My Experience -Looking for advice and feedback

[privateguy]

Hey guys, I want to share with you my experience and hopefully get some advice and feedback. Possibly my experience may help you as well in making a decision. Back in late June of this year I had the Titan implant installed. Surgery went well and the first three days after were fine. The forth day post operation I began to run a fever of about 100 F. Started feeling bad and my fever fluctuated between 100-102. I kept in contact with my doctor. He said that sometimes post-op people will run a fever and not to be concerned with infection unless the surgical wound started breaking open or has puss. The doctor sent me to get an MRI of the area. I went three weeks running a 100 to 102 temp and generally feeling bad. The night before my follow-up appointment my wound broke open and was seeping blood. I was feeling really bad at that point. I went to my appointment in a very bad state. The doctor immediately admitted me to the hospital. I had sepsis. The started my on IV antibiotics and did blood cultures. The opened me back up and removed everything while flushing me out with peroxide and other antibacterial solutions. The doctor performed a salvage and installed a malleable Tactra implant. I was told this was a temporary measure to reduce shrinking and that I could have another three piece inflatable installed in a few months after I healed. The doctor told me that the next implant should be a AMS 700 lgx because it can be coated with better antibacterial protection before insertion. Just like everyone else I am concerned with size. Before the first implant my penis was 5.5 inches when I could get it hard with injections and I could get it to stretch to 6 inches with a vacuum pump. Now that I am pretty much healed up with the malleable implant my penis is only 4 inches and certainly not a thick as it was. The 4 inches makes it hard to penetrate well and my wife is honest enough to tell me that she has a hard time feeling me inside her. We love each other and make due with other means of sexual satisfaction for now. When I asked the doctor if the AMS will restore some size he could not give me a definitive answer. Anyone else here have a similar experience where you had the malleable and experienced that much reduction in size and then had a three piece put in? Any advice or feedback is welcome!

[Littleleo]

Don't know how well this parallels with your situation but in my youther years I was 6" or longer. But not having erections for a long time before my implant cause some size loss. After the implant I was at 4". One month after implant I was 5". That's where I'm at after 3 months. But there is still uncomfort at full inflation, so I think I may still regain more over the next few months. I also have the LGX. I was not too happy about it at 4", but at the same time I was ecstatic about being able to have an erection. At 5" I'm still ecstatic even though it's also a just barely big enough for my wife. We make due beautifully. Even if I was stuck at 4" it would have been well worth it. From what I understand, I'm not going to get bigger than my dick allows, so I'll be very happy with what I get.

[Txagq8]

Let me start my comments by telling you that I am really sorry to hear about your bout with infection post-op. I didnt have to deal with that, had a remarkably uneventful recovery after they installed a LGX in me. It might help to know what size the Titan you had was. In order to predict future outcomes.

I think you were treated wisely by your doctor in putting in a malleable as a stop gap measure and as an owner of an LGX, his comments about installing that next are spot on.

My LGX basically put me right back where I started. I can’t speak for scarring or shrinkage from an infection. But the thing does thicken and lengthen when inflated, just alike it’s supposed to. It doesn’t double in size or anything like I did before the implant. Of course, I had a 3.5” flaccid and the implant is >5” flaccid.

Depending on what size LGX they put in a guy can expect lengthening from 1 to 1.5 inches when pumped up.

Based on your infection history, I doubt the surgeon goes crazy when installing an LGX. Nobody wants erosion to poke a hole in either end of the corporeal cavity where they’re going to put the cylinders. But if you had it before an implant, they should be able to appropriately size you.

I’ll be realistic and tell you what I would expect if I were in your shoes—-based solely on what I know from having ED for most of my adult life, with some shrinkage although injections kept it from really being an issue plus my LGX experience.

I would think back to the best erection prior to an implant. Then I’d think about the complications from first surgery, the period of time with a malleable, and the benefits of the LGX. And then I’d tell myself all that crap is probably going to cost me a half inch of length and a half inch of girth.

I would closely follow doctor’s advice after re-installation and be patient and once outside the window of time where infection is likely, then I’d cycle aggressively while being patient. I was close to 7” before surgery (6 3/4”, to be exact). Afterwards I started out around 4.5” at the 2 week mark. As I healed it got back to 5….5 1/2 pretty quick. But it took a full year to get back to 6 1/2” and at 2 1/2 years I’m still seeing a little bit of stretch, agonizingly slowly.

Again, sorry for the infection. I’m glad you’re ok, bacterial sepsis is nothing to mess with. I think you’re surgeon is right. I think he’s also right in not making unrealistic or premature predictions. No two guys are alike and you’re won’t really know for 6 months or so after you’ve been re-installed. But, I think there’s a good chance the LGX can give you a back what you had if your anatomy cooperates.

[68CatFan]

Privateguy, I'm guessing you used a local surgeon, because they totally botched the operation. You got infected really fast and when you mentioned to your doctor you had a fever he/she didn't take you seriously and let infection go three weeks unchecked. I'd highly advise you to look into one of better and more capable doctors for your second surgery.

