TOPIC: My PMMA venture -- good, bad and the ugly

Thanks HC

Agree with everything you said.

Unfortunately (of fortunately for me as I want to get past this) I had a meeting with my Urologist here in Austin today -- Dr Singh ... absolutely amazing Urologist btw.

He looked the swelled area to the right side base of my penis, and has determined that it should be removed...

So I\'m going to get my penis de-gloved, and then the FBG removed, then folded back... with the plan to follow-up with a alloderm sometime in the future.

Wish me luck fellow board members --- I\'ll keep this thread updated as I progress.

Next step --- trying to get insurance to pay for the procedure!

Dark

On one hand I am glad to hear you finally have an answer to your issue. On the other, I hate to hear that you have to go through this to have it resolved.
What is your timeframe for having it removed? And is he going to attempt to remove all PMMA or just in the area on the right side?

Best of luck, Dark. Hoping you come though the other side without any further issues.

During the exam, the Urologist used his fingers to squeeze the mass -- saying

\"I\'m only going to remove this\" ...(squeeze)... \"This foreign body, here\" ...


So, definitely not \"all the PMMA\" ... I doubt he would be able to.

In March, I am going to fly out to LA to meet with Gelman for a second opinion.

So most likely this procedure will occur at the end of March, early April time frame.

Dr Gelman is very good so you can have faith in his recommendation. Also make sure the other surgeon has done a fair share of penile surgeries. Many just have expertise in other areas like prostate, kidneys, ect, as penile surgeries are rare vs other Urological procedures.

@darkstaff

I hope your doctors are in contact with Dr. C, as I suspect Dr. Singh and Dr. Gelman\'s knowledge of PMMA & bioplasty is limited.

The degloving and Removal is what I\'d consider a last resort (even if it\'s just a specific area), have you thought about allowing more time for this issue to resolve on its own? Also, does Dr. C agree with Dr. Singh\'s assessment or does he have a different prescribed treatment (and if so, have you given that a shot)?

Whatever the case, I hope you get your situation resolved with the least side effect.

Thanks again for sharing your journey, it can be an invaluable insight to many who are weighing the pros & cons of PE.

Good luck!

I really believe that my stomach was somehow related to my penis issues

Since last week when my stomach made a turn for the better, My penis swelling and pain level started to drop, and continues to drop.

I\'m going to hold off on anything else, a I\'m feeling much better.

I still have the bump, but my penis base and urethra don\'t seem to be on fire...

Dark

That\'s awesome news. I\'m rooting for you!

Hey Darkstaff, I am glad to hear things are going better for you. Best of luck buddy!

This is indeed encouraging news!

Darkstaff.....Good to hear that you are doing much better!

Thanks guys!

The bump is there, but it doesn\'t do anything.. I\'m even putting it to the test now with hard sex + masturbation ... I don\'t have the inflammation / discomfort post-sex I used to have.

I\'m not a doctor by any means... but I do have an appointment next week with my GP, so I\'ll ask him what\'s going on.

I think my body was going into \'alert\' mode... I mean I was _really_ sick with this H.pylori.

There has to be a connection.

Thanks again for the support guys... the last 3 months of my life have been a living hell...

I think the worst part is behind me!!!

Dark

So glad to hear you are feeling better! Please keep us posted! And be careful with that \'hard sex\' lol

Hi Dark Staff,


I\'ll see if the photo posting utility is working again in this forum and if so I will post photos of the rather large lumps I had which any Urologist would have said \"THESE MUST BE REMOVED\" had they seen them. Instead, I trusted Dr C and have no regrets. He took a couple of hours of painstakingly conscientious work and they vanished. Actually, here is what he did.


After examining my case in detail and assessing what must be done in agreement with Wade - who is always a great second opinion to ensure maximum safety and best results - Dr C punctured the shaft in 4 separate spots in locations which were ideal for working on removing the clumps of cellulose which had grown around the PMMA microspheres. Today I believe, and this is just an assumption on my part, that my body reacted to my second session by causing a huge amount of fluids to swell up my unit. It was under painfully strong pressure within hours of my second session, due to excessive fluid buildup. I think that this rare physiological reaction pushed the PMMA material around and pressed it into clumps before it hardened. There was so much swelling that I couldn\'t massage it, even pressing very hard with all my strength I couldn\'t move anything around. The entire surface of my unit felt as hard as a basketball and rubbing only irritated it more. Wade responded very fast calling me up several times in very responsible and helpful follow-up, as I was panicking.


