Surgery on November 24th -- questions, concerns

[hopefuluser]

Hello!

I'm a 37-year-old guy in one of the most exasperating times of my life. After 13 years of ED and not being in a relationship for all that time because of it, I'm now going to have an implant installed. Dr Ricardo Munarriz himself will be installing it (a coloplast). During COVID. During the chaos of 2020. I'm excited but also nervous. What a time to have this life-changing procedure

Anyway, I have some questions:

1) For the last 5 weeks I've had pain (mostly tenderness) in my penis roughly around the area where I injected incorrectly and bent the needle. That resulted in pronounced swelling but no visible bruise. But the pain has not improved. Oddly the pain disappears when I'm erect and it's not painful to masturbate. Equally odd is I believe (although I'm not positive) that the pain didn't immediately start after the trauma of the injection. It (especially) hurts if it's semi-flaccid or when I get up or turn or cross my legs. Both my regular urologist and dr Munarriz said it's something that would go away in time, but it hasn't improved at all. I do know that it gets worse when I'm stressed (I carry a lot of tension in my pelvic region). Has anybody had anything similar? Perhaps the injection inflamed or somehow involved the scar tissue from my Peyronie's (see question 3)...

2) I asked Dr Munarriz if the pain would prevent me from getting the surgery and he kind of dismissed it with one of those "ehhhhh..." things and some squinty eyes turned to the ceiling and didn't seem too concerned. Did any of you guys ever go into surgery with penile pain/discomfort/inflammation?

3) When examining me Dr Munarriz said matter-of-factly I have the beginnings of Peyronie's disease. This makes sense as I've seen some "hourglassing" on my semi-erect penis, although my full erections (well, as full as they can be for a guy with ED!) don't have any curvature I can see. He didn't seem concerned at all and didn't' mention it would interfere with my surgery. In fact, isn't it true that surgeons can remove some Peyronie's scar tissue during the implant procedure? Would having any degree of Peyronie's prevent me from getting an implant? Would having Peyronie's lessen the lifespan of the implant? If the Peyronie's got really bad as time went on, would I not be able to have another implant?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[WhiteCane]

First of all, congratulations! You’re gonna love this thing… so, you’re going to be fine going into surgery with some pain… Needles “especially when they bend“ can cause a lot of doll aching pain, bruising, all of that fun stuff… When the doctor put you under, you’re going to be just fine… hopefully, you’ll be all healed up by then… Second, you can definitely get an implant for PD… They can remove some of the scarring… It’s not going to affect anything about the lifespan or your ability to get another one in the future… It’s actually a pretty common treatment for PD to help break up some of that scarring… Best of luck with all of this! I tried to answer as many of your questions as I could as quickly as I could… I’m completely blind so, my thoughts may seem scattered and I may have forgotten some of your questions but, I’ve got good intention LOL

[Skier123]

Hello Hopeful,

I wanted to give you some feedback on your questions. These are my perspectives and thoughts, not medical advice.

1. I personally would not be too worried about having surgery during this pandemic. I am scheduled to have finger surgery in October. Hospitals and surgical facilities are normally extremely good at infection control, and I see them as a very unlikely place to get the CV.
2. An implant is considered one of the most effective treatments for peyronies. I have read that your doctor may want to wait until the disease "stabilizes" i.e. is no longer progressing, before proceeding with the implant surgery.
3. One the decision is made and the implant is installed - it will in all likelihood completely eliminate any peyronies hourglass and curve. Sometimes this happens over time and requires "cycling" - but eventually over the course of several months the implant will straighten you right out. It did for me.
4. It sounds like you are trying to use injections and are struggling with them. You said you are experiencing pain from them and that they may have triggered the start of Peyronies - which is completely plausible. In my opinion this is the time to seriously consider moving to an implant.
5. Although you are justifiably concerned and apprehensive about implant surgery, in the right hands the surgery is almost always successful.
6. While the implant is not exactly the same as your natural erection used to be - it is an amazing solution to an extremely difficult problem. It takes a few months, but over time it becomes "normal", it feels good for both you and your partner, and it flat out works.

My only advice is make sure you are completely comfortable with your choice of surgeon. There are certainly many excellent implant surgeons around the country - just make sure yours is one of them.

FWIW