Its in... Mid 30s implanted with Rigicon Infla10 AX on NHS UK

[Kodixx]

whatevery, you're right, I didn't. And I apologize for bowing out of the discussion after you put so much thought into your posts.

I don't allocate time to FrankTalk to debate healthcare systems. Its just that when I read things like "everything's junk here, and rainbows and unicorns" everywhere else I compulsively let myself get sucked into the discussion. My bad. Again thanks for the spirited discussion.

- Chuck

You obviously didn't read what I said.

[splitpeach]

Im not a medical professional so I don't know but I'm not convinced that people travel to the us for healthcare under any circumstances other than necessity. Either there's treatment there that is considered to be performed better than anywhere else or there is a treatment that is only performed there.

But that includes unproven treatment. American healthcare is about money (I don't know enough about Medicaid but that is apparently only available for the poor).

You can get a lot of research and trials because it is funded by interested parties. Ultimately for profit. You'll attract a lot of high level doctors and surgeons because they can charge a lot for healthcare there and make a lot of money. But that's the exact reason why it's not ideal for the patient.

If Medicare is only available to the poor then everyone else needs insurance. Which is obviously for profit. Now you're at the mercy of the insurance company to get your treatment approved. If not you're paying world leading surgeon attracting fees for your care.

Because the healthcare is private there is more incentive to market and offer less solid treatment options. And Ideally keep you coming back if possible. Either you or an insurance company will profit.

Universal healthcare, such as the NHS, eliminates all of that. No trust required, you're only offered treatments that have sufficient evidence of working. Obviously no payment issues. Anything that's not considered a clinical need is not available and that's where practioners can refer you to their private practice.

But it very much depends on the country and scheme. Wait times for elective surgery on NHS is bad. Put they have an obligation to get you seen and treated for urgent / time critical conditions naturally. But the healthcare offered is the best proven treatment available. It depends where you go and which consultant you see but you can typically get anything that's available privately on NHS if its proven. Like Prof Ralph offering all three major implant brands.

There's also a lot of research and trials taking place via NHS as it's a huge organization with vast resources. The goal is to offer world leading treatment (not necessarily care), where needed, for free.

Just look at how many papers and trials Prof. Ralph has been involved in.

I would consider getting private insurance in the UK but only in tandem with NHS and to have better facilities, accommodation etc if I were admitted long term or if long waits were really to be avoided. But I'd still get advice on NHS.

I've had it before where I would see a consultant at their private practice where they offer all kinds of treatments and scans etc to then see them on NHS where they're obligated to say that those options are unproven / ineffective.

That's been an interesting journey for me.

If USA had universal public healthcare it would truly be the best healthcare in the world. But its never gonna happen. Too much money involved.

The NHS is amazing and I'm sad that it looks to be dying from mismanagement, lack of appreciation, over liberalism and abuse.

[splitpeach]

Socialized medicine has its limitations. For sure its probably more ideal and less of a headache than the mess that is american health care. We have to enroll here annually and our seniors have to pick a gazillion medicare plans. But most innovations in medicine come from america. Most drug trials are done in america. The rest of the world often benefits from the developments of america — even socialized countries. When hepatitis c drugs came out, america gave a lot of meds to other countries for free. Most of hiv drugs were discovered here. And then theres the different biologic meds for different immune disorders. Yes corporate america is greedy and is out of control. I still wish we have a mixed health system - both public and private option.
And then as americans - well revolt if we have to wait too long for health care.. haha we invented fastfood and we want everything fast. But with how broken things are, were waiting anyway.. sigh, in the end no system is perfect. America is fast but too expensive and costs are out of control

Anyway, I think we've covered healthcare systems on that little side-quest, now back to cocks. Haha

How are you getting on? I'm cycling now, length pretty much back, girth is still down but i think improving. Glans engorgement when aroused is great, I think urethra maybe not so much.

Tubing, which is on the left side of the glans for me at the base is very prominent and after cycling is sore. Might still just be swelling though.