To return to Dr C\'s intervention which happened in a 3rd session, a few weeks later, he pierced the skin in strategic locations and took the time to very fastidiously break down the structure of the collagen which had built up into clumps. Wade described this as a structure held together by tissue strands, sort of like walls of a house. Dr C turned the built-up structures into so much rubble, just as a building collapses into a flat pile of unattached elements. Once this accomplished he used a very diluted 6% PMMA solution to coat the remains and smooth out the surface, resulting in an amazingly cylindrical shaft without clumps or bumps. My problem was totally solved!


So I would take Skeptical One\'s advice and check with Dr C, because I am sure that he would do what he can to help you and this would not involve cutting away at your unit\'s surface or any deep penetrating surgery. While your Urologist might remove the clump, maybe it will leave a hollow? Because he is not about to fill it with PMMA or anything else. Also your temporary solution seems to involve getting an implant later, which has its own sets of problems and costs.


I hope you do find an end to this. I can\'t help but wonder if you also didn\'t have some form of infection as it seems to have been an inordinate amount of pain. I know that infections down there are really hard to cope with and one even wonders if one can survive them. I had for 4 years really bad pain with an ulcer which was caused by Heliobacter Pylori and had to routinely inject myself with muscular relaxants in order to function despite the pain. Finally when the cure arrived by antibiotics it changed my life entirely. So I suspect that you cannot really be sure what was up and whether it was really the PMMA you were reacting to.


I hope in any case you find a solution you are happy with and won\'t be cursing the day you first thought of Phalloplasty. You have a serious misadventure but it was a conjunction of many factors. Maybe also you were not good with the carrier agent in Metacryl? I switched back to New Plastic also known as Linnea Safe for my third session, as I had reacted very well to it during my first session. Could it be that we are two rare individuals who are not compatible with the carrier agent in Metacryl? Possibly also. If you do ever get PMMA again, given this possibility I advise you to ask for Linnea Safe specifically for your own situation, even though it costs several hundred dollars more. Better safe than sorry.


Cheers,


Hunk Chunk

Hey Hunk

Wow you lived for 4 years with H.pylori attacking your stomach? .. ouch. I can\'t believe I survived 3 months of that crap... I wouldn\'t wish it on my worst enemy.

Thanks for the overview of the Dr C solution ... I agree I should definitely consider that.

How long did you wait before they did the \"break down the wall\" routine on you?

My pain has been gone for a week... Tonight the base started to hurt, and the right side of the base where I have that large bump was inflamed ... but it wasn\'t as painful as before...

Right now my plan is to wait another month and reassess... and setup appointments to see Dr C and Dr Gelman in the coming weeks... I\'m not going to pursue the excision at this time. I mean it\'s getting better... lets see if it continues to!

Hunk -- if you could post the pictures of your lumps?

Thanks!
Dark

Hey Everyone

So I thought my stomach issues were over with... so I go out golfing this weekend.

Of course I order double crown and seven\'s ... and party it up in my hot tub the night... (its on the golf course so we of course invite some new friends) ... and wham, I\'m back to the old party guy I used to be.

That was Saturday. Today I AM FEELING IT!

OUCH! My chest pain... I can\'t breath without pain ... so I\'m not taking full breaths... I wish I could explain the pain of a angry esphogaus.

I reset my brain, get the smoothies through the vitamix going... and relax in the hot tub.

I didn\'t go back into AFIB or anything, but I could tell my GI track was PISSED at me...

Thats me for ya ... reaction oriented and not thinking.

Anyways, regarding my other problem... the bulge on the right side continues to harden up like a peanut or something... less inflammation in general... and I only had 1 big issue yesterday morning, I woke up with a huge Erection that I couldn\'t control ... (its werid ... normally dont get those at my age)... anyways, after about 20 mins of talking my 2inches of dangly fury to calm down... I had some urethral pain that I marked in my health log of a 7 out of 10 ... which is pretty high... anyways, the Pheno pills to the rescue... took about 30 mins and I was back in good shape.
Still trying to coordinate my trip to Gelman .... and coordinating communications with Dr C ... but those are taking back burner to getting my Hytial Hernia surgically repaired via Laparoscopic Repair


Dark