Hello again!
This post is probably the most important so far, as it may help you avoid some SIGNIFICANT pain after your surgery. It's all about the scheduling of the surgery, really. I'll specify in a bit.
It's now Saturday afternoon, and I am able to walk around almost perfectly normal. I have a bit of pain when I stand for too long, but thankfully, it's bearable. I experience very little pain when sitting in a chair now, which is very encouraging, because I plan on returning to my office job on Monday.
I'm also able to sleep on a flat plane once again (instead of on an inclined couch). I slept long ways across the couch last night, and plan on sleeping in my bed tonight (I felt the mattress at my parents' place is a bit too soft so I waited a bit longer to try the bed).
As I mentioned in previous posts, I attempted to switch to Ibuprofen and completely cut off the percocet on wednesday, and it worked! I was doing mighty well on pain until Thursday, when I visited my doctor for the first time since the operation. He told me that we would be deflating the device during this visit, and so I figured it would be a bit uncomfortable. Little did I know just how utterly painful the process would be.
It seems that usually the doctor waits two weeks before trying to deflate the device, and that it's a relatively low-pain procedure. However, my doctor was going on vacation for two weeks after Thursday (which he told me, I knew this as I scheduled the surgery), and trying to deflate after only one week is VERY painful. I don't think he knew this, as he was quite surprised when I was literally screaming in agony. Basically, the doctor has to feel around the scrotum for the "release valve button", which isn't usually too big of a deal. However, after one week of the surgery, the tissue is still considerably swollen and sensitive, so not only was it very painful, it was more difficult for him to find the actual button.
After a lot of fiddling, he told me he found the device, and I would feel discomfort as he pressed it and released the fluids from the penis, back to the reservoir. Well my scrotum was EXTREMELY sore and sensitive from the Doc feeling around for so long, and the pain was EXCRUTITATING. Oh my goodness. Remember how I hated the catheter? Well at least that was only 6-10 seconds long. This kept going on and on. So when he finally pressed the button, and further aggravated the tissue on my scrotum, I screamed as loud as I ever did from pain. And the worst part, I cringed so much that it prevented the fluids from properly reaching the reservoir.
When the doctor told me we would need to try again, I pleaded to just wait the two weeks. Screw it! I was going back to work on August 16th, but I'd figure someway to deal with the inflated penis. I mean, I have to urinate in a urinal there anyways, right? There would just be a lot of ricochet.
The doc asks me if I brought any of the percocet with me. I tell him no, because as he requested, I switched to Motrin (Ibuprofen) completely to work on decreasing the swelling. So he prescribes me more percocet, AND a pill of Valium. He tells me to go to the pharmacy downstairs, get the pills, take them, wait 40-45 minutes, and return to his office. Ugh. At this point I figure he's just being stubborn. However, I do what he askss, get the pills, eat some food, take the pills, and return.
As I returned to the office, I had made up my mind that I would NOT be going through with this a second time. I was walking around VERY gingerly, and the pain was throbbing and awful (due to him feeling around the scrotum for so long). Even the Percocet and Valium did not calm me down or ease the pain. As I walk int othe office, the Doc tells brings me to where we attempted deflating the first time, and he asks "Did you take the pills?" I answer yes, but that I was still in pain and wasn't sure I could try it a second time today.
The Doc then tells me "Oh we're gonna do it, right here right now." I comply. I lay down on the medical bench again, and he goes at it for the second time. Even with the percocet, this time felt even worse than before. In fact, the hour or so between attempt one and two was in itself a very anxious time, because I KNEW the pain would be bad, and KNEW that the doc would attempt again. I was right. The pain was once again excruciatting. "DOC, PLEASE GIVE ME A BREAK!" I screamed. He would stop for a few seconds, and then go at it again. He kept apologizing as I howled in agony. Finally, he found the button, and pressed before even telling me.
YOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW I screamed so loud that the people in the waiting room could hear me. It was awkward leaving the office after that.
So the Doc successfully released much of the fluid this time, and THEN explained why it was so imperative to go along with this process today.
Basically, with my penis partially inflated, there was not a lot of the fluid left in the reservoir. The Doc did not want my body to heal around the reservoir without enough fluid inside of it, because it could prevent the fluid from ever being able to get back there if we waited too long. Well, this IS something that I would like to have known before scheduling the surgery, as it may have been enough to persuade me to wait until September or October before going through with the operation. If I could have minimized that terrible session of pain, sheesh.
I had to use percocet for the rest of that day (Thursday), because the swelling was so bad afterwards. The day after, I was able to ween myself off pretty quickly, and today (Saturday), I am back to using only Ibuprofen.
The moral of this story is, scheduling of your surgery is very important. Make SURE that stupid things like this doesn't happen to you. This pain, for the most part, was very avoidable. The pressing of the actual release button is still painful, but if the swelling isn't there, you won't go through the same agony I did while just trying to find the damn button. With that said, now that the pain session is over, I'm still glad I went through with the surgery when I did. Due to family events coming up in the near future, I wouldn't have been able to get this procedure done until late October, meaning I wouldn't be cleared for sex until... December! As of right now, I have 4-5 weeks to go, which means I'll be good in late September/early October.
Every day yields noticeable improvement in swelling, pain, and mobility. The doctor actually said that I was in the top 2% or so of his patients when it came to what my swelling looked like after one week. This may be due to me taking good care of it, or my young age. It's probably a bit of both. Still, it was only one week, which isn't enough time before trying to deflate the device. Ah well. You live, you learn, you try to warn others.
I'll let write another post after my first few days back from work. Until then, wish me luck!
I've come to the decision to explore the "Final Frontier" and join your ranks. It's time to move on from this problem, and truly begin my sexual life. After making this decision I was so incredibly excited, but as the days got closer and closer to the surgery, I started to get scared. I'm not really afraid of infection or the surgery itself. My main concern was the fact that once you take this path, it's set in stone. I really have no reason to think I would ever want to go back to a life where I couldn't even sustain an erection while standing up. Yet, I am a man that likes to keep options, so I still questioned my decision. 
