Another Coloplast Titan Implantee's Experience

[RexRG]

Tome alert! Long one!

PREFACE
It's with a sense of obligation to this forum that I wrote this experience for anyone interested. This account is for those looking for someone's experiences leading up to the reasons for an implant and one person's accounts pre and post procedure. My journal is this one post instead of the daily mundane entries I would have to report, because mine were mostly mundane.



My surgeon is Dr. Faysal A. Yafi of UCI Urology in Orange, CA. The procedure was done in January 2024 at the UCI Medical Center.

Brief history: I'm currently 67 years old and I've had ED since my early 40s. The ED was partially due to low-T for which I've been on TRT for a few years. My endocrinologist had recently adjusted my dosage up when, in August of 2022, I noticed a lump at the left base of my penis after a week of painful night time erections that woke me every night. NTEs had been nonexistent for decades before that and this was Peyronies Disease rearing its hideous head for no known reason, to this day.

The initial deformities were mild and didn't show up until a couple of months after the diagnosis by a local urologist. One morning I had an erection and noticed it was leaning left. Looking in the mirror I was shocked. Looked like it was pointing sideways.

For some reason I didn't expect anything like that to happen, even after seeing all the deformed Peyronie's penis pics from the web searches. It had been months since the diagnosis after all. Then suddenly overnight it started.

Over the next year this acute stage never seemed to subside - even though the urologist said it would stop after six months - and another plaque would develop in the meantime and both would grow for over a year while my penis went from a ~30 degree left turn to eventually a 40 degree dorsal curve with a clockwise twist and a lot of narrowing throughout most of the shaft.

I purchased a RestoreX early on, and began daily 30-minute sessions in the mornings. Then I began a months-long search for a qualified doctor to help me out of this horror. I found Yafi's name on this forum - I'm very grateful to find so much data here to draw from.

After a long battle with my insurance company, I got an appointment with Dr. Yafi's office and an ultrasound and an official diagnosis of Peyronies Disease. The options given were: Do nothing and stay with the RestoreX, which had helped a lot with the curve and length (extending my penis about .75 inches by that time) or to go with Xiaflex injections; or get placation surgery or the implant surgery which were the last resort options offered by them.

I said I needed some time to consider it and made an appointment with Dr. Yafi the following month on a Zoom call.

In that next month I considered that penetrative sex was now off the table. The penis was too narrow and weak and it bent easily at many points. RestoreX was only good for aesthetics at this point. Plication was out because it wouldn't address the loss of strength. So it had to be the implant. I researched Yafi's videos and website and his preferred device, the Coloplast Titan (Classic Titan, not the Titan Touch) and I gave him my decision when we talked on Zoom in December of 2023. He agreed and had no problem scheduling an appointment for surgery for the following month. I needed to do some labs and get an ECG done for him in the meantime.

I sweat it out from December 13, 2023 to January 30, 2024. I was proud of myself for not postponing the surgery because I was very nervous about the long recovery period (not a fan of pain!) but I made it to the appointment. They'd asked if I wanted to stay overnight after the surgery to which I said yes (it's technically an outpatient procedure, which I think is a maneuver for insurance purposes so they wouldn't balk as much.) But one staff member told me over the phone that overnight was NOT an option, that I'd have to go home afterwards. Dr. Yafi said he'd take care of it and I could stay the night (as it turned out, it was very necessary for a diabetic to stay overnight for the antibiotic IV regimen).

He was reassuring at preop, as was the anesthesiologist. The OR was maybe 30 or 40 feet square, pretty large, and lots of people were prepping things as I was wheeled in. I'd been on an IV for a while and I guess they started the anesthesia right away because I was out very fast.

The next thing I remembered was waking up in the postop area in a lot of pain. I complained immediately and they asked me for a 1-out-of-10. I said "9!" because a 10 should cause unconsciousness. They quickly shot me up with morphine and fentanyl and the pain dropped to a 3 in a minute. After a few more minutes I was wheeled into a recovery area of bed bays with curtains in-between. I heard that I was one of four implantees there. My wife kept me company for a couple of hours then was asked to leave as they shut it down because it was an overflow area. I was taken by ambulance to the hospital, less than a block away, to get a better room with some privacy.

I was fed, and visited by nurses and Yafi's various staff to answer questions. That night I was asked to ambulate around the ward. I needed to do that at least twice a day they said. It required that I pull the wheeled IV stand that pumped me full of antibiotics. It also held a urine bag from the catheter I was wearing, and a fluid bag coming from a drain in my scrotum (it seems not all implant surgeons use a drain. I was very happy Yafi did, it saved so much pain and swelling during my recovery).

I saw my penis the next day after they removed the gauze and catheter and drain (I think around 9 ounces of fluid had been drained) and the penis looked pretty normal. Little did I know the swelling and discoloration hadn't begun yet. After I could prove that I could urinate, the nurse took an ultrasound of my bladder to make sure it emptied sufficiently. Another nurse went over the postop instructions for the next weeks then she released me so my wife could drive me home, I could drive the next day she said but don't sit upright very long. Instead, I needed to recline most of the time. No problem, my two favorite chairs at home are recliners.

The next few days were somewhat painful with a lot of variation. Sometimes there was no discomfort beyond a dull ache, at other times some burning or stabbing pains might last up to an hour or more. I took the pain meds and antibiotics for over a week. Didn't finish the pain meds though, and didn't really need the opioids at all. The biggest issue I had was the intubation pain. I could barely swallow for a couple of weeks the pain was so intense.

