JB's implant journal

[jonbaldbg]

Wow, five days on a catheter? I guess you get used to it. Mine comes out in the morning.

Although I'm still "dressed" and haven't seen the end result, Dr. Kramer said it went well. He takes such an interest in his patients! I sent him a non-urgent email and he already answered it, in between surgeries, He has 2 left today!!

I am so totally impressed with this guy.

[jonbaldbg]

I think it is fairly funny...I got an AMS700 MS. They included a little key ring that is a replica of the pump and deflation bulb. That's fairly clever. HaHa.

The catheter still hurts. I imagine the soreness and swelling of the actual operation will begin tomorrow, but as I said, Dr. Kramer didn't seem to think my swelling would be all that bad. Hope he's right. I don't like navel oranges or grapefruit!

[jonbaldbg]

2:00 AM - I got up to empty my catheter bag and checked my email. I had a note from Dr. Kramer with a link to a video of my procedure! This guy is amazing. I'm putting the LONG text of my email response here. Check out the video.

Jon,
Hopefully, by the time you read this, the catheter will be out. In the meantime, check out the edited version of your procedure- the thought of the theme and title just sort of came to me. Kind of corny, but I think it creates the message that I wanted to send. Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4m3LFmqAIY

AK
_____________________________________________________

Dr. Kramer,

This video just amazes me! I am waking up to empty the urine from my container and found your Email. I am a star! And, from what I can see you did it perfectly. I had to watch it with the sound off because everyone else is asleep right now, but looks like it went really well. I am so glad I came here for this procedure. Like I said earlier, I really do like my local Urologist, but as he described the process of getting an implant, he said I would lose an inch. My primary care physician tells me Dr. Rutter was one of a few in the region that was able to do some sort of robotic prostate surgery when it was first developed and that people came from miles around to see him.

But, I just had a strong feeling that I wanted to come here because of your reputation, not only as a refined specialist in your field but also a caring doctor with amazing relationships with your patients. It has always worried me a bit that I will have to tell him I went elsewhere, but I will just have to explain to him that I went to one of the top, if not the top, guys in the nation who has a high volume practice.

The comments about the brothers are touching. I emailed them that this year that they would need to get together without me because I was having surgery and wouldn't be up to traveling for six to eight weeks. Immediately David offered to drive from Orlando to Kentucky and take me to Baltimore. This sort of floored me, but he and his wife are used to driving long trips around the country for sometimes 30 days at a time, so I considered letting him do it instead of coming alone as I'd planned. I wasn't going to ask my wife to give up a week of special ed. teaching to come with me, plus she wouldn't have liked driving in this traffic..

So, after David offered, I got to thinking, "Why doesn't Richard come up to Bowling Green and we'll all ride together, making this our annual reunion?" He was agreeable but preferred we not drive since it is such a long trek. We all thought it was a good idea to fly rather than drive so Richard and I flew together out of Nashville and David out of Orlando. We worked out a common date and I set up the surgery.

Initially, Connie and Tikka were dubious because they'd had less than good results working with Anthem BC/BS, But I had this wonderful representative I'd been working with that, early on determined I met the criteria of medical necessity and then we discovered you were in-network! I was surprised and deligthed and got busy lining it all up. Here we are.

I love your comments on the Youtube link. I am a good pianist, but not quite "accomplished." I do consider myself a good musician and I have my masters degree in choral conducting which I did for 20 years prior to starting my own business. I also was a good singer until one October about 6 years ago when I lost my voice practically overnight due to "vocal bowing," a condition where the cords do not approximate correctly causing extreme hoarseness and a virtually unusable speaking voice.

Dr. Garrett, chair of the famous Vanderbilt Voice clinic took me as a new patient and said that although there is a procedure for this, the first line of treatment was speech therapy which I tried for a year and a half. Finally one day we looked at each other and said, "It's time for the procedure." It was a two-phase process. First, they would inject my cords with a substance that would temporarily "plump up" the vocal cords. If that worked, then we would later do a permanent procedure where they place implants in your neck that push the vocal cords together, allowing them to function again. I was wide awake for this three and a half hour procedure. I had a scope down my nose and could hear them talking and drilling holes in my neck. Pretty drastic but I had nothing to lose. The procedure worked and I can talk again. I can't sing anymore and my speaking voice is not strong, but it is good enough to carry on a normal conversation in a non-noisy atmosphere.

So, I now have two amazing implants put in place by wonderful doctors. I'm truly bionic. I don't know how I can thank you enough, but I will certainly continue spreading the word on franktalk.org and hopefully there will be others you can help. God bless you for what you do.

Jon.

