penil implant move pump

I haven’t updated for a couple of weeks. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster, was waiting for things to settle. And, being honest, I’ve gone through a very busy patch. But back on track now! At 9 weeks after surgery…

First, and remembering that the reason I started this in the first place was that I wanted to put my experience out there for others that may be in the same boat or have the same concerns, I want to relate that I have been having some trouble with ejaculating. Very frustrating. We were give the ok to go ahead with sex about 4 ½ weeks. In retrospect, I think that was too soon. This permission came from the PA that showed me how to work the pump, not directly from my doc.

I any case, resume we did. In that the erection was solid (small, but solid; more later) it was successful and we were able to have intercourse ad infinitum. And it felt great. However, I did not ejaculate. Very frustrating for both of us. I would feel very, very close and repeatedly about to come, just never happened. Even with other form of stimulation that we have been using since my ED became sever it was close but no cigar. This went on for about 3 weeks. I also was quite sore (clue) from the effort from both the intercourse and the other attempts. I was able to masturbate (once) and that seemed fairly normal response wise.

I put a question about this on the Yahoo board (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/penileimplant - very helpful group of folks) and got some positive reinforcement along the lines of “don’t worry – your still healing”. That reduced my worry somewhat.

About the same time I started to worry that I might have an infection that was causing this ejaculatory problem. My surgical area was still hurting and did not seem to be improving much. So, I went to my doc. Actually, my regular doc was on vacation so I saw another member of the team. Really liked him – felt disloyal. In any case, he told me there was no sign of infection and help me more fully deflate the implant, (more on that later too) which relieved the pain a good bit. He also confirmed that it’s not uncommon to have some ejaculatory difficulty while healing. Basically, for every thing to work right, it needs to not hurt.

A comment on diabetes – I have type 2 diagnosed about 8 years ago. I’m not a perfect diabetic patient, and I have resolved to do better, this experience having scared me a little. Nonetheless I have always taken the meds, gotten checkups and reasonably monitored my sugars. I have never shown outwards signs of the disease (no swollen feet, bad eyes, signs of poor circulation, etc) except for the ED itself, which in my case is a somewhat less than clear correlation. I did have the experience while trying to understand the ejaculation issue of being told by medical people (nurses at the docs office) that “well, you’re diabetic, you should expect this”. Nonsense. That’s their default answer when they are looking at numbers not the person. I have seen that a LOT during this implant experience. I was not having an ejaculation issue before the surgery, and have shown none of the other symptoms commonly associated with neuropathy. So, I say all that just to say this, dear reader, if you’re having the same issues and are diabetic, look at yourself. If you do have other symptoms talk to your doc. If you don’t, remember that you get a lot of default responses from medical people. The surgery will not cause diabetic neuropathy. If you didn’t have a problem before, you should not after. Neuropathy will happen if you don’t take care of yourself, but it’s not inevitable.

So – right now I have still not have an orgasm through intercourse, but it’s improved considerable through other means the last couple of weeks. It’s is a healing issue.

Speaking of healing, let’s talk about the second big issue I’ve had. My pump migrated to a fundamentally unusable location just under, and to the right, of the base of my penis. I can barely get at the inflation ball, and pretty much can’t get at the deflation valve. That’s why I had a partial erection causing my pain. And, speaking of intercourse, we have not tried for a couple of weeks now because of the pump problem and that it’s still sore. We just accepted that it’s too soon.

About 3 weeks ago we talked to the doc and scheduled the procedure to move the pump. I had tried to move it, and we had hoped it would move some on it’s own as the healing proceeded, but no dice. So, yesterday it was back to surgery.

To move the pump, the doc had to make a small incision in the scrotum and, well, move things around. He also secured the pump where it’s supposed to be so it would not move again. It really was a piece of cake for me. Although it was surgery, meaning I had to go endure all the pre-op check up nonsense that these same people screwed up in the initial go round (see previous posts) and I had to be put under. I was at the hospital at 6 am, surgery was about 8, I was on my way home at 10. I have a small incision right in the middle of the scrotum. The stitches will disappear in a few days and it will no longer be noticeable. I have no significant pain. I only took one pain pill, basically because the nurse insisted, at the hospital yesterday and needed nothing but a dose of ibuprofen since. Plus antibiotics, of course.

Added bonus – my wife and I were a bit disappointed in the length of the erection when we had it pumped up before. We knew this could happen, and kept the main focus on does it work, not the size. But, jeeze, I was never very large (about 5.5 inches) but I think I lost about 1.5 inches. The doc told us after the pump move that things were very tangled up in there and we should see a good increase when we are ready to try it out. I hope so.

Not sure when we’ll get the ok to reinflate and proceed. I see the doc for follow-up later this week; I’m sure we’ll find out then.

So that brings us up to date. I will keep posts coming. Feel free to add your own or make comments!