My experience with Penile Implant Surgery

[Zappa]

I live in the metro Atlanta area and Dr. Tarik Hakky was my surgeon (Atlanta Cosmetic Urology). I trust Dr. Hakky and he took very good care of me. I would recommend him. I had a severe bend (90 degrees). I lived with this for 2 years. My wife gave me oral sex, but the inability to have normal sex impacted me psychologically in ways I probably minimized at the time. I recommend addressing the issue as soon as you are able.

I'm not trying to oversell my surgeon and obviously, I don't have anyone to compare him to. I trust him though and always felt like he cared and I was in good hands. Everyone in the medical industry I spoke to about Dr. Hakky had good things to say about him. I did not ask him if he was high volume, but it seemed very much to me he was an experienced surgeon. His staff is very professional as well.

I took me a year after my initial consultation to get the courage for the surgery. I don't recommend waiting this long. Deal with it asap if you are able. I am fortunate to have good insurance.

I received a Coloplast implant. Because my bend was so severe, the surgery was a little more intense than most implant surgeries. Dr. H used a technique he said he divised, performing several occipital cuts (think X cuts) on my penis. This resulted in significant improvement to the girth of my penis. In fact, my current girth may be greater than my pre Peyronies Disease penis. The length is acceptable.

As you may know, it is super important you regularly use a vacuum pump leading up to your surgery. You want your penis to be as big as possible heading into the surgery. Use it for several months a couple times a day. See the vacuum pump thread for best practices. I used all the way until 36 hours before my surgery. I read somewhere to stop 2 weeks early and when Dr. H found out I had stopped, he said get back to pumping immediately which I did.

Dr. H will tell you he cut me up pretty good. My bend was ridiculous. As such, my recovery was longer than most. In hindsight, I started inflating too soon and this almost caused me to lose my pump. I got swollen from the inflating and fishing around my swollen testicles for the deflate button. I was super stressed. I gave in a couple weeks out and masturbated. This set my healing back and was a big mistake. But, I kept taking it easy, kept it bandaged with anti-biotic ointment and made it through - though it was a little bumpy there for a while.

My penis never (or as of 10 months out) went back to a totally a flacid state. I'm not a fan of this, but learning to live with it and it still is improving. I don't have any issues with the pump. Some complain it is difficult to deflate, but it's not a big deal to me. It will slowly re-inflate especially if you don't push the pump down all the way to lock it. I don't think it is supposed to reinflate at all, but it's not a huge deal to me and definitely not worth another surgery.

In all, I'm happy with the implant surgery. It's hard to overstate say how great it feels to be able to have sex again. I hope this helps anyone in my position. Best of luck.
 

[Hawk]

Zappa, Thanks so much for one more account.  I am happy for your success.  I assume that you did not post regularly because you feel it somehow is just not your thing.  I respect that, but the post you made and any future posts will be a help to many who will find this forum over the years.

I do have a few questions if you could respond.

When you say, "I am not a fan of this, but learning to live with it and it still is improving."  
1. I am very interested in what you are not fully happy about.

You say your length is acceptable.  
2.Does it equal your length the day before surgery?
3. How does it compare to your length before Peyronies Disease?

[Stepone]

Congratulations!
Things will get better and better as time fly's by.
I am impressed the doctor was able to increase your girth. I had a similar problem and also ended up with increased girth.
Please add in your signature line date of implant, type, size, etc. as it will help us understand what you are dealing with.
Thanks for your posts.
StepOne  

[Zappa]

Hawk,
Here are answers to your questions and a couple more thoughts.
When you say, "I am not a fan of this, but learning to live with it and it still is improving."
1. I am very interested in what you are not fully happy about.
Specifically, it is somewhat erect (~25%) all the time. Because of this it is difficult to compare my post surgery flacid length with pre-surgery. I suspect my pump is leaking as it will be softer, more flacid immediately after deflation than the following morning. There is still a sharp bend (comparable to pre-surgery, though strictly to the left) to my penis while not inflated.
Pre surgery, I also had a bend while flacid, but not as noticeable since it was short and completely flacid. I tend to cover up in locker rooms and even at the house to hide the curvy penis.
You say your length is acceptable.
2.Does it equal your length the day before surgery? see above
3. How does it compare to your length before Peyronies Disease? My best guess is I lost at least 2" from my pre-Peyronies erect penis. I measure now just under 5" from the base of my penis while fully
inflated/erect.

