Yet Another Journal: Revision scheduled

[OregonStrong]

Just way too many pump and tubing failures with the Titans, I've seen this too often on here. If you have a chance to go overseas, maybe Australia, see if you can get the Rigicon infla10. I'm gonna look to go that route when mine fails.

Thank you for your advice! My understanding is that it's specifically the Titan with the OTR (One-Touch Release) pump that has a high rate of early breakdowns, whereas the Titan with the Classic pump has proven much more robust. At least that's what Dr. Eid told me. I hope he's right. I'd rather not go overseas and pay out of pocket for the revision.

If the Rigicon is a superior product, I hope it eventually will come to the U.S. too – perhaps it time for my next revision!

I'm biding my time for that to happen. I think it's being reviewed by the FDA. Once it gets approved I think it's going to quickly take over the Titan market. So they really should get their act together and fix their quality control problems or they're going to lose millions in market share.

[NYCGay]

Alice’s Encounter with Cigna in Wonderland

Dealing with Cigna feels like trying to get a straight answer out of the White Rabbit in Wonderland: ask anything twice, and you’re all but guaranteed to get two different and entirely incompatible answers. Asking a customer representative if my revision surgery, for which I had the procedure and diagnosis codes, is covered, he said no. But he sounded a bit vague, so I called again and asked another representative and was told, yes, it’s covered; would you like a reference number to our conversation? Yes, please, that would be great! He put me on hold repeatedly for close to an hour, and finally came back and said: On further investigation, the revision will not be covered. Confused by his change of heart, I called a third time and asked to speak to a claims specialist. She confidently told me that, yes, procedure CPT 54410, revision surgery, is indeed covered – but the facility where Dr. Eid will perform it is out-of-network. This was contrary to what I had told before, so I called a fourth time and asked only if the facility is in-network. Oh, yes, it’s in-network; would you like a letter stating so? Yes, please. I did receive that letter, so I’m now fairly confident that the facility is indeed in-network. As to whether the surgery is covered at all, who knows? Only way to find out seems to be to go through with it and see if they pay.

[ElbowRoom]

I'm biding my time for that to happen. I think it's being reviewed by the FDA. Once it gets approved I think it's going to quickly take over the Titan market. So they really should get their act together and fix their quality control problems or they're going to lose millions in market share.

Statistically, Rigicon IPPs have slightly higher rates of failure than Titan. Look at the study user principales just compiled...it found Titan and AMS having near-identical rates of revision, which matches previous meta-analysis of studies. This surprises a lot of people.

Titan gets a bad rap because it has a known area of weakness (tubing), but that's only in comparison to the rest of the device, which is extraordinarily robust. If a Titan fails, you can bet with 90% certainty it's a tubing fracture. AMS, on the other hand, has pump, tubing, and cylinder failures. Which is better, a generally bullet-proof device where one area is less robust, or a device were all components are equally strong but generally less so? I don't know.

But with overall failure rates equal between devices, it's hard to say Titan has QC problems any more than Boston Scientific. I do think competition is good and I welcome Rigicon into the market. I do not, however, believe it will be a panacea.

Over 85% of Titans are still working at 5 years, 75% at ten years, and 50% at 20 years. These numbers are slightly higher than Rigicon's. I think with any major manufacturer we can generally expect ten years and then a replacement becomes more likely. That's similar to breast implant life, and those don't do anything mechanical except get fondled.

[ColoplastTitanUpOver]

So they really should get their act together and fix their quality control problems or they're going to lose millions in market share.

My surgeon told me that 50% of implants survive after 20 years. That's your long-term device lifespan number to remember. The 1% failure rate, the one everyone fears is NOT a quality control problem! Regardless, how do you solve that? You find a high-volume implanter. What you see magnified on this forum are 1% of cases. See Principle's research post. Failures are statistical outliers. They are absolutely not representative of the overwhelming majority of men who have had successful implants and busy having sex. Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying that those posting here frequently are losers with broken implants, all I'm saying is, majority of the implants don't fail. If it did, FDA will pull them off the market! Good luck and happy fu***ing.