[jonbaldbg]

I'm now 24 hours post-op and things are good. I just stripped down, got in the bathtub at the motel and emptied the catheter balloon. It was easy, just one siphon of the syringe and the balloon was empty. Catheter came out easy with minimal pain. Just a tiny amount of blood. Then I sat on the toilet to try to pee and couldn't of course because I was already empty. Just a little burning that quickly dissipated. I then pulled off the gauze and examined everything in the mirror. The flaccid penis was a bit smaller than I anticipated but much larger than before. I had a real small turtle up until now. The stitches look good and I applied a bit of ointment. Popped the jock strap back on, lined with a few Kleenex tissues to eliminate irritation from the jock strap. I'm actually quite comfortable now and so far no swelling, just a normally shriveled scrotum. Dr. Kramer used a new cauterizing knife that minimized any bleeding and swelling. But, for those newbies who, like me, are worried about having a grapefruit sized scrotum, I'm going to post pictures of my progress. You will then know what to expect if you use Dr. Kramer.

Here is a pic of my erection with Peyronies prior to the surgery. There are two pics 24 hours later in a shriveled state. Looks like a pretty clean job to me. Keep in mind, I'm a small guy to start with.

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[stringerbell]

I'm not sure how it's possible, but you literally have no swelling, bruising, edema or anything at all, it looks like most guys look at 4 weeks.
You have a lot to feel good about, your surgeon did a great job for you.

[jonbaldbg]

I'm not sure how it's possible, but you literally have no swelling, bruising, edema or anything at all, it looks like most guys look at 4 weeks.
You have a lot to feel good about, your surgeon did a great job for you.

Let's make sure I'm not misleading you. The bottom picture is the "before" picture. The top two smaller pictures are the "after" pictures.

But, no there's not any swelling yet and I'm 24+ hours post op. Mild stinging when I pee. Very mild and I've only peed twice since taking out the catheter. no edema.

My pump is a bit high and Dr. Kramer said to pull down on it once each hour, but that wasn't critical and not to do it if it hurt. Well, it doesn't hurt, but it doesn't seem to be lowering. Maybe it's a gradual thing. I emailed him about that and will hear back before long. He is on top of things. He's fabulous.

[Donnie1954]

Rev.JB,
I'm a retired Baptist music minister. I was part time and full time since my ordination in February 1994. I graduated Clayton State College with a BA in Music and Vocal Performance. I retired in September 2005 ( total burn out, too political) and started full-time at Disney, I'm now custodial at Caribbean Beach Resort working out my early retirement (62 in January ). Shortly after starting at Disney, I was diagnosed 58% deaf in each ear. So much for me. I'm so glad all went well with your surgery. Keep posting as your awesome journey continues. Your bionic brother-in-Christ,
Rev. Donnie

[jonbaldbg]

Rev. Donnie,

I am Methodist and was a music minister for nearly 20 years. I did spend 5 years in a Presbyterian Church though. I too had what you might call "burnout" or maybe "fed up" may be a better word. I have a masters degree in choral conducting from Eastern KY University.

In 1998 I gave it up full-time and started my own business. I have recently sold most of my business endeavors, but I am only semi-retired. I still play for our current church's traditional services and choir. I used to play in the contemporary service and sing some, but I can't do both and they needed me in the traditional services.

About 6 years ago I suddenly lost my voice due to "vocal bowing." After a year and a half of unsuccessful speech therapy, the Vanderbilt Voice Center did surgery and put implants in my voice box. These implants push the cords together so I can make sounds again. I can no longer sing, but I can talk at a moderate volume.

So, I now have implants in two places!! Good to meet another implanted musician!!!

[Donnie1954]

Rev. JB,
Thanks for the quick reply. If you haven't checked out my thread, its in implants 'DD Bryan. My implant journey.' I'll be following you on yours.
Rev. Donnie .

[jonbaldbg]

It's Friday morning the second day after surgery. I can't say it hurts to pee because it just feels different. I am sore, but not very bad. I can tell it when I sit down so I'm a little worried about flying home tomorrow and driving, but that is doctor approved so I should be ok. Fortunately, I am able to operate heavy machinery on pain pills.

I'm not having to take a lot of pain pills other than Advil and I'm taking that to reduce swelling which I have little of.

My little turtle isn't a turtle anymore, but he isn't as large as when erect, so I assume when I start to cycle it will stretch longer. That will probably be uncomfortable for a while.

Dr. Kramer came to my hotel. He pulled down on the pump and told me to do that once a day. He says it's ok because my scrotum isn't large and he put the pump where he could. He is lining up a really good implant urologist in Nashville to do m y follow up and activation. This guy is the real deal.

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