June 6,2015 became my day as bionic

[dhenry]

greetings everyone,

i will share some of my last 24 hours. the surgeon was dr.levine of chicago. my arrival time was 6:15am. it seems OR time was about 7:45am. before i even arrived to the OR room i was asleep. i'm estimating i awoke around 10:45am. once i was awake and talking. i was moved to the final recovery area. since i wasn't feeling 100%, the nurse gave me a shot in the butt. that seem to do the trick. i started the Norco pain pill every 4 hrs with a cracker. i ate very slowly because i had no appetite. after numerous glasses of liquid and several slow walks around the halls: no luck urinating at all. the doctor approved a catheter. i released over 700 ml or approx 24 oz of urine. now i have to return to the surgeon's office to remove the device, and see if i can pee on my own. so i was able to rest for hours. ( the previous 3 days i was lifting 50 lb bags of fertilizer to FEED 2 acres of lawn on a friend's property FOR SALE.)
when i got my pick-up ride. when i was walking from the car to my friend's home, my movements seem like a penguin. i was in bed by 10pm with my last Norco. i awoke at 1AM with another 70 ml of urine to empty.

i am quite sensitive to the catheter device in my penis. any moment and i can feel something down there. since i was asleep suring the operation, i've had no direct interaction with the surgeon yet. dr. levine had suggested using a penile extender as a possible means to maintaining as much length as possible. so i used the pro-extender from the end of april til the beginning of july. it seems i only expanded maybe one or 2 cm in length while being stretched. i am normally 12 cm or 5" long. i used the extender on a faithful basis for 4-10 hrs a day. it would start to feel uncomfortable after 2 hrs of use. also remove the device when you have to pee. the silicone tubing is too tight to allow passage of urine with the constriction below the glans. i take a long shoelace
and slip it through the rigid plastic base that rest against the body to keep the extender from falling off. before placing the tube and foam below my glans, i wrap that area with mesh gauze to help the constriction more comfortable. i forgot to mention the pills.trimix were not too successful because venous leaking confirmed by ultrasound.

blue cross/ blue shield requested what is called predetermination to approve the surgery, their medical review board wants medical records to justify a penile implant, my insurance company normally does not require 'pre certification' because it is an outpatient procedure. so both the surgeon's billing office and myself thought coverage was fine. my internist suggested that i double check the status so that there were no last minute surprises. so i was on the phone several times over several days getting this technical oversight taken care of.

thanks guys for sharing your stories. it helped make the whole process real and not a bunch of unanswered questions. don

[chiali09]

That's who I'm supposed to go to for my first follow up, however Insurance won't cover it for 90 days because he didn't do the implant. So I may Skype with Dr. Kramer instead. My hope is I can figure it out on my own and with these guys' help and just sail away into the sunset. We shall see!

I'm assuming you did yours on the 5th floor surgery center in the professional building. Congrats!

[dhenry]

hi everyone,

the surgeon's office made an appointment for wednesday(3rd day after surgery) regarding removal of catheter. i have to admit i'm spoiled by not having to walk to the bathroom every time i need to urinate. the dressings will come off tomorrow and then i'll have to endure having a sensitive penis feeling every sensation.
the pain medicine has removed all discomfort. so i stay on a steady schedule of taking one every 4 hours till i sleep at night.
i'm guessing surgery was on the 5th floor. i was asleep before i reached an elevator or operating room. the recovery area was on the 5th floor.

[dhenry]

current updates: by the 3rd day with 2 days of complete rest and sleep. i spent the next week helping a friend prepare his home for an open house. luckily the work was not weight related, so i was on overdrive to complete all our projects for the sunday open house. we got 3 offers for the house, so the work paid off. i arrived home last night and finally took a long overdue nap this afternoon. my body is tired ow so hopefully some rest will get me strong again.
i took pain pils for the first 4 days every 4 hours when possible. so i've had minimal pain and swelling. i used no ice packs the first 2 days, just rested and slept all day.
flaccid my penis is longer than normal and quite firm, but without being pumped does not get erect. there are moments when it feels hard which is a sexy feeling.
i'm really surprised how the first week flowed so smoothly. i did have plenty on my plate to keep my mind and body very busy. the doctor's office does not want to rush my post operation visit so i will be 7-8 weeks before we meet again.

the pump device is quite prominent in the scrotum, it's seems as big as my testicles. i have excellent patience, so i will leave it alone til the doctor provides my instructions to use it.

i feel quite blessed to have smooth recovery. i had discontinued the stool softener capsules, now bowel movements seem to be a challenge again, so i will start their use again. in the beginning, i added prune juice also which got to be a too much for my system. so i stopped prune juice after the 2nd day.

[chiali09]

Told myself I would be patient and wait too. I didn't. Good luck with that! Curiosity can be an overwhelming thing. Let us know how that works out for you. And I think your title is supposed to be July 6! Here's to an awesome recovery and glad to see things are going well for you in Chitown.

[dhenry]

hi chiali09,

you are correct, i should have posted july 6. so how was your journey into pump curiosity? how soon after the surgery did you attempt the pump. what % did you aim for.
hopefully you had no issues requiring medical assistance. how long has it been since your surgery. where you able to add penis length post surgery.

it's said that some length will return over time. if the surgeon says okay then i'll resume the penis extender as well to maybe encourage things along.

[chiali09]

hi chiali09,

you are correct, i should have posted july 6. so how was your journey into pump curiosity? how soon after the surgery did you attempt the pump. what % did you aim for.
hopefully you had no issues requiring medical assistance. how long has it been since your surgery. where you able to add penis length post surgery.

it's said that some length will return over time. if the surgeon says okay then i'll resume the penis extender as well to maybe encourage things along.

dhenry, missed this. What model did you get?

Today is day 47 after implant, so coming up on the 7 week mark here shortly.

My physician (Dr. Kramer) told me not to mess with it until the 4 to 6 week mark. I started playing with it at day 21. It hurt after 5 pumps so I quit and deflated. Tried it again 3 days later, pumped more and it hurt pretty good but then I couldn't deflate for about 90 minutes. It was horrible. I finally quit playing with it for ten minutes then found it instantly (like three days prior) and decided to layoff for a while. I was too scared after that. That layoff lasted a few days only as I pumped again to get in a good private session with a laptop. 11 days later (day 38, about the 5 and a half week mark, a couple days after there was no irritation or scrotal incision pain), I started cycling twice a day, as much as I could take it. Day 45 I had intercourse for the first time. All is going great.

I did not add penis length. I thought mainly those who had curved penises added length. My goal was not to lose anything at all, but I told my doctor if I got down to 6 inches (from 7) I couldn't care less as long as it stayed stiff. He promised me worst case 6.5' and that he measured 6.75 clean in the OR (which makes sense not aroused and just stretching). I had that after 4 weeks but was stressing about girth. It looked like a sharpie. But as he said, once I started cycling I would get that back. He was right. Day 42 I was back to 7 inches clean like I was with pills before surgery and nice girth.

I will see Dr Levine in September and probably have him be my urologist here going forward.