Do you feel your resevoir? I can definitely feel it's there and after cycling its a little uncomfortable. I still have pain in that spot where the nurse ripped the drain out and after cycling its very sore.

One of my main concerns was shape and angle etc but that looks to be improving.

Still hate the deflate mechanism!

[whatevery]

whatevery, you're right, I didn't. And I apologize for bowing out of the discussion after you put so much thought into your posts.

I don't allocate time to FrankTalk to debate healthcare systems. Its just that when I read things like "everything's junk here, and rainbows and unicorns" everywhere else I compulsively let myself get sucked into the discussion. My bad. Again thanks for the spirited discussion.

- Chuck

You obviously didn't read what I said.

It's ok but if you at least would've scanned through my post, no read it, just glanced over it you would've see that it was well balanced and I give "peaches and roses" when "peaches and roses" are due. You just focused on junk and ignored me saying that this and that in the states is the best on the world. Maybe you think that you live in the country where everything under the sun is the best in the world. I don't. Travelled the world too much for that both with USMC and on my own. Lived in places other than the US a bit too to know better. Not visited now, lived.

Peace man. It's all water under the bridge. We can do nothing about it anyway and it has little to do with the topic at hand.

Moreover Chuck, I see your posts and I think you're an upstanding type of guy that helps people a lot. In the end that's the only thing that counts. That and the dick-related topics. Health Insurance? Who gives a fuck. It is what it is. If you don't like it you have to adopt anyway so might as well make the best of it.

Moreover I'm sure you agree that health care systems in every country, flawed as they might be, are primarily geared towards serving locals, not foreigners, and that's the way it should be. Peace out.

[1984ptc]

Socialized medicine has its limitations. For sure its probably more ideal and less of a headache than the mess that is american health care. We have to enroll here annually and our seniors have to pick a gazillion medicare plans. But most innovations in medicine come from america. Most drug trials are done in america. The rest of the world often benefits from the developments of america — even socialized countries. When hepatitis c drugs came out, america gave a lot of meds to other countries for free. Most of hiv drugs were discovered here. And then theres the different biologic meds for different immune disorders. Yes corporate america is greedy and is out of control. I still wish we have a mixed health system - both public and private option.
And then as americans - well revolt if we have to wait too long for health care.. haha we invented fastfood and we want everything fast. But with how broken things are, were waiting anyway.. sigh, in the end no system is perfect. America is fast but too expensive and costs are out of control

Anyway, I think we've covered healthcare systems on that little side-quest, now back to cocks. Haha

How are you getting on? I'm cycling now, length pretty much back, girth is still down but i think improving. Glans engorgement when aroused is great, I think urethra maybe not so much.

Tubing, which is on the left side of the glans for me at the base is very prominent and after cycling is sore. Might still just be swelling though.

Do you feel your resevoir? I can definitely feel it's there and after cycling its a little uncomfortable. I still have pain in that spot where the nurse ripped the drain out and after cycling its very sore.

One of my main concerns was shape and angle etc but that looks to be improving.

Still hate the deflate mechanism!

Cant really feel the reservoir. I mean my stomach makes noises sometimes which i assume may be related to the movement of fluid inside me. No pain in scrotum - never have.

Shape of unit is honestly perfect. Perfectly straight, nice taper- i have at least 6.5 inches at the base and 6 inches midshaft. Head engorges so much better and stays engorged when aroused. Doesnt engorge as much when im on my back and not aroused. Cylinder tips are both mid to distal glans. They differ by about 2 mm where they terminate.

What was your length preop? 7 inches and youre back to 7 inches now? Nice!! Im still at 6.5 inches. My girth recovered first. Still, even if i were not to grow, id be happy. Had sex already. Was able to orgasm. And i already hit my wifes cervix so maybe at most 7 inches is where i wanna stay at anyway. Im cycling at least an hour half total per day. How about you?