[newbie443]

Hey guys, I want to share with you my experience and hopefully get some advice and feedback. Possibly my experience may help you as well in making a decision. Back in late June of this year I had the Titan implant installed. Surgery went well and the first three days after were fine. The forth day post operation I began to run a fever of about 100 F. Started feeling bad and my fever fluctuated between 100-102. I kept in contact with my doctor. He said that sometimes post-op people will run a fever and not to be concerned with infection unless the surgical wound started breaking open or has puss. The doctor sent me to get an MRI of the area. I went three weeks running a 100 to 102 temp and generally feeling bad. The night before my follow-up appointment my wound broke open and was seeping blood. I was feeling really bad at that point. I went to my appointment in a very bad state. The doctor immediately admitted me to the hospital. I had sepsis. The started my on IV antibiotics and did blood cultures. The opened me back up and removed everything while flushing me out with peroxide and other antibacterial solutions. The doctor performed a salvage and installed a malleable Tactra implant. I was told this was a temporary measure to reduce shrinking and that I could have another three piece inflatable installed in a few months after I healed. The doctor told me that the next implant should be a AMS 700 lgx because it can be coated with better antibacterial protection before insertion. Just like everyone else I am concerned with size. Before the first implant my penis was 5.5 inches when I could get it hard with injections and I could get it to stretch to 6 inches with a vacuum pump. Now that I am pretty much healed up with the malleable implant my penis is only 4 inches and certainly not a thick as it was. The 4 inches makes it hard to penetrate well and my wife is honest enough to tell me that she has a hard time feeling me inside her. We love each other and make due with other means of sexual satisfaction for now. When I asked the doctor if the AMS will restore some size he could not give me a definitive answer. Anyone else here have a similar experience where you had the malleable and experienced that much reduction in size and then had a three piece put in? Any advice or feedback is welcome!

Welcome to the site. I am not a health professional but I have done a lot of research on this and I would like to add what I understand about this. First of all I have seen no information on a doctor that has no infection cases for this surgery. The best doctors in the world have cases with infection they just have fewer. And doctors vary a lot with this surgery. Infection is a risk with any doctor and the treatment will vary also. Some doctors will just remove the infected device and not put anything back in. Some will remove the infected device and put another inflatable in. And some do the malleable like you have. In a few cases if the infection is caught early enough it can be resolved with medication and no removal of the infected device is needed. Some doctors seem to believe that if infection happens then meds will not be effective and the device has to be removed. No way to know if your doctor would have treated you for the infection earlier it would have made a difference or not. May have and then again may not. And you can't go back to find out. The fact that your doctor replaced your infected device with a malleable speaks a bit to the doctors skill and interest in implants to do what is best for you. You will have some size loss from the infection but the malleable reduced that a lot. Had the doctor left you with out anything the size loss would have been greater. A malleable has to be shorter as you cannot deflate it. If the malleable was as big as an inflatable at max you would have erosion. And you wouldn't want a max erection 24-7 anyway. An inflatable will give you a larger erection and max inflation and a more comfortable flaccid. As far as the AMS coating vs. Coloplast I have seen documents that show the infection risk is the same with either one. Coloplast had a recommended antibiotic solution when they first came out with the coating that absorbs the solution. That antibiotic solution had a higher infection rate and was replace with a different solution that has the same rate of infection as the AMS products. I don't think you will reduce your chance of infection with a product change. As infection does cause size loss and some of that may be regained, I do think the LGX is a good choice. It expands in length and girth more than the Titan. And men who go 5 or more years to have a replacement surgery most times receive a larger device. I think if you are aggressively sized with the LGX you will restore more of your lost size. You did not say how old you are but if you see one or more replacement surgeries 10-20 years down the road there is the chance that you will get all your size back.

Some things I would do while waiting for the time to go by until you can have another IPP surgery: Contact one of the very good doctors and ask about VED therapy with your malleable. You might ask your doctor also. This may help in reducing size loss even more. Replacement surgeries are more difficult and some doctors do not do them. None of my local doctors do them. Seems your doctor did the malleable and is way ahead of my local doctors. You did not give your location or your doctors name but you might look to see if you have a better doctor available to you. The only thing I think your doctor did that is questionable is that he did not get you in with the fever to check for infection. I do not know if you were on antibiotic meds then or not. But I really think your doctor should have seen you or had someone else see you when you called in with a fever and feeling bad. But these things vary a lot from area to area. We don't all get equal treatment for this. You may have the best doctor available to you for this and the doctor may be a very good doctor. I have no way of knowing but if it were me I would want to find out.

Good luck going forward with this.

[wolfpacker]

Once you get an inflatable implant back in there it will definitely expand you back out in girth, and almost certainly in length too. Just get it done as soon as you can and it'll be all good!