New member - Questions on the 10th day of Implant

[FunGuy69]

Hello All,

I may be the newest member in this forum. I am very impressed by the content available here. Thank you all for having it. Wish I had seen this Forum before my implant surgery.

My story in short:

I had used ED pills for 5+ years. (Cialis was the most effective.) When they became ineffective, I changed to current Urologist who advised Trimix injections (and sold the Trimix vial at double the price of the same at a Compound Pharmacy). Trimix worked for about 6 years.

I told him 3 months back that Trimix injections are no longer working for me. He then recommended the implant, talked about it for 2 minutes, said he has done 20 such surgeries, gave me a brochure of AMS 700, asked me to read it at home and call his office whether to proceed with it. I had many questions after reading the brochure, so I called the Doctor's office multiple times but there was no call back. Then I googled AMS 700 and felt comfortable with it. After waiting for ever, I called the Doctor's office and told the staff that I am ready. I took a leap of faith because he was my doctor for 6 years and I did not know any other doctor or better option.

My Doctor's office took 6 weeks to check with my Insurance and then a month to get me on hospital's surgery calendar. 2 days before my scheduled surgery, my Urologist's office called me to postpone the procedure because another doctor who helps my Urologist during the procedure suddenly became unavailable for the day of my surgery. (Since he claimed to have done 20 such surgeries and needed help of another doctor, I am guessing that he is a bit new in this type of procedure.) Anyway, I was rescheduled and finally got implanted on May 2, 2019 (10 days ago).

On the day of surgery, my doctor talked to me for about 2 minutes before surgery. I was in the Operating Room for about 1 hr 30 minutes and in the hospital for about 7 hours. I wanted to stay a bit longer in the hospital because I was not feeling great but the Nurse was rushing me to leave. I noticed that bed to my left already had second patient of the day and she was trying to clear me and make room for the next patient. She said I am all set. My doctor had left a packet with AMS 700 user guide, 2 prescriptions (pain med and antibiotic) and post-op instructions. The post-op instructions were very short.

About 5 days after surgery, I still had pain and didn't know if it was expected. I started googling again. Then came across this Forum and I came to know a lot of things I should have known. Examples:

1. I did not know that the prescriptions could have been filled at least the day before or doctor could have called it in to the Pharmacy. So, I had to go to pharmacy straight from hospital and stand for 20 minutes to get the prescription meds.

2. I did not know that should be resting in bed, flat on my back for the first 2-3 days after the surgery. I spent most of the non-sleeping time sitting and watching TV or working on the computer.

3. I did not know that my sudden constipation was because of the pain medicine (oxycodone). I did not have any remedy for that (constipation) either. When I realized the connection, I just stopped the pain medicine and took in the pain.
I did not know for how long to put ice. I applied it whenever it was convenient for me.

4. I did not know what kind of underwear to wear for how long and why. They sent me home in a jock strap, I did not have a spare one. I asked the Nurse for some gauze pad or spare dressing but she did not have any. She said I can take the ice- pack home but we both forgot it in the rush to leave. She was generous to give me an extra juice drink though. (Otherwise I could not have peed before discharge.)

5. I did not know that Coloplast was an option. My doctor used only AMS 700.

Anyway, I survived the first 10 days. My swelling is completely gone. pain is mostly gone, discomfort is there, sitting on chair is still not comfortable.
There has been no communication between my doctor/doctor's office and me after the surgery. (Instruction was to call them if I there was any problem and I did not call.)
My first post-op appointment is in 4 days (2 weeks from surgery).

Questions on the 10th day:

1. Itching at the areas between my thighs and scrotum is a problem. I wash 3-4 times a day with soap and warm water, then rub the area with alcohol (antiseptic) but the itching has not gone away. Did this happen to anyone? Is using an over-the-counter anti-itch cream a good idea?

2. What kind of underwear should I wear now, for a month and thereafter? AMS 700 user guide clearly says "avoid wearing tight-fitting underwear". Is that correct? All posts in this Forum quoting their doctors say to use tight underwear to reduce swelling. Did your doctors imply that tight underwear is not necessary after swelling is gone? Many of you have expressed personal preferences (compression shorts, jock straps, boxers, briefs with pouch, Jockey, John Sievers etc) but that is just a personal preference?
None of that is a medical necessity (after 10 days)?

3. Sitting on chair is still not comfortable but it is a necessity for me because I work on computer every day as part of my job. Did anyone have this problem? Is there any risk or damage from sitting on chair for hours? (I take short breaks of walking to bathroom or kitchen.) I sat continuously for 6 hours (in car + church + reception hall) yesterday to attend a function. It was painful but I tolerated.

4. I am OK with no sex for 6 weeks. Is it OK to do intense kissing, playing with boobs, fingering, dining at the Y, spanking etc without using my penis?
Does the heart rate going up cause a problem?
(I am separated and live alone about half the nights. I have a 'friends with benefits' situation. She is asking why I am avoiding her for weeks. lol)

Hope you are not turned away by my whining. Maybe I am overthinking this.

Thank you bros for the support!

