This blog details my story leading to a penile implant (IPP). Anyone that has questions or concerns feel free to contact me.
My story I call "One Mans Journey" is in the January archive.






If you would like to tell your story email it to me and I will be glad to post it.







Jack



Friday, May 27, 2011

Difficult/Delayed Ejaculation

Some of the feedback I am getting is men are not getting the proper dosage of Lovaza. This is from the Lovaza web site.

DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION
•The daily dose of LOVAZA is 4 grams per day taken as a single 4-gram dose (4 capsules) or as two 2-gram doses (2 capsules given twice daily). (2)
•Patients should be advised to swallow LOVAZA capsules whole. Do not break open, crush, dissolve or chew LOVAZA. (2)

It will not help if you are on any antidepressant with maybe the exception of Welbutrin.

It takes up to 2 months to help. It helped me in about 6 weeks.

Your feedback after taking it for a couple of months will be appreciated, It could help others.

Jack

Sunday, May 15, 2011

DELAYED OR DIFFICULT EJACULATION

DIFFICULT OR DELAYED EJACULATION

I, along with a lot of others, suffer from delayed or difficult ejaculation. It started years before my implant. I am on testosterone replacement and it helps a lot of things but did little for my delayed/difficult ejaculation.

Ejaculation during intercourse was all but impossible most of the time and really got bad the last couple of year or so. It was so difficult I would have to finish myself after intercourse.

I have asked every doctor that I have seen for the last 6 or so years about it and did they know of anything I could do or try. Unfortunately they said there was not.

Last February I was in the hospital for a week with a-fib caused by a reaction from Cipro. I was on blood thinner in the hospital and that brought thing back to life some but quickly faded.

I cannot take statins for cholesterol. My bad cholesterol is OK but my good is low. My heart doctor wanted to add a medicine to help. I insisted NO statins. He said it was omega-3. I thought YUCK I tried those and did not like the after taste and fishy breath. So I agreed to give it a try.

He gave me a prescription for Lovaza 1GM two twice a day. To my surprise no fishy taste or bad breathe. About 6 weeks into Lovaza my wife and I notice a marked difference in our sex life. I was able to ejaculate during intercourse. My initial thought was it was just a onetime thing.

It has been a month+ now and every time we have intercourse I am able to ejaculate during intercourse.

I asked a pharmacist I go to church with about Lovaza. She told me you would have to take 48 OTC fish oil pills to equal the dose I am taking.

Lovaza is the only new medicine I take. All other and activity is the same.

I don’t know why but it has worked for me. Ask your doctor if you can try it.

Note: If you are on an antidepressant or drugs with ED as a side effect this may not help you.

Jack

Saturday, May 14, 2011

LGX Man's Story

I've been the proud 4+ month owner of an AMS 700-LGX. It's fantastic! It's everything that I wanted it to be and I do notice a big difference in size now because I had been ED for so long that it was becoming a turtle. The implant is 21cm with extenders, and I've followed instructions from the manufacturer to the T and then some. I now keep it inflated to the max twice a day for as long as I can stand it. I sometimes sleep with it hard. Sometimes I can stand it for an hour and sometimes I can go all night. This usually results in wild dreams and reality and has caused a change in my overall well-being and confidence level. I've also "worked it" at least twice a day, Aside from any great sex that I now get, I "exercise" my new best friend. I keep working on getting the LGX chambers through the canal that the doctors hollowed out. During these times of exercise, I squeeze and work my new chambers to get and keep them in alignment with the canal that my doctor originally dilated and pulled the new chambers through. Talk about a wicked new feeling guys! If this freaks you, you should watch one of the videos on an IPP website. After a while, like most things, this new twice-daily exercise has become commonplace as I work it to avoid scar tissue growth in the canals. Scar tissue grows in within the first 2-3 months after the IPP operation, and is always a threat if you don't WORK IT on a regular basis, at least for the first year to 18 months. Get that new testicle, known as the pump to wherever it has to be in your scrotum. It's up to YOU to follow your doctor and manufacturers orders and get the new equipment to where it needs to eventually rest. If you have problems, don't be like most guys, get to your doctor!

I watch the emails from the penile-implant forum and other forums with a very open mind. It's clear that people prefer one type (AMS/Titan) over the other. The debate goes on (and on and on), especially with the newer guys who don't read the backlog of postings in the message bank and have similar new questions all the time. After 4 months, I LOVE my LGX and am definitely NOT sorry I did it. I've also met many nice men here who LOVE their Titan. The key is finding the right doctor and there lies the big mystery, unless you're lucky enough to have insurance that will cover the best of the best doctors. There are one or two of those doctors around, perhaps even more but the amount of research is up to you. You can get lists of doctors here, just ask. I had a limited choice. and lots of us have even more limited insurance choices than me. For them, it starts getting expensive, i hear up to $32,000 and anywhere in-between.

I chose to just do it and took that big chance, with great worry, trepidation and fear i might add, but confidence in my doctor through many of his chats, tests and demonstrations. I find that when I think positive, I usually get lucky. This guy was excited to get me going again and made sure that every other conceivable option was exhausted beforehand (pills, pumps, injections with various mixes). It was determined that I had leakage on one side which kept the little one from staying hard. So I worked for a few months to get to my healthiest and got physically fit before I underwent the operation so that by muscles and skin were toned up, and my veins were bulging and good to go through the various rigors of surgery. The representative from the IPP companies are, supposedly, always right there to hand off the unit to the doctor, as though it's GOLD. They are supposed to be the patients' advocates and make sure that the operation is done correctly. Correctly me if I'm wrong, but I think that is a standard among both companies now. The operation was a success and I spent the night so that they could remove the catheter in the morning when needed. I was sent home to recuperate. I was fine until about the 4th day and then the intensity of what I had done sunk in.

