Some bedside reading:
Below is my collection of actions and reactions to my penile implant. Please read the conclusion if you are considering getting one. Please note that these are my personal occurrences and may not necessarily be those of yourself or others.
July 2012 High PSA. Decided to do watchful waiting
November 2012 PSA 5.6. Time to get a biopsy
January 2013 Biopsy. Urologist was great. Used Novocain and didn't feel a thing.
February 2013 Phone call from Urologist. "I found some cancer. Wait. Hold on." Nurse picks up the phone. "The doctor had to go. He'll be out of town next week. We'll call you back. Have a nice day."
March 2013 Met with Urologist's PA. Explained everything. I knew enough to be dangerous. Thought some laser gun was going to zap it and I would be done.
March 2013. Second Opinion. I was told the prostate would have to be removed. I was devastated.
April - August 2013 Testing after testing. Cancer did not metastasize! Very relieved.
October 6 2013 Radical Prostatectomy. Lots of pain. Stupid catheter which I hated. Worst week of my life.
October 7 - December 7 2013 Incontinence World. Wore women's panties with lite days pads. Saved a ton of money by not having to buy disposable undies.
December 8 2013 Got a Vacuum Erection Device (VED) just for therapy. Did not work for intercourse for too many reasons to mention.
December 2013 - March 2015 ED!!! Tried everything. Cialis, Viagra. Muse, . . . Nothing worked.
February 3 2015 Talked to my Urologist about an implant. He said that he would highly recommend it. I told him of course he would since he was a surgeon.
May 5 2015 Formal Meeting and Consultation and PSA test (good results) with urologist about implant. Decided to go with it, but wanted to wait until summer since my wife is a teacher and off at that time. Also, I wanted to give the nerves that can give an erection further opportunity to heal.
May 2015 My wife does remind me that this is going to hurt. I reply that I realize that. I'll go with it and get the pain when it's too late to change my mind.
May 2015. Found this website. Started asking dozens of questions to all of the wonderful people here. Most of you confirmed that an implant would be a good idea, but wait for 18-24 months. Made appointment for June 23, 2015. Will be 20 months after Radical Prostatectomy, so that would be a reasonable wait time. Plus I am covered by my wife's insurance, which will expire after I am 65 on January 2016. So the window for that, coupled with my wife off for the summer and able to take care of me made this date a perfect fit.
May 2015 - June 2015 The waiting, the waiting, the waiting. I'm worried that I'll get the flu, an accident, . . . something bad will happen to me which would make me unable to get the procedure. Getting very antsy.
June 23, 2015 Procedure date set by urologist. Will be receiving the Titan Touch with Bioflex penile prosthesis. Let's back up two days:
June 21, 2015 Insurance glitch. Need to postpone operation. Rescheduled to July 13, 2015.
June 21 - July 13, 2015 The waiting, the waiting, the waiting. Now I'm starting to get nervous.
July 13 11:30am Check in at the hospital. It's finally here! All I need to do is hold out for another hour-and-a-half.
July 13 1:00pm Procedure starts. At last . . . . . . . .
July 13 3:00pm Recovery WHAT THE @$#%!*&?!%@!%&*??>@$*%^"}|F@)&%$@U#$?!&%##C&^@#$@<?!&#$?
July 13 3:00pm - 5:00pm Sand bag over suture. Add morphine! Another Dilaudid. Increase Fentanyl. . . .
July 13 5:00pm Sandbag off pain reduced by 50%
July 13 11:00pm "I can't feel anything!" Nurse checks it. "Can you feel that?" Absolutely nothing. Not being able to feel your penis kind of defeats the purpose if I am thinking correctly. PA tells me not to worry. Surgery puts the nerves in shock and everything will come back. It turns out that, right now, about 5% of my penis is so oversensitive that it seems like it is trying to make up for the numb 95%.
July 14, 12:01pm. Feeling no pain. Another urologist comes in to check me out. “I FEEL GREAT! Sure you can check me out!”
July 14, 12:03pm Can I stay overnight? I'm in a lot of pain. I think the anaesthesia wore out!
July 14, 12:03pm "Too late. You've already been checked out. No more Dilaudid. We will give you 20 Norco's to bring home but no more than that!”
July 14. 12:04pm. My wife tells me: "I told them that YOU WOULD LOVE THIS! The catheter that they said would come out in 24 hours will have to be in for four more days! I’m so sorry Honey!"
July 14 - July 19 Second worst week of my life. I HATE that catheter!
July 19 Catheter out. "But if you don't urinate we will have to put it back in." No problemo. Went immediately to washroom and gave it everything I had.