[splitpeach]

Socialized medicine has its limitations. For sure its probably more ideal and less of a headache than the mess that is american health care. We have to enroll here annually and our seniors have to pick a gazillion medicare plans. But most innovations in medicine come from america. Most drug trials are done in america. The rest of the world often benefits from the developments of america — even socialized countries. When hepatitis c drugs came out, america gave a lot of meds to other countries for free. Most of hiv drugs were discovered here. And then theres the different biologic meds for different immune disorders. Yes corporate america is greedy and is out of control. I still wish we have a mixed health system - both public and private option.
And then as americans - well revolt if we have to wait too long for health care.. haha we invented fastfood and we want everything fast. But with how broken things are, were waiting anyway.. sigh, in the end no system is perfect. America is fast but too expensive and costs are out of control

Anyway, I think we've covered healthcare systems on that little side-quest, now back to cocks. Haha

How are you getting on? I'm cycling now, length pretty much back, girth is still down but i think improving. Glans engorgement when aroused is great, I think urethra maybe not so much.

Tubing, which is on the left side of the glans for me at the base is very prominent and after cycling is sore. Might still just be swelling though.

Do you feel your resevoir? I can definitely feel it's there and after cycling its a little uncomfortable. I still have pain in that spot where the nurse ripped the drain out and after cycling its very sore.

One of my main concerns was shape and angle etc but that looks to be improving.

Still hate the deflate mechanism!

Cant really feel the reservoir. I mean my stomach makes noises sometimes which i assume may be related to the movement of fluid inside me. No pain in scrotum - never have.

Shape of unit is honestly perfect. Perfectly straight, nice taper- i have at least 6.5 inches at the base and 6 inches midshaft. Head engorges so much better and stays engorged when aroused. Doesnt engorge as much when im on my back and not aroused. Cylinder tips are both mid to distal glans. They differ by about 2 mm where they terminate.

What was your length preop? 7 inches and youre back to 7 inches now? Nice!! Im still at 6.5 inches. My girth recovered first. Still, even if i were not to grow, id be happy. Had sex already. Was able to orgasm. And i already hit my wifes cervix so maybe at most 7 inches is where i wanna stay at anyway. Im cycling at least an hour half total per day. How about you?

I feel the resevoir most of the time and particularly so when either inflating or deflating. After long cycling sessions when it refills its a little uncomfortable. I used to be an athlete so perhaps my muscle make up and body awareness are contributing to this. But I'm fairly aware of it.

Length isn't totally back. I'm about half an inch off when absolutely fully inflated so I expect that'll recover. I wouldn't be unhappy where it is though. Girth I'd like more of but I understand it's pretty typical for that to improve over time and then there are also fillers. Would have to be UroFill though with an implant.

Shape and angle improving like I said but only when max inflated. Still hoping my glans angle will straighten more.

Interestingly on girth, right at the base of the shaft it's very wide I can see the cylinders are much more expanded there. So appears the restriction is my anatomy currently. Definitely feels less girthy in my hand then Pre op so hoping to recover there.

On the scrotum pain I've been looking into that. Sounds to me like it could be Phlebitis or nerve damage. I see a vein that looks more swollen and stressed and that's where the pain is. Makes cycling painful and difficult. Like I said that pain started from the drain removal.

I'm cycling about the same. About 90 mins a day. Bit time consuming though! Not easy to do much else like that. But the scrotum pain is what makes it harder and take longer.

I think I'm like you with tip length distance. About 2mm. And they're slightly offset.

Aside from that I'm looking forward to using it. I feel a burden lifted from me already from having to carry injections around and time sex right or rush through it.

A few things to get through still but looking promising. Looks to me like you'll be pretty much there by mid-summer with the way you're going!

[whatevery]

Im not a medical professional so I don't know but I'm not convinced that people travel to the us for healthcare under any circumstances other than necessity. Either there's treatment there that is considered to be performed better than anywhere else or there is a treatment that is only performed there.

But that includes unproven treatment. American healthcare is about money (I don't know enough about Medicaid but that is apparently only available for the poor).

You can get a lot of research and trials because it is funded by interested parties. Ultimately for profit. You'll attract a lot of high level doctors and surgeons because they can charge a lot for healthcare there and make a lot of money. But that's the exact reason why it's not ideal for the patient.