[gautengrob]

Your doc sucks

[disapointed2]

wear what feels good. I bought a size smaller boxer,s to wear. After 2 weeks back to the regular. I was lucky I did not have swelling, but I did bruise a little on the 3rd day. I took pain pills for 2 days and that was it. I was told not to ice.
I did ice a week latter but it was to stop itching that I have had for a long time. Psoriasis. I was using a prescription and it did not work only made it worse. I used a hot wash cloth and dried off. Then would use the ice to help calm the itching. I started using a moisturizing cream. That made it more tollorable.
I have read that some of us use a dounut type of pillow. Also used for hemroids. It keeps you from fully sitting on your plumbing.
I really did not have any trouble personally sitting in a chair. As I said, I was very fortunate with the surgery and happy with the doctor who did the surgery. Everyone has a different level of pain from this surgery. The pain you may be feeling is if the tips are inserted into the head of your penis and it is inflated a little. That will eventually lesson. I was implanted March 29 2019.
Common since goes a long way for recovery. Do what causes no pain, do what you can to get comftorable. You have a doctor who is a poor communicator. Healing will cause some itching at the site of the incision. So just take it easy on the itching and scratching.
I hope that this will help get you back to feeling better and healing quicker. There will be others who will give better advice on this forum soon.
I wish you the best of luck. I pray things go well.

[Quincy]

Welcome to FT. I'm glad you found us. Great place for information. Remember, we're not doctors, and always follow your doctor's advice. They're all a little different. I'll try to handle your questions as best I can.

1. Itching. I ddidn't have too much itching except at the incision as it healed. There's likely to be no problem with using some kind of cream to help. There are several varieties of creams and lotions made just for men and for use on the dick and balls. I've tried 2. One is Man1 Man Oil, another is "All Natural Mens solutions" from ActivLife. I like the 2nd one a little better. It's fairly thick and you have to stand the bottle on it's head when not in use to get the lotion out. Both are supposed to increase sensitivity, but I've used them just to keep things soft. Your dick has just gone through some major heavy handling, and you'll but using the pump and messing with the area, so keep it soft. I used Aquaphor, a healing cream, on the more raw spots (it's sold in the cosmetics department of most big stores or pharmacies). It works well but isn't as liquid or creamy feeling. For just keeping dryness at bay, the others are better.

2. Underwear. This depends on whether you're erect or not. Many guys, like me, leave surgery at least 70% erect for anywhere from 1 week to 6 weeks. If you're inflated, most underwear isn't going to feel very good. I went mostly naked from the waist down for the first 2 weeks, sinced I could be home. When I had to go out, while still inflated, I tried 1: Compression shorts. They were too tight and put wayyy too much pressure on my dick to be comfortable. 2: No underwear. This was the most comfortable, but left a tent in my pants. I often wore very loose sweat pants, let them tent, and then wore a long tailed shirt to keep the tenting from being too visible. This worked to take walks around the yard or when no one got close, but not good for anyplace where I'd meet anyone. 3: Loose boxers - almost the same as 2. 4. A jock with a hole cut in that I got from my doc. This supported my nuts and put no pressure on my dick, but still tented my pants too much. 5. Boxer briefs. These were the best overall. They put enough pressure on my penis to keep it more or less in place without too much pressure. With the right pants and a long tail shirt you'd have to have someone looking to notice too much. I know others have said they the dick in a vertical postion, or just off to the side a little.

Once you are "activated" and can inflate/deflate at will, the options are all much better. I found loose fitting boxer briefs to have the combination of control and comfort to be very good, but others like other solutions. Even flaccid, an implanted penis is heavier and stiffer than it used to be when soft. The best shorts I found for comfort were David Archy "2-pouch" boxers. Here's the amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CB ... UTF8&psc=1
These shorts have a lower pouch for the "boys" and a separate sleeve for the penis. Separating the parts while recovering was great for me. And now that I'm fully healed, they still feel best for almost all activities. Just a little better support and separation than anything else I've found.

3. Sitting on chairs. Yeah, I had the same trouble. I sit quite a bit all day. While recovering and half naked, my balls would hit the chair first. Even dressed, the action of sitting was an issue. Best advice is to be careful when sitting down. Go slowly and position things as needed. I never found any trouble from sitting for longer periods, but almost all doctors these days think we sit too much. Getting up and walking around once an hour is probably good for anyone. I found that sitting up was hard, but sitting in a recliner allowed me to take pressure off without actually laying down. I do computer work and got a good lap desk. When inflated, I have to position the desk out a little further to leave room for the upstanding member, but it was worth doing. Obviously, you can't get a recliner at work or church, but great for working from home.

4. Playing around. My surgery and doc were different from yours. I got activated at one week and was told I could have GENTLE sex at 3 weeks. I asked my doc if I could play around a little while waiting and he said it wasn't a great idea. He was probably afraid I'd get too involved and do something I shouldn't. But it wasn't a heart rate problem. I play racquetball 4 times a week, and my heart is in good shape. If your heart is an issue, be careful, but then you'd need to be careful for sex, too.

I hope this long response helps. Please let me know by PM if you want to talk more by email or even phone. I'm happy to at least tell you how things worked for me.

Wishing you the best,
Quincy