First some background: I am 61 YO married for almost 40 years and was diagnosed with prostate cancer at 49. I don't remember the gleason scores or some of the other details but my urologist at the time put enough fear into us that I just wanted it gone so we opted for a RRP. They had just gotten a DaVinci robotic setup but we decided not to pioneer that surgery method. I had the surgery done in January 2004 which included removing some nearby lymph nodes and a nerve graft (surel nerve from my left foot). I was surprised when I came to and it was dark outside and I had gone under in the AM. As it turns out they had lost track of a sponge and it took an extra 1 1/2 hours to find it stuck under the surgery table. In the meantime I had been taken for x-rays and I have visions of them pawing around looking for the damn sponge and the surgeon removing my prostate with an ice cream scooper.
The outcome was good in that the cancer was gone but I had a bad case of ED as well as severe shrinkage. I was done with that Doctor when during a follow-up I mentioned the 'dead zone' and that when I went to grab it while urinating it was no longer where I expected it. He chuckled and made a comment about dead men don't get erections
At that point I was done with that Doctor and if he had warned me about shrinkage I would have gone another route. So IMO the nerve graft was a failure and if given another chance I would try a different treatment option. If it happened today I would probably opt for proton therapy.
Pills had absolutely no effect and I used injections for a time from about two to five years post-op with varying success. We decided that it just was not worth the hassle and pain and gave up our sexual relations at about 55 YO. I had heard about implants but it seemed like 'cheating' and un-natural and I was still holding out hope that the nerve(s) might reconnect and things would work some day.
Another 5 years gone by and came to the obvious conclusion it would never happen and got seriously thinking of an implant and discovered this site. I saw a urologist whom I got the name of from the AMS site in June 2015 and he averted the question when I asked him how many of these he did in a year. Not happy with a few other answers to my questions and not getting a good feeling so I canceled further appointments and continued searching. I was near making an appointment and cross country trip with Kramer when I found Dr. Walsh at the UW Men's Clinic. He is a definite high volume IPP surgeon and he made me very comfortable so it's on!
He suggested the VED protocol to undo the atrophy that has set in over the years. I have done that but maybe not as much as I should have. Went from 6 1/4 to almost 6 3/4 - So I am hoping for close to 6 1/2 when healed. I realize I will never have the 7 1/2" of my youth but my VED pumped girth is near the same (diameter of a toilet paper roll) and I hope I can retain that. I will post the results on this thread in the future.
I am hoping when the healing is complete I will be wondering why the hell did I wait so long.
so I am glad I avoided that. He and his staff make themselves very available for questions and support. He does ~100 of these operations a year so probably about as high volume as you will get on the west coast.