Post Prostate Surgery Thoughts

[dawnchaser]

Thank you to FRANKTALK for being here to air stories and ideas about helping men with ED and other sexual problems.

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer back in 2013 after a slowly rising PSA over the previous ten years. I was on Active Surveillance for over a year, but after a second opinion down at Johns Hopkins, I made the decision to have my prostate removed and the cancer with it. I am 66 years old. I am currently “cancer free” or at least if there is any left I am not aware of it. PSA tests are “undetectable”.

They told me that the most important issue was removing the cancer, second was getting my continence back, and third, was sexual function, which would be the slowest to return.

That was over a year and three months ago and sexual function has not returned and my guess is, it will never return. Yes, I have plenty of sensation and very strong orgasms but little or very weak erections. I haven’t had a normal erection since the surgery and no
matter what I do, still no real erection.

My guess is, they tell you that your sexual function will be “slow to return”, to make it more attractive to have the surgery, remove the cancer and supposedly save your life, but the truth is, say goodbye to normal sexual function. Why don’t they just tell us the truth and let us make a decision based on ALL the information.

Since I have had surgery, and I supposedly had the best from Patrick Walsh’s team down at Johns Hopkins, I have met 40 to 50 men who have had this surgery in various places throughout the US. I have yet to meet someone who have had this surgery and have regained the ability to have normal erections. It is a lie. You may have had “nerve sparing” surgery, but not “blood vessel” sparing surgery. They damage the blood vessels badly during surgery and that is all she wrote.

If I had an opportunity to decide all over again, I would not have gotten the surgery and would have gone for alternative therapy to control or cure my cancer. I gave too much up as my cancer was slow growing and not very aggressive.

[ventura]

Your story basically is the same as mine. My surgery was 4 years ago. I had a friend who is a Urologist and he told me I have 50 percent chance of recovery. Never happened. I am now trying to get into a Stem Cell trial for ED and see if they can restore the Nerves that were damaged.

[alibaba]

Dawnchaser, I agree with you 100%. It is a sales job on par of a used car salesman on the poor side of town. I never got the orgasm or much sensation back though. Like you, I have not met one person out of many that everything was cool and worked when it was over. for 3 years I wish I had never had a prostatectomy at 51 years old. Dr. Eid sent me an email about that time and told me I would have died a very slow and painful death had I not. That helped but dealing with it still sucks. Best of luck to you. Cancer free (prostate anyway) 6 years come August I hope. d

[Ahappigui]

I am sorry to hear you gentlemen are sorry you have had prostatectomies! I had a radical prostatectomy too in Dec of 1999 and I did so on advice of the experts in the field of urology. I also feel I went the best route to overcome the cancer which was invading my body. I explored the different treatments and after it was determined I was not a suitable candidate for Brachy therapy there was no doubt in my mind which route to take for my own good. What is more important....to hopefully overcome a cancer death or to go on living for an indefinite period with ED? I supposedly had nerve sparing, but have never experienced a normal erection since then. Have you discussed your ED problem with your urologist? It appears you have lost confidence in your urologist. A good urologist will offer you suggestions for experimenting with different solutions to overcome this problem, but YOU have to be willing to work with him in experimentation. If he suggests something and it does not work after trial runs, don't damn him, but be willing to try something different. Personally, I exhausted the enhancements and moved on to injection therapy. Injecting myself is not a thrill I can assure you, but if I can do it so can you. I have had a hate for injections which goes back to my childhood when I had a butcher of a dentist. A further consideration is having an implant. Take an optimistic outlook, be open minded and explore possibilities. You will be much happier!

[alibaba]

Been through 16 urologists in 6 years and yes, I did see several several times. Same old same old. Davinci machine broke down twice day of surgery, doctors were pissed, surgery was delayed over 11 hours waiting in pre-op. Nurse told me it was the fastest prostatectomy she had ever seen. 1 hour and 23 minutes. Was supposed to be nerve sparing but was not. Doc decided to go wide ( take out everything he could) to speed up the surgery time. Turns out a few days later pathology showed there was cancer in the nerves so lucked out there, but I tell you it still sucks. Still a better option than brachotherapy . Complications are greater, just takes a few years for them to all develop. Injections worked BEFORE the prostatectomy and amount of trimix was increased to 100 units with 20 mg of Cialis or Viagra added after to no avail. Glad you are happy with your semi working dick with shots. You are the first person out of probably 40 or 50 I have met since my prostatectomy that is happy with the result. It is a trip of no return which makes getting your cavernosa gutted and a bunch of plastic parts jammed in even more scary because there is no going back with that either. Every single person I have MET that had a prostatectomy was impotent despite the stories I have read on the net. Other on forums, I have NEVER heard of anyone who was happy with the outcome and had a working dick. Same with orgasm. I have only met 1 person who says they have an itty bitty tingle feeling of a pseudo orgasm that lasts about 1 second. About half have had an implant or trying to work it out to get one. The the other half are depressed, getting divorced and such sweet $#!t d

[Andy425]

Ha, well I agree with it all except for the guy who is happy with injecting.

I had an RP in June 2012, they took one nerve bundle to be "safe." I'll be 65 in August, single, no GF and no interest in getting one. What's the point? There are no goal posts. Being married or being in a LTR while going through this is one thing. Dating a very attractive, much younger woman for about two weeks then getting a PC diagnosis is quite another -- as is what happened to me three years ago.

Friends are always trying to hook me up with someone but I always find an excuse to pretend not being interested. Injecting is friggin' stupid. I did it for over a year, and it did work, but it would be a joke with a new woman. I'd rather be alone than go through that embarrassment and emotional roller coaster. I wouldn't blame ANY woman for bailing once she found out. Romance and sex is the ultimate goal, for all of us. We were all born because of it. With pills, needles, etc. there is no romance.

I agree that the uros downplay the ED part. Even more insulting, when I asked my uro about Trimix (after learning about it here), he suggested getting an implant. Of course, why write a 'script when you can make thousands with an implant? This was about 8-9 months post-surgery, and IMO it was completely unethical for him to even suggest an implant at that early date.

As he later told me, and as I have read elsewhere, whatever nerve-healing there is going to be will take a good two years. And, actually, three years out now I can get a semi -- which is much better than I could get a year ago. But that's probably as far as it will go, and if I tried sticking it into a wet pussy it would bend in half.

Oh well, I did have my share of women. But I do miss having one around, even for the non-sexual things.