If Medicare is only available to the poor then everyone else needs insurance. Which is obviously for profit. Now you're at the mercy of the insurance company to get your treatment approved. If not you're paying world leading surgeon attracting fees for your care.

Because the healthcare is private there is more incentive to market and offer less solid treatment options. And Ideally keep you coming back if possible. Either you or an insurance company will profit.

Universal healthcare, such as the NHS, eliminates all of that. No trust required, you're only offered treatments that have sufficient evidence of working. Obviously no payment issues. Anything that's not considered a clinical need is not available and that's where practioners can refer you to their private practice.

But it very much depends on the country and scheme. Wait times for elective surgery on NHS is bad. Put they have an obligation to get you seen and treated for urgent / time critical conditions naturally. But the healthcare offered is the best proven treatment available. It depends where you go and which consultant you see but you can typically get anything that's available privately on NHS if its proven. Like Prof Ralph offering all three major implant brands.

There's also a lot of research and trials taking place via NHS as it's a huge organization with vast resources. The goal is to offer world leading treatment (not necessarily care), where needed, for free.

Just look at how many papers and trials Prof. Ralph has been involved in.

I would consider getting private insurance in the UK but only in tandem with NHS and to have better facilities, accommodation etc if I were admitted long term or if long waits were really to be avoided. But I'd still get advice on NHS.

I've had it before where I would see a consultant at their private practice where they offer all kinds of treatments and scans etc to then see them on NHS where they're obligated to say that those options are unproven / ineffective.

That's been an interesting journey for me.

If USA had universal public healthcare it would truly be the best healthcare in the world. But its never gonna happen. Too much money involved.

The NHS is amazing and I'm sad that it looks to be dying from mismanagement, lack of appreciation, over liberalism and abuse.

I think you're overdoing it a bit with the profit component. Whether the UK doctor bills NHS or the US doctor bills private insurance they both do their jobs for profit, not for the love of men. I'd be surprised if NHS guarantees employment for local doctors and if doctor in the UK doesn't get enough patients he still wouldn't go belly up or be fired from his employment. Last time I checked the UK was still a capitalist country. The UK doctors do it as much for profit as the US doctors do.

We're not complaining about the quality of care here in the US. We're pretty content with that. There is only 1 debate in the country in regards to health care and that's the insurance debate. Our private insurance system seem to cost government more money than your NHS does because of our excessive unpaid usage of Emergency rooms, and limited incentives for preventive medicine. That wears very heavily on the US budget.

The way things look however, based on surveys and the polls the new more travelled and likely less well-off generation of Americans would eventually move to Universal Health Care. How it would effect quality of care is an open question. I don't think it would much. I suspect Chuck thinks otherwise. Americans are almost intuitively paranoid of any expansion of government, especially on such scale, so that naturally factors into the debate.

Also, people the world over are naturally conservative and resist changing "the way things are" because nobody really knows what those changes would really bring until they're implemented, and most intuitively focus on the worst case scenarios.

So far our insurance system works fine for greater majority. However what our system also allows is for a person not to buy health insurance at all.

This person might feel themselves invincible (some younger people do; back in the day I sure did). They choose not to prioritize purchasing insurance preferring instead to take few extra Caribbean vacations, or just spend their money on something else.

If or rather when those people finding themselves in trouble they go to ERs which costs much more than regular care and society usually ends up paying for their care anyway but at much higher rates than it would've under the Universal Health Care that would allow them to do a regular doctor visit instead.

Also, nursing homes. You pay out of pocket here until your assets are completely drained and then government steps in to pick up the bill. That means that no matter what - you will not end up on the street towards the end of your days. I believe much of the homeless problem is self-inflicted.

I know a girl who lives on the street. All she has to do is to file an application for free (or affordable) housing. She prefers hanging out with her friends who are in similar situation and complaining about her predicament instead. It's easy to get free food in America. Government would even provide you with some movie money to do other things. Sometimes poverty is a consequence of circumstance and poorly made decisions, other times it's a decease.