Recommendation: When it comes time to get your pump into the correct position in your scrotum, take warm showers and work that pump to where it needs to be. If it's already there, you got very lucky. While in the shower, pull gently on the pump and direct it to where you want it to be. You only have just so long before scar tissue forms and that pump is wherever it is, and permanently. As far as the chambers on the LGX (i don't know the Titan well but I wish it well and I'm sure it's awesome), you've got to work those chambers into the GLANS/HEAD. I've never been a shower jerker but doing so has helped me get the pump into place with little pressure or pain, and has given me invaluable time to get those chambers where they needed to be, working them towards the GLANS. Now, when I use my little buddy, on it's own, it's finally doing exactly what I wanted it to do and the chambers are lined up into the center of my GLANS. If you've ever trained a dog, you'll realize that this is similar, you just have to keep doing it over and over and over, with consistency. You need to help get those chambers into the best position in your penis. It's not automatic! Think of it as something that is prescribed. Twice a day! Definitely not the worst thing you've ever HAD to do eh, especially with your newfound friend named woody. And yes, my girth is really big. I've always wondered if this is because the old corpora cavernosa's are STILL there, just hollowed out so it pushes the wall of the old ones outward and the new ones are put into the center of the old ones. Anyway, it gets BIG now. Magnum XXL size in girth. Sometimes lately, I even impress myself with it. What do others think of my theory on the new big girth?

My medical foundation (Kaiser) ONLY uses LGX. Why? Because all of the urologists from the foundation (some more skilled than others) went to a few conventions sponsored by each of the two IPP companies. Many did operations based on what type of IPP the various implantee's had requested, and then compared results. The doctors at Kaiser, together, as a team, decided that the LGX 700 would be the implant of choice, and the one sponsored by the foundation. As far as kickbacks, perhaps my question was a bit more deep. Which companies wine and dine and keep the doctors the most satisfied? You know what, who cares, does it really matter? I had no choice of which implant to choose (but had chosen the LGX in my mind because of the ability to work it and grow it). Have I mentioned that I love Love LOVE {;-) the one that I got. Envision that commercial where the guy is always walking around with a big dumb smile on his face. All the good things are TRUE, for me at least. But my positive attitude got me through the worst part (oh it smarted for months). At about 3-1/2 months of aching and re-arranging, suddenly one day it just all stopped and my new usually half-stiff penis "dropped" about 20 degrees. I was able to get it back to normal flaccid size. The pain was gone and my mind was once again free to start thinking of other things, besides my penis. True. I spent over 3 full months just concentrating on my new buddy. Guys, LGX/Coloplast Titan, either way... how comfortable are you to do the utmost research that you can do, get all the information that you can from the doctor and his staff, and then just do it!

We can worry all we want and ask and argue and debate but let's get real. Like most things, it's the luck of the draw when finding most things, especially a good doctor. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes not. For instance, my GP is a complete flake but I've learned how to work the medical foundation to which I am a member, and I get what I need. My LGX was FREE just because my urologist said I needed it. Had I realized this, I probably would not have waited so long. There seem to be a lot of scare tactics based on peoples fears, especially about the glans being floppy, length of the new penis, etc. Truth is, the Corpora "Spongiosum", the one surrounding the urethra (around the pee canal) and the GLANS will usually come back to life. One day when you're really "aroused", as you often will be after receiving an IPP, you'll suddenly notice that your entire shaft will become engorged. The bottom of your penis as well as the head will fill up with blood as the penis is made to do naturally. This may not happen to everybody, but it WILL happen to many. Once the rest of your penis is working, eventually you will be able to have a fully hard (what many implantee's begin to think of as "natural") penis, not the oval penis that we live with for the first 18 to 24 months after the operation. Truth be told: Most guys will eventually get full use of their penis back after a length of time, living with their new implants.

Well, that's my story. Now I'm just having FUN, picture the BIG SMILE!


LGX Man


NOTE: The corpora's are just dialated during surgery.

CATCH PHRASES

CATCH PHRASES

AMS or C0LOPLAST REP.

These are just my own opinion and a result of reading many posts and talking to a lot of men.

If the doctor has to have the AMS or Coloplast rep present he is not completely skilled if any technical problems arise. They use the excuse that the rep has to bring the implant to the OR. The very great implant centers have the implants available in all sizes with or without the rep. They DO NOT let the rep “scrub in.”

My mind goes back to my first implant attempt. The doctor told me that the AMS rep was present and now he was ready to operate. Even with the rep present he punctured my urethra. Thought little of it at the tie. Now every time I hear that it scares the hell out of me.


Another thing that scare the hell out of me is, the doctor says: “During surgery I will decide which implant is best for you.” I know of several men that went into surgery expecting to come out with a LGX and woke up with a CX or other implant.

If the doctor has done a proper consultation he should know which implant is best for you!!!

One side effect of peyronies and PCa is loss of penile size. The old school thought was peyronies and /or corporal fibrosis makes the CX or Titan the best choice. That has changed with the LGX; a very skilled doctor for a man with these problems can use it. If the doctor does not have the skills needed to use the LGX with these problems find one that does.

The LGX is the only implant that will expand in length and girth., all others only expand in girth. I had both peyronies and corporal fibrosis, among other problems. With the skills of Dr. Milam and the LGX I have regained well over 90% of my penis length and my girth has returned to my youthful 6.28”

The only exception I know of is if you have an erect penis over 7” in length the Titan is the best choice for you. Regardless of what a lot of men think very few of us are over 7”.

Again, my own opinion from my personal story and all the research I have done.

Jack