 9:30 this morning.....receive my implant at 11:30.

Thanks for all the info and encouragement.

[jeremc]

Congratulation!
Welcome to the Bionic Brotherhood!
Jere