And just for the terminology sake... Medicaid is for the poor, Medicare is for the elderly here in the US. The two often overlap. It shouldn't be important to you since you don't live here but would help to know for reference.

[Kodixx]

whatevery, thank you for the generous comment. I see that in your posts also and appreciate.

- Chuck

Moreover Chuck, I see your posts and I think you're an upstanding type of guy that helps people a lot. In the end that's the only thing that counts. That and the dick-related topics.

[1984ptc]

Trust me i was paranoid about my reservoir when i was doing deadlifts at the gym yesterday. Will be doing leg day tomorrow. Got cleared so im fully back at the gym thank God. Missed it a lot.

Im about 18 percent body fat at 197 lbs. So not ripped or anything but have decent muscle mass.

I dont do perito all the time. I just cycle up. And i dont even max out all the time as it may be too painful. I usually average at the 50 pump mark these days. Thankfully deflation just gives me a sensation i can feel as my reservoir refills.

With the trauma your balls sustained, plus the fact youre pumping daily — i think itl just be time before you feel fully healed.

So were the same lengthwise- about half an inch off. Hopefully that will recover with time.

I hope you get cleared to have sex soon. It feels different for sure and almost requires a retraining of its own.

[splitpeach]

Im not a medical professional so I don't know but I'm not convinced that people travel to the us for healthcare under any circumstances other than necessity. Either there's treatment there that is considered to be performed better than anywhere else or there is a treatment that is only performed there.

But that includes unproven treatment. American healthcare is about money (I don't know enough about Medicaid but that is apparently only available for the poor).

You can get a lot of research and trials because it is funded by interested parties. Ultimately for profit. You'll attract a lot of high level doctors and surgeons because they can charge a lot for healthcare there and make a lot of money. But that's the exact reason why it's not ideal for the patient.

If Medicare is only available to the poor then everyone else needs insurance. Which is obviously for profit. Now you're at the mercy of the insurance company to get your treatment approved. If not you're paying world leading surgeon attracting fees for your care.

Because the healthcare is private there is more incentive to market and offer less solid treatment options. And Ideally keep you coming back if possible. Either you or an insurance company will profit.

Universal healthcare, such as the NHS, eliminates all of that. No trust required, you're only offered treatments that have sufficient evidence of working. Obviously no payment issues. Anything that's not considered a clinical need is not available and that's where practioners can refer you to their private practice.

But it very much depends on the country and scheme. Wait times for elective surgery on NHS is bad. Put they have an obligation to get you seen and treated for urgent / time critical conditions naturally. But the healthcare offered is the best proven treatment available. It depends where you go and which consultant you see but you can typically get anything that's available privately on NHS if its proven. Like Prof Ralph offering all three major implant brands.

There's also a lot of research and trials taking place via NHS as it's a huge organization with vast resources. The goal is to offer world leading treatment (not necessarily care), where needed, for free.

Just look at how many papers and trials Prof. Ralph has been involved in.

I would consider getting private insurance in the UK but only in tandem with NHS and to have better facilities, accommodation etc if I were admitted long term or if long waits were really to be avoided. But I'd still get advice on NHS.

I've had it before where I would see a consultant at their private practice where they offer all kinds of treatments and scans etc to then see them on NHS where they're obligated to say that those options are unproven / ineffective.

That's been an interesting journey for me.

If USA had universal public healthcare it would truly be the best healthcare in the world. But its never gonna happen. Too much money involved.

The NHS is amazing and I'm sad that it looks to be dying from mismanagement, lack of appreciation, over liberalism and abuse.

I think you're overdoing it a bit with the profit component. Whether the UK doctor bills NHS or the US doctor bills private insurance they both do their jobs for profit, not for the love of men. I'd be surprised if NHS guarantees employment for local doctors and if doctor in the UK doesn't get enough patients he still wouldn't go belly up or be fired from his employment. Last time I checked the UK was still a capitalist country. The UK doctors do it as much for profit as the US doctors do.

