5 VIs --> 30 degrees is now 80-90, 3/4" shorter

[newguy]

I have an appointment with the specialist on September 8th. He has already recommended traction, but without an indication of when to start. I couldn't start it while I still had unhealed wounds, but I am thinking this weekend might be the time.

I am trying not to panic. I understand the recovery of function from this operation takes time and therapy. But I'm getting older by the minute and would like to use my equipment before I'm written off!

Hi Brightdog - Maybe you shouldn't start traction when you're able to achieve an erection. It may be that the recent happenings concerning your member have reached such a point that the healing process is takings its time. Also, remember that the VED is capable of helping your achieve an erection, so it you go too long without having one, that might effectively kick start things. Also, ED meds and supplements have been lifesavers for many men here, so hang in there are hopefully things will work out for you. Hopefully your specialist will help with any concerns you have, so I hope the appointment goes well!

[Brightdog]

Wow brightdog, i hope the surgery went ok for you.  I can't believe that happened w/ the injection.  Do you have any updates from surgery?

There were a few mistakes made at the hospital with regard to blood thinners and dressings, and I ended up with an infection that slowed down my healing. So here I am on day 31 post-op. There is no pain - hooray. However, there is also no real erection. At this point, I would not be able to have intercourse. Mind you, the stitches have not dissolved. The scabs on the head finally washed off today, so at least I am starting to look more normal - except for those clear stitches sticking out all over.

I have an appointment with the specialist on September 8th. He has already recommended traction, but without an indication of when to start. I couldn't start it while I still had unhealed wounds, but I am thinking this weekend might be the time.

I am trying not to panic. I understand the recovery of function from this operation takes time and therapy. But I'm getting older by the minute and would like to use my equipment before I'm written off!

[MikeSmith]

Wow brightdog, i hope the surgery went ok for you.  I can't believe that happened w/ the injection.  Do you have any updates from surgery?


I also wanted to add to my initial assessment of the verapimil injections...  I am the 2nd person to report a discoloration of the penis (black and blue) that still has not faded - 2+ months after the last injection.  And, after seeing my ultrasound I am more convinced that the injections caused more problems and trauma.  There was zero benefit...and all that happened was that I got more calcium deposits everywhere.  The calcium that verapamil blocks is not the same calcium that gets randomly deposited in the penis...Levine explained... but I didn't totally understand it.  I think he said something like- There are cells called osteoblasts and they can get lodged in the penis & then there's also a process by which normal cells attract calcium deposits... but I didn't totally understand this.  The main point was when I said I was shocked that there was so much calcium after being injected with a calcium channel blocker 5 times, he told me that the calcium channel blocker affects a separate pathway than whatever caused the calcium to still keep building up.

[newguy]

I just read your 'My History' post. It sounds like you've been treated really badly by lots of medical professions and haven't had much luck with your condition. Here's hoping that the surgery is successful and the start of a new beginning.

[newguy]

Thanks for sharing your account brightdog. I'm pleased that you're now in a much better position post surgery. I hope more men continue to both positive and negative verapamail injection posts, because others may well benefit from from as part of their decision making process. From a personal perspective, I've always been quite scared of the idea of anybody injecting my penis with anything. I'm not saying that it's something I'd rule out if the right treatment came along in future, but I wouldn't opt for verapamil injections.

[Brightdog]

I was slated for a 6-injection course of treatment in the fall of 2008, at a rate of one injection per month. My curvature was to the left about 60 degrees, plus I had a pronounced ring of scar tissue causing a bottleneck about 3" from the base of the penis. Pre-Peyronies Disease size was an even 8" erect.

The injections were very painful. I had some concerns about how the urologist decided where he would inject. No tests were done - no ultrasound, not even an examination of the erect penis.

After the first 3 injections there seemed to be some softening of the plaque. Two injections had been to the relatively unaffected side of the penis and one injection to the affected side.

The fourth injection was also into the least-affected side. It caused haemorrhaging. My whole penis turned black. Afterward, the scar tissue from the haemorrhaging plus the natural progression of the disease meant that I was now not only bent to the left but twisted. The bend stabilized somewhere around 160 degrees. Yes, that is not a typo: I bent to the side so much that my penis was facing back at me, almost a full circle. No way of measuring length - the astonishing part was that erections were still possible. Unfortunately, the pain was severe and sexual activity was not possible.

I just had graft/plication surgery on July 26th.

[Tim468]

Sorry to hear about your experience. I am never going down that path - and like you, there is only one of me, and I will never know what different steps along the way might have led to, if taken.

Tim

[MikeSmith0]

I'm done with the VIs (verapamil injections).  I cannot blame them for the changes since March because it could've just been the disease "progressing", but the changes in these 3 short months have been pretty bad.  The total length has gone down by 3/4" to 1" (hard to measure due to curve and ED when holding a ruler).  The upward curvature due to the dorsal plaque is almost 90 degrees.  Before, it sort of still looked almost normal at 30 degrees.  Now, it is clearly not in the normal range at all.  The dorsal plaque is much harder than it was before the injections, and it is bigger.  The side plaques seem to be less noticable but the narrowing and hinge effect is still there...actually, it has gotten worse even though it is harder to feel the plaques.  Girth beyond (toward the head) the plaque has been reduced by 1/4" roughly...so that part is narrower too.  

During this time I have taken pentox 0-2x per day - It affected my sleep so in total, I went through about 150 pentox tabs in 5 months w/ a similar # of 500 mg arginine tabs - probably not a theraputic level.  I haven't been that careful to count my time using fastsize, but it's probably around the 40-50 hour range.  I have only started the VED use regularly in the last week or so since I had a lot of confusion w/ it earlier.  

So, I'm not sure if I'd recommend the VIs to someone or not bc I don't know what would've happened had I not had them...and I was also in the "ideal" stage (the doctors thought) to respond to VI (pre-calcificaiton).  However, it didn't work...and it did not increase girth, contrary to the 100% in Levine's 14-person study (though I would technically need 7 more for that to be fully comparable... I don't want to continue).    I would probably recommend the VED first - before even fast size... just based on what I've read on different boards and I think it's more convenient to use that for 30 minutes than wear the FS device for 4 hrs per day at least.  The VED is just a little intimidating at first and hard to get exactly right so I set it aside for too long after I got it.  Now that I can use it properly, I am pissed I did't just start with that since it is the least invasive and traumatic method to approach all of this and I had a circumfrential scar which would've benefitted from the 360 degree stretch.  I think fastsize might be aggrivating the dorsal plaque, potentially even lengthening it.  Anyway, I was putting off taking my "after" pics until a few days ago but I did and they're just pretty bad.