I Have Joined the Brotherhood

[Cajun Jeff]

Welcome, sounds like you had a good Dr. ice is your friend for now. You will love your new cock!

[mike123]

Day 5 of my journey.

There was no reduction in swelling today and perhaps a little increase in bruising. The good news is that the discomfort has lessened some today. I didn't think I would turn that corner for another few days. With a bit of luck, the trend will continue tomorrow.

More good news is that I was able to find the pump today. It's pretty much directly under where in incision would be in a normal penescrotal operation. My cut is much longer because of the scrotoplasty. I can just feel what I'm guessing is the top of the pump on either side if the incision. There is far too much swelling to locate it from the bottom much less grab it from underneath and pull.

[stephen54]

Skier is right, do what he says!

Your sac may be a complete damn mystery for a little while. Mine didn't look swollen and had almost no bruising and so I thought, well how difficult can this really be, then?

I soon found out.

Expect edema/swelling to be present for a good while even if you don't really discern it. That swelling makes your orientation to the pump/valve a bit of a challenge, but you'll get there. I was about in tears trying to figure my Touch out even at the 5-6 week mark. Then things just sort of start to click and off you go.

[mike123]

Day 6

I know what you mean. Since I joined FT back in July, I've read posts from many guys who were having a hard time either finding the pump or the deflate valve. As someone who is intimately familiar with the contents of their scrotum, it seemed inconceivable that a new object could show up in there and not be immediately identifiable. Well, I had hugely underestimated the effect that a lot of swelling can have. Now I understand.

I've been unsure whether to use ice or heat for the swelling. Most of what I've seen says to use ice for the first couple of days and then to switch to heat. After the first couple of days, I stopped using ice but didn't start on heat. That oversight has probably made my swelling worse that it really needed to be.

Still not sure whether ice or heat would be better now, but I started using heat this morning and that has helped quite a bit with the swelling. Things are also a lot more pliable making it easier to explore. My scrotum is still a very full balloon, but is definitely not as swollen as yesterday.

Pain is about the same as yesterday and bruising is a bit worse. What I thought was the pump yesterday, wasn't. I have found it in the bottom of the scrotum where it belongs. Overall, I'll call today a win.

[mike123]

Day 7

Yesterday, I took my last antibiotic pill so I began treating the incision with Betadine three times a day. I continued that today and the incision is looking good.

I've continued to use a lot of heat today. Not high temperature, just frequent applications. The heat feels great. I'm still very swollen, but noticeably less so than yesterday. The contents of my scrotum are becoming much more pliable and I've begun to gently massage the areas around the testicles and pump. I can't feel the pump's tubes yet or the deflate block, but can feel that there are no tubes on the other sides so at least I'm able to determine the direction it's laying.

[stephen54]

mike123:

I describe something in my journal here about the 2 occasions where, while fighting through the new post-op confusion in my sac, my surgeon and his fellow on two separate visits "expressed" the edema out of my sac. I'm not suggesting you'll need that, only that this apparently happens, helps, and is not uncommon if IPP swelling persists and inhibits you from navigating your new parts.

My sac has all my life been pretty small and tight to my body. Seemed like it would be impossible to fit anything else in there. Then, in goes the prosthesis and hardware and somehow that shit fit in there just fine. Still bizarre to me. But as I've described, my sac never, outwardly, appeared to me to be swollen. It didn't look swollen and it didn't feel swollen.

So when I went in to my doc and essentially begged for help navigating the inflate/deflate, this twice led to them manually, by hand, expressing out the accumulated post-surgical fluid. I have a really high pain threshold. And I would not describe what they did, precisely, as "painful"...but I'm pretty squeamish about my sac/nuts and so it was ridiculously uncomfortable. For like 10 seconds. Then...entirely surprisingly...the undifferentiated sac of "WTF" within a day or two became very noticeably more navigable. Somehow that edema that I didn't even appreciate was in there had apparently been forced out (resorbed, at least in part) and I was much, much more able to discern the new landmarks in my sac and start getting my process going positively.

For what it's worth. I don't know how many guys have experienced this. It's an incredibly odd and uncomfortable flat and very, very firm pressing between your nuts and perineum. But damn if it didn't do the trick and get me cycling.

[mike123]

Stephen, I've thought about your story of having to be expressed twice nearly every time I see my swollen sac (so several times a day for the last several days). Since I started using heat two days ago, there has been less swelling, more pliability and a better ability to identify things. I've got a follow up with the doc this coming Friday. My hope is that I can get the swelling under control by then and that we will be able to operate the pump.