What was your biggest fear about getting an implant?

[colonelangus]

In two weeks from today, I'm getting an implant. I'm pretty apprehensive but I'm not quite sure what I'm fearful of. I think it's that I'm worried it won't be as big as it used to be. But also the idea of a mechanical device in my penis is unsettling. My wife is excited about it which makes me a little less nervous. What were some of your fears about getting an implant??

[chandlerman4649]

Hi. I got my [b]AMS MS700LGX[/b] implanted 19 days ago. I, too, think my biggest fear was post-op size. My surgeon and I had numerous talks concerning size. In fact my wife told him when we were in pre-op area waiting to be taken into surgery that it just doesn't make sense to her why people would have surgery knowing they would lose 1"-2" and have a much shorter penis after surgery. My surgeon was VERY CLEAR about how we felt about it and he gave me every “benefit of the doubt” when it came to measuring for the cylinder size. It was also very helpful that I had been following a daily vacuum therapy protocol so my cavernosa and tunica were really stretched out. My post-op measurement was EXACTLY the same as my pre-op measurement. My urologist also commented that he felt comfortable stretching my penis out as he measured for cylinder size because he knew that the tissue was "pre-stretched" by my daily vacuum protocol.

Another big fear was that I knew that as soon as I was taken into surgery, I would be completely naked from my chest area down to my feet and that a nurse (probably female) would shave me and then do the 10 minute scrub that is required before implant surgery and she would be moving my penis around and shaving and scrubbing my scrotum. Actually I met the nurse (a female) and she was so excited about getting to prep me. We talked about everything she would do and she asked me if I had much pubic hair that she needed to shave off and I showed her. For some reason, after that encounter with my operating room nurse, I felt completely at ease because I felt she was very professional and would treat me and my body with as much dignity as can be expected for this type of surgery.

I also expressed to my surgeon that I was very apprehensive about waking up in recovery because I knew all my expectations about size would then be tossed out the window and I would have to face reality. As I said, since my size didn’t change, all that fear was for naught!

I also worried that during surgery my surgeon was going to inflate the cylinders to about 80% and that meant I would be laying in a hospital bed with my erect penis sticking straight up for all the nursing staff to see. I even had a nurse bring a student nurse in so she could help her learn more about implant surgery. Again, all the staff at the hospital were very professional and treated me with dignity and as much privacy as is possible for this type of surgery and I felt comfortable with having them keep checking the surgery site (peno-scrotal incision) for bleeding and checking to make sure the catheter was functioning OK.

My pain was at the most, moderate, and the pain meds given at the hospital and when I went home were very adequate for keeping the pain controlled. I actually stopped taking the pain med (Percocet) four days after leaving the hospital. I continued using ice for several days after that to help keep me comfortable. Remember that you cannot heal properly if you try to be macho man and ride out the pain. TAKE THE MEDS! You will heal much faster!

I am doing great and have been practicing inflating/deflating my prosthesis since day 8. Your surgeon may put you on a different schedule….all surgeons have their own protocol they follow so it is VERY important that you understand what he is asking you to do and if you have ANY questions be sure to ask for clarification. Don’t be afraid to ask your surgeon ANY questions concerning your surgery, especially about size. He’s heard them all and he needs to know how you are feeling so he can provide information to assist you in understanding what will happen and what you can expect.

If you’re like most of us who have already gone through this surgery, the moment you see your penis erect after surgery, your burden of dealing with ED will disappear and you and your wife will experience a great beginning to a wonderful physical relationship that you can look forward to for a long time in the future.

Blessings to you as you go through this experience.

Bob

[colonelangus]

I'm starting to see that you guys are getting this vacuum therapy before surgery. My surgeon hasn't suggested anything of the like. Do all guys do this prior?

[chandlerman4649]

Your question about daily vacuum therapy protocol is fairly easy to answer, according to my surgeon. For many men, there are three main reasons for NOT wanting to complete this therapy before surgery:
1. Some men can't afford a medical grade vacuum device because their medical insurance may not cover the cost, usually over $200 and they either don't want to or can't afford one to use for only a short period of time. Note I mentioned MEDICAL GRADE. The type of vacuum pumps usually found at adult stores or advertised on porn sites is ineffective because they aren't built to create the type of vacuum needed.
2. Some men simply don't have the time to complete any reasonable amount of therapy since their surgery is scheduled too soon. According to medical articles, at least 2 weeks are needed and as much as 2 months is recommended for this therapy to work.
3. Some men have the attitude of "put me under anesthesia and fix me” without much more commitment on their part.

It did take a commitment on my part to complete this therapy. I used the vacuum pump for a minimum of 20 minutes twice a day. The recommended minimum is 20 minutes ONCE a day and I doubled that. I also started my therapy four months prior to surgery and the recommended minimum time is usually doing vacuum therapy for TWO months prior to surgery. Some surgeons suggest that even two weeks of vacuum therapy are very helpful. About two weeks before surgery my surgeon suggested that I up the time to 45 minutes, twice a day. I did that for almost two weeks but my penis and scrotum got very sore so I went back to doing vacuum therapy for only 20 minutes, twice a day. And one NEVER uses a constriction ring in conjunction with the pump. Simply pump the unit up as much as you can stand to increase the girth and length of your penis and leave the pump on for the specified time. Some doctors also suggest that pumping the unit up for five minutes, releasing MOST but not all the vacuum, then repeat. Do this at least three times over the 20 minutes and your penis will expand more easily without so much pain.