July 21 What the hell was I thinking? I want this penile implant out!!! Maybe this is just a dream. Maybe it didn't really happen!
July 21 - August 14 What the hell was I thinking? I SO REGRET THIS!!!!
August 15th Get the go-ahead to use pump from urologist.
August 15 Right
August 15 Pump doesn't budge. I call the urologist, specialists from Titan, etc. who say that of course it works. Just keep trying.'
August 16 Check on internet. Find out about a situation known "Pseudo-Malfunction of the Titan Implant." It turns out that, in about 7% of the cases, the implant gets stuck into "lock-out position." One must exert enormous pressure in order to get the pump out of lock-out position. Boy did I try. Not a chance. Call urologist. He will check it when I come in.
August 17 - September 8 What the hell was I thinking?
September 8 Urologist checkup and PSA appointment. PSA perfect! What a relief! "Okay, let's check out the pump." Urologist gives it everything he has. No luck. "Okay, hold on." Urologist goes in again for second try. Boy, I'm not too nervous as he rubs his hands and goes in with severe determination towards my scrotum. He gives it a huge squeeze and," Pop!" Out of lockout mode. (I have a link to a publication from Titan about this if anyone is interested.) Finally works. So I'm standing there pumping up my penis. Have an erection! The urologist leaves as I am standing there with my pants down to my ankles, the door wide open, nurses and other personnel walking by. Some other guy comes in the room with a sample kit from Titan. Oh well; I guess it's nothing everyone there hasn't seen before.
September 8 2015 Still lots of pain.
September 8 - September 21 What the hell was I thinking?
August 21 - September 21 $120.00 worth of underwear later, I finally arrive at a light cotton jockstrap. If anyone wants bikini briefs with a porthole to stick the penis out, one with some kind of protrusion to put your penis into, various types of boxer briefs and other unique pieces of attire let me know.
September 21. Starting to feel a little better.
September 22. Feeling starting to come back. Hypersensitivity on lower side of penis also starting to behave.
September 25. First day that I woke up and didn't say "What the hell was I thinking?'
September 29, 2015 None of your business. Let's just say it was just like the old days.
October 5, 2015. THIS IS GREAT!!!
October 9, 2015. I am SO glad I did this! No regrets.
October 23, 2015 Testing out the crazy machine regularly. Had a problem again. This time it is able to squeeze easily, but doesn't inflate. Met with my urologist in a typical really weird appointment. He played with every aspect of the pump and prosthesis and said the two words one does not necessarily like to hear: "That's funny," he said as he saw that it was not inflating no matter what he did. Finally he alternately pushed the release button and pump several times until I heard a strange sound and felt an equally unique sensation. It was finally inflating! First time ever. HOLY SMOKES! Okay, now I'm really glad I got the implant. I had never seen it this way. Prior to this it was actually useable for penetration, but now you could hammer a nail in with it. And it appeared exactly as my erection did (maybe a little larger) than before all of this cancer insanity started. I left the appointment a happy camper.
October 27, 2015 Still getting the stupid cycling problems, but I was able to memorize the actions of my urologist as well as read some blogs from this site from men who had the same situation. So; practice makes perfect as I am going to be pumping a good two times a day until I can get some reliability out of this prosthesis. Right now, if my car had this kind of dependability, I would only use it to go to the grocery store in the summer. I'll keep pumping away until I can get it to work on a regular basis.
November 2, 2015 Urologist calls me after I sent him four emails alternating between telling him that I may need another appointment since I have not been able to get it to work for five days in a row to telling him that it’s okay I got it to work again. Urologist was first concerned, but then relieved that it did operate properly eventually. It has occurred that a pump had to be surgically replaced, and he did not want it to end up that way.
November 3, 2015 So “cycling” has to do with the alternating of intake of fluid in the penile tubes and exhaust of fluid. More helpful responses from my blog site telling me that this is common with the OTR (One Touch Release) mechanism. “Keep cycling. I do it 2 to 5 times a day. Very time consuming, I know.” I respond saying that I guess manipulating my genitals 2 to 5 times a day wouldn’t exactly be hell on earth. To be honest, though, it’s very unlikely that I could do this more than twice in a day. It would seem like that’s alI that I do.
November 5, 2015. First time that I’ve done it twice in one day. Worked both times! I think I’m on my way.
So here we are. Please note, any of you contemplating a penile implant. That YOU WILL REGRET IT initially if you are a majority of men. Pain does that to you. It distorts your thinking. Many men, including myself want it removed after the first week. But stick it out! (No pun intended) After twelve weeks almost every man, including myself, is extremely happy that it was done.
Good luck and God Bless!
