Piddlin is now Bionic

[Piddlin]

On March 31 of this year, I became a member of the Bionic Brotherhood. I have decided to share with you so that hopefully your journey will be easier. I have had ED since an open radical prostatectomy with nerve sparing in 01/2014. Unfortunately the nerve sparing did not work, resulting in ED that is not responsive to pill or injections. Injections were increasingly painful and never produced a complete erection. As a matter of fact, not even anything that was even stuffable. Little better result with a VED, but fullness would slip away in a matter of minutes. Hence the quest for the IPP began. Along the way I found interesting information about financing and reasonable cost as my health insurance will not cover this under any circumstance. Thanks to all of you that have been sharing, I cannot begin to describe the wealth of knowledge I have gained from you.
August 2016
Ok. As I progress on this journey, I have found several interesting things that may be of interest to those of you that are contemplating a PI and will have to pay out of pocket. If you are paying out of pocket, speak to the surgeon’s office, they may be able to give you some advice on how to go about getting the procedure done from a financial perspective. The surgeon’s office I chose, directed me to a 3rd party company (Surgeo.com)that they contract with that will arrange everything. The company is also able to provide up to $25k in complications insurance and would be willing to increase that for a small fee if I desired. I asked them and they indicated they had never been asked to do that but would be willing to do so. This gives me a greater comfort level because my current health insurance company will not cover anything that arises in relation to the surgery. Now I am the books with $50k of complication insurance and my bill is $20k. Make sure you check with your carrier. Also one of the major implant suppliers does offer a grant and financial assistance if you qualify. This information was pretty easy to find as well by searching for Grants for Penile Implant Surgery.
From reading many forms and studies, I see that one of the big complaints is penile shorting after the implant. If you search the internet for VED use prior to Penile Implant surgery, I am sure that you will find, just as I did, many peer reviewed studies that indicate that the use of the VED reduces the amount of shortening and greatly reduces the discomfort associated with the inflation and deflation during the recovery process. I am not advocating that you do or don’t VED ahead of time, but being well informed goes a long way in healing and having realistic expectations.
Next step now is to start the paper work and get things scheduled. I will try to keep this updated as things progress.
Things are rolling now. Surgery is scheduled for the end of March. Seem like a long time off but the weeks are going by quicker than I thought. I have spoken to the team at the physician’s office and they have been going out of their way to accommodate me. The 3rd party vendor I found has been doing a great job to help coordinate everything.
The 3rd party company has also provided me with the information from the implant vendor that will be needed to apply for a co-pay grant to help off-set the cost, so now I will start working on that part of the process.
Now the waiting game continues.
Fast Forward 03/012017
I have my phone consultation with my surgeon this afternoon. I have paid for and arranged for everything through SURGEO.com. The great thing by using them is that they pay all the bills and if by some reason the surgery is cancelled, I will get a full refund, except for today’s consultation, which I feel is reasonable. Surgery is scheduled for 3/31/17. My wife of 40 years has been nothing but supporting and encouraging since this ordeal began. She is truly the best part of my life.

04/07/17
Ok the big day has come and gone (3/31), and I am now bionic. The Dr. implanted me with an AMS CX MS 21 cm implant and a 1 cm RTE. Post operative pain has been minimal to say the least, very little pain meds post-op. Only Tylenol at home. Currently the most discomfort comes from the catheter that is still in place, it will come out in 3 days. Yes, I know that most people remove the catheter the day after, but I had some issues with urethral stricture which resulted in it taking about a hour to insert the cath. Other than that and that they boys in my scrotum are sharing their room with some else. No real issues.
The day after surgery the Dr. deflated me to 40-60%, and can’t wait to see what it is like after the activation at 6 weeks when I see him again. He did say I could activate at 4 weeks on my own if I was comfortable with doing but I will have to see how brave I am at the time.
I know on FT there has been a considerable amount of discussion on what underwear to wear for support and comfort. I have found that some smooth nylon brief work the best, especially when I wrapped my penis in roll gauze. I have on several occasions worn bicycle shorts. They are tight, and well padded.
Hope this can be help to those of you trying to make the decision to implant or now.
Piddlin

[Piddlin]

Finally made it to day 12. Took the catheter out this past Monday; boy am I glad that is gone. Everything seems to look natural except for the lingering bruising on my lower abdomen. On thing I did notice, the pump is a little difficult to reach when the scrotum is contracted. Also I find the skin near the top of the scrotum seems to be a little bit tender Anyone else experience this? I hope in the next couple weeks the pump lowers, but otherwise I think it is still in a good position.

[shooter1000]

Yes, I'm at three weeks and my pump is similar to yours. I am getting activated a week from tomorrow, so stay tuned lol.

[Piddlin]

I sure will appreciate the info after you activation. Unfortunately due to some intra-operative issued not related to the implant, I won't see the MD until the 6 weeks mark to follow up on those issues. He did say that if did want to activate myself at 4 weeks I could but he tended to prefer I wait until 6.