[Discovernew]

So they really should get their act together and fix their quality control problems or they're going to lose millions in market share.

My surgeon told me that 50% of implants survive after 20 years. That's your long-term device lifespan number to remember. The 1% failure rate, the one everyone fears is NOT a quality control problem! Regardless, how do you solve that? You find a high-volume implanter. What you see magnified on this forum are 1% of cases. See Principle's research post. Failures are statistical outliers. They are absolutely not representative of the overwhelming majority of men who have had successful implants and busy having sex. Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying that those posting here frequently are losers with broken implants, all I'm saying is, majority of the implants don't fail. If it did, FDA will pull them off the market! Good luck and happy fu***ing.

"50% of implants survive after 20 years". Such a lie. I wouldn't trust a car salesman when they tell you how amazing their car is.

Regarding rigicon IPP which someone mentioned here, before pulse pump they failure rates were high, since pulse i haven't heard any reports of bad quality. However, pulse is very new, literally 1 year. So nothing can be said about long term yet.

[cbinspok]

Sounds like you have there number on speed dial, keep us in the loop and good luck moving forward, so sorry for the failure. Im guessing you’ll end bigger and better. Hugs NYC
Your reporting on this site is legendary thanks for the work.

[NYCGay]

Sounds like you have there number on speed dial, keep us in the loop and good luck moving forward, so sorry for the failure. Im guessing you’ll end bigger and better. Hugs NYC
Your reporting on this site is legendary thanks for the work.

Thank you for your kind words, cbinspok!

Yeah, I've had quite a few phone calls with Cigna. It's not like I expect them to pay for something if it's not covered by my policy. What I do expect is that, given the specific diagnosis and procedure codes and the Statement of Medical Necessity from my doctor, they should be able to provide a clear an consistent answer as to whether the procedure is covered or not.

[ColoplastTitanUpOver]

"50% of implants survive after 20 years". Such a lie. I wouldn't trust a car salesman when they tell you how amazing their car is.

Not here to argue. This isn't my personal opinion and it's not a sales pitch from an implant rep. That conclusion is drawn directly from peer-reviewed, published studies. The solution to every single problem discussed here is surgeon choice. Find a world-class, dedicated, high-volume implanter. That is the beginning and the end of the discussion, and it's a point that cannot be repeated enough. Stop worrying about the device. These things are incredibly durable. My own experience is proof: this morning, I reliably inflated, had fantastic sex and reliably deflated. It didn't miss a single beat, and I have zero concerns about it failing. In the unlikely event it does break, I'll get it replaced. It's a medical device, not a toy. I treat it with the same pragmatic attitude as my two heart stents, my knee implants, and my dental fillings. It's hardware, and it's replaceable.

[NYCGay]

Revision scheduled

It’s been five weeks and three days since the last time I fucked someone with my implanted cock. It’s been five weeks and one day since I tried to discretely pump it up inside my pants in a gay club and discovered that the pump no longer filled up after being compressed. I’m now scheduled for revision surgery with Dr. Eid on December 19. After just four and a half years, a tube has broken, and the whole device needs to be replaced.

My insurance company, Cigna, has, true to their reputation, been hopeless to deal with. It’s impossible to get straight and consisted answers from them. The revision surgery is definitely covered, but also absolutely, “with one-hundred-percent certainty,” not covered. The hospital, like some Schrödinger’s cat, is both in-network and not in-network. I can request a predetermination, to determine my coverage before the surgery; it normally takes 21 to 30 business days, but I can call and ask that it be expedited. But actually, it cannot be expedited, and in fact, they don’t issue predeterminations at all, and also, the department that I was asked to submit the predetermination request to doesn’t exist. It did, however, respond to my request, but with a non-sequitur that didn’t address the my questions.