We're not complaining about the quality of care here in the US. We're pretty content with that. There is only 1 debate in the country in regards to health care and that's the insurance debate. Our private insurance system seem to cost government more money than your NHS does because of our excessive unpaid usage of Emergency rooms, and limited incentives for preventive medicine. That wears very heavily on the US budget.

The way things look however, based on surveys and the polls the new more travelled and likely less well-off generation of Americans would eventually move to Universal Health Care. How it would effect quality of care is an open question. I don't think it would much. I suspect Chuck thinks otherwise. Americans are almost intuitively paranoid of any expansion of government, especially on such scale, so that naturally factors into the debate.

Also, people the world over are naturally conservative and resist changing "the way things are" because nobody really knows what those changes would really bring until they're implemented, and most intuitively focus on the worst case scenarios.

So far our insurance system works fine for greater majority. However what our system also allows is for a person not to buy health insurance at all.

This person might feel themselves invincible (some younger people do; back in the day I sure did). They choose not to prioritize purchasing insurance preferring instead to take few extra Caribbean vacations, or just spend their money on something else.

If or rather when those people finding themselves in trouble they go to ERs which costs much more than regular care and society usually ends up paying for their care anyway but at much higher rates than it would've under the Universal Health Care that would allow them to do a regular doctor visit instead.

Also, nursing homes. You pay out of pocket here until your assets are completely drained and then government steps in to pick up the bill. That means that no matter what - you will not end up on the street towards the end of your days. I believe much of the homeless problem is self-inflicted.

I know a girl who lives on the street. All she has to do is to file an application for free (or affordable) housing. She prefers hanging out with her friends who are in similar situation and complaining about her predicament instead. It's easy to get free food in America. Government would even provide you with some movie money to do other things. Sometimes poverty is a consequence of circumstance and poorly made decisions, other times it's a decease.

And just for the terminology sake... Medicaid is for the poor, Medicare is for the elderly here in the US. The two often overlap. It shouldn't be important to you since you don't live here but would help to know for reference.

You're right that few if any doctors are working from altruism. They of course want to get paid. The difference is that in this country there is obviously much less of a marketplace for private healthcare than in the US. So if you want to practice medicine or healthcare here you'll likely and especially at first, need to work on the NHS. That said, if you're a consultant its still pretty good money. And then you practice privately as well. They typically don't "bill" the NHS, they're on salaries with good pensions.

The point is is that because the NHS offers free healthcare there's no opportunity to sell to patients other than for treatment that isn't necessary. Also, because there's no profit incentive it has to minimize costs. And the longer people are sick or unwell the more it costs the system. So the incentive to offer the best possible treatment option as early as reasonably and justifiably possible to cure is there but not for treatment that doesn't have strong supporting evidence.

So in short, yes it's apples and oranges to the US system / private healthcare. If the NHS didn't exist we would be like the US. Medical professionals would likely absolutely love it from a financial incentive but then perhaps not considering the resources, research and trials the NHS system allows for. Maybe a lot would even go out of work as the patient lists would dry up for anything but absolutely necessary care.

You say in the States the system allows for someone not to buy health insurance? In that case would a middle income person then get healthcare?

Thanks for clarification on medicaid and Medicare. We also have the nursing home asset grab thing here too.

There's a lot of discussion here about the current "socialist" culture that's developed and exploding under the current government. There's criticism of the enormous unemployment bill and basically how the government is taking from the working man and giving it to the indolent. I can sympathize with those arguments, but where I have no sympathy with that argument is for healthcare. Healthcare should be viewed as a service like the police, fire service, paramedics, road maintenance and garbage collection.

These are things that should just happen regardless of how much tax you pay. But like all those things there's an element of individual responsibility. Don't dump your old couch in the street, don't set fire to things, don't prank call the cops and with healthcare it should be live a relatively healthy lifestyle, attend your appointments and stop crying about your mild anxiety so you can go off work for six months with stress.

Not all public healthcare systems are the same. Different countries do it differently, I'm biased but I think the NHS was and still is an amazing system which we can hopefully save from destruction.