The bruising began that night and by the next day it was at the 'eggplant' stage. The pubic area was also bloated with fluid, I assume from implanting the reservoir on the left side under the muscle. It was all pretty ugly and it concerned me so I sent pics to the nurse asking how it looked for day-two. She said it was perfectly normal looking.

I asked for the surgery notes where I read that he heard the popping of the plaque when he inflated the device. Awesome! I read that I was left "partially inflated" which I'd hoped. It was sticking out at 4 o'clock and I didn't want that to be permanent. From the notes everything was routine. A part of my recovery instructions was to start taking a mile walk each day in 10 or 15-minute increments (that was pretty nice, so I've made 20-minute walks every few hours a permanent thing). Beyond the meds and the walks, I only had to wait out the healing process.

The real marathon begins. After about a week or more the feeling of being partially inflated all the time reminded me of being 'buff' and my Pavlovian response was to be somewhat aroused the whole time. I had been using sildenafil for years and I'd usually be aroused first and after popping a pill I'd get that buff feeling. Add to that, that we were having sex daily up until this surgery. And now sex was verboten for almost two months. I cheated after two weeks and edged oh-so-gently to conclusion. That was satisfactory until another week-plus passed. So went the routine. After about six weeks my wife just reached over one day and seemed to know just how to handle it gently also. Heaven.

I was taught how to cycle after a month. It was pretty frustrating for a few days, as the pump tended to slip easily out of my fingers at first. The pump stiffness was a factor though, it's easier now that it loosened up after a few weeks.

I went back a month later for the green light to return to normal activities. I asked about the auto-fill issue I'd noticed and was told it should get better after a while. After I deflate it, it tends to bulk up slowly to as much as 30%. Same when inflating, it might take five more pumps after a minute and another two or three after a couple of more minutes. But it's not deflating enough to get soft at all, just stretching maybe.

So now it's been 90 days since the surgery and I felt it's as good a time as any to assess things: The pangs of pain still occur, but they're very infrequent. Burning or sharp pains usually happen only during or after inflating, but not consistently. There's still some discoloration and the penis is a bit darker than it was preop, as well as the scrotum on the left where the drain hose was inserted. After the surgery my flaccid and erect positions were both at 4 o'clock. Now flaccid is hanging at 6 o'clock (albeit due to a little dogearing) and erect is about 3:15-3:30, which is great. The implant material seems to be softening enough to look natural, but it still is a little freaky to feel the crinkly material when deflated. And it gets all dented when deflated initially. I can live with that.

But sex is phenomenal! Not worrying if my Johnson's gonna go limp without warning makes sex as good as it was in my teens when I took it all for granted. Everything considered it's better than in my teens. Much better. I'm reborn!

Thank you Dr. Yafi. And thank you Peyronies Society Forum and Mr. Hawk, et al, for all the data and support.
 

[Aussiemale]

Hi Rex.

Great to hear your success. I also have diabetes and I'm type one.....I'm booked for next month.

Glad to hear your pain is resolving. That's my number one fear too .....

Well done on your decision to take this step.

I also will be staying overnight.....but no questions asked in my case.....hope to join the ranks with you soon.

Aussiemale  

[Sonic]

Hey Rex, I remember following your posts since you joined here and your journey to the implant. Seems like things have gone very well, very happy for you, you warrior!!

[RexRG]

Thanks guys. I probably should have proofread that more closely. A couple of omissions: I opted not to go with Xiaflex because I'd still be using sildenifil even if the procedure was successful, but sildenafil aggravates my tinnitus big time. I needed that to end also.

I also forgot to mention that there might be some neuropraxia in the prepuce along the frenulum. There's been some swelling or puffiness in the underside since the surgery that I'm hoping is still healing. It's the most important part of the penis in terms of sexual stimulation and there's still some soreness and numbness there. Fingers crossed.  

[RexRG]

Hi Rex.

Great to hear your success. I also have diabetes and I'm type one.....I'm booked for next month.

Glad to hear your pain is resolving. That's my number one fear too .....

Well done on your decision to take this step.

I also will be staying overnight.....but no questions asked in my case.....hope to join the ranks with you soon.

Aussiemale

You'll be happy you did, Aussiemale! Staying in a "marathon mode" mindset helps for the few first weeks. Yafi's PA said the only infection he observed in hundreds of procedures was with an unmanaged diabetic. I assume you're managing it, as a type 1, so there's little chance of infection.

 

[RexRG]

Hey Rex, I remember following your posts since you joined here and your journey to the implant. Seems like things have gone very well, very happy for you, you warrior!!

I've always appreciated your support, Sonic, and your observations helped in my decision making. Sometimes I get too close to the trees to see the forest!

[Sonic]

Glad I could offer some support and help. You are also appreciated by us all for sharing your story and journal after getting the implant. Good to see that you are on the way to making a good recovery and resumed to a normal sex life again.

[Aussiemale]

You'll be happy you did, Aussiemale! Staying in a "marathon mode" mindset helps for the few first weeks. Yafi's PA said the only infection he observed in hundreds of procedures was with an unmanaged diabetic. I assume you're managing it, as a type 1, so there's little chance of infection.

Yes mate. Very well controlled.

Will keep you updated.

Congratulations once again.  

[Hawk]

Great news and a great post.  Congratulations, and thanks for the update.  It does my heart good to hear successful outcomes.  I especially like to hear the positive psychological impact of fixing a penis that did not work properly over many years.  It is an amazing transformation.