I can’t escape the suspicion that this confused state of affairs is, at least partly, a deliberate policy. Offering real customer service would require expensive staff training and rigorous protocols to make sure answers are true and consistent. Cheaper then to just staff Customer Service with under-trained people and have them say whatever it takes to get the client to hang up; as long as it’s not in writing, it has no legal validity anyway. In short, they save money by having a Customer Service that doesn’t provide customer service.

The result for me is that I won’t know until after the surgery if any of it is covered. Not to risk any surprises, I will therefore pay for the entire procedure at an agreed-upon out-of-pocket price, and then self-submit a claim to Cigna, to see if they will cover any of it. At that point, I won’t have to deal with their useless Customer Service, but rather with their Claims Department, which will hopefully be more straight-forward. (Yeah, right ...)

I was inclined to put off the surgery till next year, when I will have another insurance company, BlueCross BlueShield, which has a much better reputation, and with a plan that will almost certainly cover the procedure. But that insurance will be limited to New Jersey, so I wouldn’t be able to go to Dr. Eid. That still seemed like the more reasonable course of action to me, since it’s a hefty chunk of money.

But my husband says I only have one dick, and, given Dr. Eid’s reputation, he insists I go to him regardless of the cost. My husband is the main breadwinner, so, well, that’s how it will be. Now that the appointment has been made, I feel immensely grateful that I won’t have to put it off, and that I won’t have to shop around for another surgeon to put my trust in. My requests for tips here on FrankTalk for surgeons in New Jersey yielded just a single response. (Thank you, GoodWood.) I can’t wait to be able to get hard again.

Not even my flaccid is what it used to be. The cylinders turn sideway and bend in weird ways now that they are completely empty, giving my dick an uneven shape. They make a strange rustling sound when I shake my dick after peeing. It’s like I’m constantly being reminded that the hardware inside my body is now a piece of utterly useless trash.

I comfort myself with the thought that I will now get the Titan with the Classic pump, which will be likely to last me much longer than the error-prone Titan OTR I have now. And, at least according to GoodWood, with whom I had a Show & Tell before he got his implant, the Classic pump has a much greater chance of passing for a testicle when someone fondles it. No one fondling the OTR pump could possibly miss that it’s a man-made object.

A second benefit: Dr. Eid said that he can put more saline solution in the reservoir than he did the first time, since I had reached a state where I used all the liquid I had when inflating. Lately, before the tubing broke, I wasn’t able to get quite as hard as I initially did after getting the implant. My tunica has expanded, giving me more girth, but causing me to run out of liquid when inflating. Now I should again be able to get exactly as hard as I did in the beginning.

The downside of this, if I understand things correctly, is that my tunica is likely to keep expanding, giving me ever more girth (which, at 6” around, I don’t really feel that I need), but eventually causing me to use up the new, larger amount of liquid too, so that, again, I will not be one hundred percent hard when inflating.

That thought does bother me. But I’m also thinking, that whatever we do to maintain our ability to get a great erection is in a sense just temporary, for eventually we will all die. Some may think there is fucking in heaven, but I have no belief in an afterlife. So for me, it’s just about getting things to be as good as I can get them for as long as I can, while knowing full well that nothing lasts forever.

I wrote in an earlier post that I’ve indulged in the male status of having a larger-than-average, reliably hard cock, and how I’ve taken comfort in that now that I lack the male status of an interesting career; at sixty, I find myself retired, and rather involuntarily so.

So isn’t it fitting that the last guy I fucked, five weeks and three days ago, was a well-built thirty-something lawyer – such a stereotypical status profession. He seemed to me in every way above my league. In every way but one, that is: he wanted to be fucked and fucked hard, he wanted to be my submissive muscle boy, as he repeatedly proclaimed during the act, and I had the cock to do it with.

Sitting here, shirtless on a balcony above a quiet street in a small Mexican town, where I’m vacationing with my wonderfully supportive husband, I miss being that Daddy who fucks the shit out of horny, submissive muscle boys craving hard cock.