I don’t know how many men on this site have used this therapy but my surgeon said that stretching my penile tissue was crucial to him being able to stretch my penis out to near its maximum while measuring for cylinder size and he suggests that this is why he was able to give me the EXACT same size post-op as I was pre-op. I also believe a major factor was his skill!

Hope this answers your question.

Bob

[Dave92014]

There are many posts on FT about people worrying about possibly losing length from the implant surgery. But the main thing you need to do to please a woman in sex is to reach and stimulate the G-spot with your penis. That is 1 - 3 inches inside the vagina. See this for details. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-Spot

I haven't seen anyone post here that they did not end up with at least 3 inches or more after surgery. So I don't believe loss of size should be a concern for heterosexuals. I have no experience with gay sex so I can't comment on that.

I had some general apprehension of the surgery due to cutting up the most important parts of my body. But since that was what was necessary to solve the ED problem, I just tried to ingnore that concern as much as possible.

The one thing that should be a concern is the possibility of getting an infection during the surgery. My doc said he had good infection control procedures and had reduced the probability to 0.5%. So that is one surgery in 200 getting an infection. Since I had no other way of curing the ED problem I was willing to take those odds. Whether you get an infection or not is mostly dependent on the skill of the doc and the hospital staff, so all you can do is choose a good doc and follow his instructions to the letter on pre-op preparation. I did not get an infection and am very happy with the resulting capability.

Dave

[Steven1111]

My biggest fear was infection. I followed my doc's orders to the letter both before and after with the antibiotics and keeping myself clean and nice and so far no worries. I still worry about it but I think I'll be alright. But it's always in the back of my mind.

I also worried about loss of size, but my doc did such a good job of sizing my CX that I'm actually a little bigger in length than i was with my stretched length before surgery. So I'm very happy with that and my girth is expanding as well to a nice size. So that worry hasn't manifested and you have a good chance that it'll be as good for you too.

Finally I Didn't have concerns about my surgeon. He's a pro and I felt like I was in good hands and my outcome has proven that. I trusted him to do a good job and he did, so that relieved one of the possible fears and if you believe in your surgeon that'll help you a lot.

Good luck and I think you'll be happy with what you end up with - a working cock that'll get hard for you whenever you want it to. It's worth a lot to have that back again. It's simply amazing.

Best of luck to you,
Steve

[Siberian]

Size seems to be the primary concern of prospective implantees. My doctor wants me to do vacuum therapy for 3 months prior to surgery, currently scheduled for November. Do any of you notice that from hour to hour your size can be quite small to satisfyingly large even when flaccid? This is common with me and I wouldn't worry so much if I was being fitted in the latter state. The doctor tells me such variations are very common and that it makes no difference although I do not understand this. It would seem that the very purpose of such therapy is to have you as large as possible for the implant.

[chandlerman4649]

Siberian,

The purpose of the daily vacuum therapy is to STRETCH the tunica and the cavernosa so that when the doctor measures you for cylinder size during surgery, he knows that he can stretch your penis more than normal because you have stretched the tissue. Your penis will vary in size daily but most likely NOT stay as big as it looks while you are using daily vacuum therapy. Many of us guys would wish our penises would stay that big but that’s not going to happen…

There are several outcomes which are a direct result of daily vacuum therapy:
1 - As I said, you are stretching the tunica and cavernosa which allows the surgeon to stretch your penis out much more than normal when sizing for cylinders. Research shows that the cylinder size can increase anywhere from 3 to 4 cm. if the vacuum therapy is completed.
2 - By expanding the cavernosa through vacuum therapy, the surgeon will have a much easier time dilating the cavernosa so the cylinder can be positioned much easier and there is a much better chance that the cylinder will be properly placed within the glans.
3 - At the end of surgery, the surgeon will feel less resistance when he/she inflates the cylinders. This is because since the cavernosa and tunica have been stretched, there is less chance of tissue resisting the inflating cylinders. This will also benefit you when you inflate the cylinders. The tissue resistance is less noticeable and may make your inflating experience a bit easier.
4- Since the cylinders are placed in a space stretched by vacuum therapy there is a chance that the initial pain after surgery is minimized a bit because the tissue is not providing as much “backpressure” as it would if the tissue was not stretched prior to surgery.

You can find this information in an online journal article in “Advances in Sexual Medicine”, January 2013 issue. Do a Google search to find the article. It was written by urologists who completed a 10 year study comparing patients who completed a daily vacuum therapy protocol against their control group of patients who did NO vacuum therapy prior to surgery.

Hope this helps clarify the purpose of following a daily vacuum therapy protocol.

Bob

[Dave48003]

Medical grade VED's on ebay for less than $70.

[katsboytoy]

Slightly off subject but female nurses were not considered with my seed implants for prostate cancer. Didn't really think about it until wheeled into operating waiting room and the female nurses hooked me up to the stirrups.(Think females giving birth). The nurses told all of us waiting," Don't worry guys, this is every womens dream, now you know how we feel".
Seriously, thinking about an implant,70 might be too late, but since I use a "VED" in conjunction with other therapys (really getting to hate them) the stretching won't be a problem...Tom..