Well a few changes... I got rid of the Foley a few hours ago, so am back to my usual intermittent catheter routine - which is not fun at this point, but I can manage it. Access is harder right now because of swelling, will see how that changes...

I've also gotten rid of the jockstrap and huge rolls of gauze, so I'm back to my normal underwear w/ a 'male-guard' pad

Most significantly, the pain is down to a point where it's less than my normal level from all the other stuff that makes me a perpetual 3 on the scale...

So getting better slowly.

WheelyFixed

Good news. It's great to hear that you are on the mend, and more quickly than I remember others posting. I hope that you will find this to be a great improvement in your life.

JesusA (imported) wrote: Mon Oct 02, 2023 4:26 pm Good news. It's great to hear that you are on the mend, and more quickly than I remember others posting. I hope that you will find this to be a great improvement in your life.

Many thanks, especially for your work in making SOC v8 as good as it is, so that I could follow it's path...

I'm not sure if my rapid seeming recovery is due to my doctor (presumably) using 'latest and greatest' techniques or my injury related wonky pain sensitivity, or a combination of both...

Latest has been an odd pain in my left thigh (right one is fine) and a certain level of numbness sort of like that distant muffled feel your mouth has as dental anesthetic starts wearing off... I called the urology folks and the nurse that eventually called me back said it was probably referred pain and general strangeness from the poking around all the nerves in that area. I was told not to worry about it for now, but call if it gets worse...

Otherwise healing seems to be continuing, w/ the surgical glue flaking off. I'm still getting small amounts of seepage / bleeding, but again I was told that is normal...

Downside is that between the incision and the swelling, I'm finding it harder to cath than I did before, just because I can't easily dig my penis out of hiding.... (You know it's bad when you envy the "endowment" of the guys in the medical how-to diagrams... )

WheelyCurious

Pain remains about the same, and I'm still having some very slight bleeding from the incision. Cathing remains quite a challenge, and I'm mildly concerned that the amount of poking and squeezing I need to do in order to get my penis out from behind the incision and swollen remains of my scrotum are not particularly good for the incision.... (it does seem to aggravate the bleeding...)

But progress is continuing...

ART

Should you have maybe left the Foley in longer?

What if anything is your plan for future shrinkage? Or do you think that won't happen?

Wolf-Pup (imported) wrote: Wed Oct 04, 2023 9:05 pm Should you have maybe left the Foley in longer?

What if anything is your plan for future shrinkage? Or do you think that won't happen?

It is a tough call on the Foley... They actually didn't want to put one in at all until I really pushed hard for them to do it. Foleys have their own medical risks and complications, particularly a high UTI infection risk, (apparently bacteria like to travel up along the outside of the tube) and current medical practice is to minimize their use. The hardware associated with them is also far from comfortable, the tube is annoying but worse is the multiple hard plastic ports and lumps on it... I actually left it in for about a day longer than they wanted me to, but it was getting to be increasingly uncomfortable....

In terms of future shrinkage, my doc claims that a lot of my problem is due to the 'pubic fat pad' and says I should try to lose weight (I can't argue very much, though I don't feel like I'm 'huge') He has said that if I continue to have problems he could have the plastic surgery dept look at trying to get rid of it w/ liposuction...

I'm not terribly worried about further shrinkage however... From all that I've read here, and to a lesser extent elsewhere, is that the limit on shrinkage is about what you had when hitting puberty, and that is about where I think I'm at...

Some ways I wish EA allowed photos, or that there was a good site where I could post them, just so I could get an opinion on how good a job my doc did... (And possibly compare to others having had similar work) Right now my incision is a huge lump that feels like he sewed it up with a serger, and it feels like there is a lot of tissue left (possibly from the inner sacks?) under the stitching. (There are no visible stitches, I'm assuming he used self dissolving stitches under the surgical glue on the surface...) From the reports of others, this will supposedly go away as I heal, but it would be nice to have an 'experienced opinion' to confirm it...

WheelyFixed

I am experiencing increasing difficulty in intermittent cathing - this afternoon it took me almost a half hour to get the head of my penis to a point where I could start sticking the catheter into it... It was bad enough that I called the Urology people to ask advice... The person that called me basically said that if I can't cath, to head in for the emergency room... Otherwise call first thing in the morning to see if I can get an urgent appointment....

I strongly suspect that a lot of the problem is the BIG blob of tissue that remains at the base of my penis plus the pencil thickness suture / surgery line... The surgeon's report said that he removed both testicles and sent them to pathology, but it looks more like he shoved them up tight in the scrotum and trimmed the rest off.... Definitely not the smooth look so often described....

No going back, but if this problem with not being able to cath (when I was expecting it to become easier) doesn't get better I'm going to be really unhappy....

WheelyFixed

Adding to the above, I have been taking photos almost daily... I just made the time to download the camera, and sort them by day... It looks like the swelling was much less at first, and has been getting worse, which is consistent w/ the problem I'm having...

(I might be willing to post photos to an appropriate site, and / or send copies to EA members w/ appropriate qualifications, I'm not interested in providing 'wanker thrills'....)

WheelyFixed

Not qualified nor medically trained...however I surmise you are having a vast accumulation of fluids from surgery drainage. I'd guess they will have to aspirate the area.

I'm not a doctor but I do watch a lot of General Hospital, and the doctor from the commercial who said "I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV" was from General Hospital so I know less than nothing.

I have had surgery in the past where they did need to keep removing a lot of fluids every week for about a month (medical device implant).

Good luck, and if you can't go, GO to the ER...don't want to fuck up the bladder and kidneys!

Wolf-Pup (imported) wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2023 6:46 pm Not qualified nor medically trained...however I surmise you are having a vast accumulation of fluids from surgery drainage. I'd guess they will have to aspirate the area.

I'm not a doctor but I do watch a lot of General Hospital, and the doctor from the commercial who said "I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV" was from General Hospital so I know less than nothing.

I have had surgery in the past where they did need to keep removing a lot of fluids every week for about a month (medical device implant).

Good luck, and if you can't go, GO to the ER...don't want to fuck up the bladder and kidneys!

This makes sense... At any rate I just failed in my attempt to cath, so I'm packing up to go to the ER