I elected to go with the implant surgery because I did not want to lose anymore length and I was concerned, the curve would slowly reappear with the other 2 surgical options, putting me back to square one - possibly with a much shorter penis. As many of you know, the loss in length is as tough or tougher to deal with than the curve.

On another topic, I purchased the Restorex device. It did not work well for me. It helped with length in the short term, but any benefits quickly go away and considering the amount of time, pain that goes into it, I suggest going just with the vacuum pump.

Coloplast Implant (not sure of size)
Surgery date - 11/21/22

 

[Hawk]

Thanks for the reply Zappa.  I don't want to be a pain but I just want to better understand your situation.

Your signature line should at least have your date of implant. Otherwise, we have to dig through your posts.
1. What was your date of implant?
2. You have a Coloplast.  Do you know if it is a Titan?
3. Who was your surgeon?

You measure "just under 5" fully inflated.
4. What was your fully erect length before Peyronies Disease? Doing the math, it seems the answer might be 7".
5. What was your fully erect length the day before surgery?

With those answers, it is easier to give accurate input, especially about any auto-inflation, which is very important.

There is little point in comparing the size of your presurgery flaccid with your implant flaccid.  Your implant flaccid will always be significantly bigger, which most men prefer.  That does not mean semi-erect, however.

Depending on the date of surgery I would expect any related curve to greatly reduce.


 

[Zappa]

Thank you Hawk. Signature updated. It is a Titan Touch. I am interested to know if my flacid curve should be significantly reduced by now.  

[Hawk]

Zappa, My guess is that most of the correction has already taken place, and correction from here on out will be continuing but relatively minor.  Everyone is unique, however, so I could be wrong.  What you will continue to see is a softening of the cylinders.  They will feel more and more like upper rather than plastic.

I regret that you did not deal with the issue of 100% deflating and stretching your reservoir scar capsule during the healing process.  I think it will be very difficult to stretch it at this point.  Having partial inflation all of the time has a few potential pitfalls.  One is the annoying partial erection and curve that you cover up in public showers, but it can also put constant pressure and movement on the base of the implant and stretch that scar capsule.  This can result in your erect/inflated penis not pointing upward or even straight out but rather downward.  That is not much of an issue with how it functions but more with just the look being a little less natural.  It is still a vast improvement over a penis that barely functioned.

If it were me, I would still fight to see if I could stay TOTALLY deflated.  That means first getting TOTALLY 100% deflated.  Do that by locking the pump valve open.  Squeeze starting at the glans and milk all of the fluid backward.  I find it easiest by putting the base/ball of each thumb on each side of the penis and rolling the heels of the hands together to force the fluid from the penis. When the shaft is drained until the penis looks flat, pinch off the base so it cannot refill, and use the other hand to squeeze and drain the area at and behind the scrotum.  Once completely deflated, give one or two pumps to double lock the valve.  When I did this, I then wrapped my deflated penis snugly with Coban self-adhesive bandage.  It is important to wrap it uniformly and snugly but do not use any rings or bands because that would bind deep and act as a tourniquet to cut off blood flow. This will prevent re-inflation.  I would do this at night. It only took about two or three sessions of this to fix my auto-inflation, but I was only a couple of months post-op when I addressed the issue.

I am still interested in your answers to questions 4 & 5 in my last post.

[Stepone]

Zappa

I looked at my notes from my surgeon and it showed the size.
Or call the surgeons office and ask. They document the size, model, etc in their notes for insurance purposes.
You have a right to know.
StepOne