Pepperoni wrote: Everything still healing nicely and happy with the results? Anything that you would have added or prefer not to have done? Being in Korea and not having a Korean number my access to the internet is limited as it automatically assumes that I’m a minor and restricts what I can view. However last night my home carrier AT&T must have picked up or something because for a hour or so I could search and watch anything so I YouTubed 5S surgery and watched the entire procedure with the degloving, megaderm, liganomettolysis,etc It hurt my stomach so badly, I’m such a whimp. You commented on the other thread I was in about the degloving. That Proud must use a different terminology they must because that video I can only assume that was degloving they removed all the skin from the shaft to put on the dermal graft. I see that you had degloving are you happy that you went this route and just didn’t get filler? Dr Kim is very clear on his website to avoid surgery which he offers and just do filler because it’s safer.
You’ve been such a huge help @Screen2584
with me making the decision to move forward with this with everything that you shared. I’m a little over a week away from surgery. I called Proud last week to see if we could move the surgery sooner but they said that they’re booked up and no spaces were available.
I have been thinking about you, knowing your surgery is coming up, and I can imagine that the wait must be hard. Naturally, there is a lot of hesitation, but I believe that the wait can be good because it also gives you opportunity to reconsider whether or not you want to go ahead with the surgery.
When I read about any kind of dermal graft surgery, it seems that many clinics want to avoid mentioning "degloving". It sounds scary, and when you look it up, it sounds very alarming. I saw some videos of it, and it is enough to watch just for a few seconds to be terrified. Even a picture of it looks terrifying.
I wish I could say it just looks scary, but there is definitely a risk to this kind of procedure. As I understand it, the risk is damage to the neurovascular bundle, which is what gives you an erection. Other complications of nerve damage are persistent pain.
That is also the risk with permanent fillers that if there are complications then degloving is needed to remove as much of the filler as possible. This is a risk with for example Ellanse or PMMA. Based on what I read, some of it might not be able to be removed, and during the removal procedure there is a risk of damage to the neurovascular bundle.
When it comes to inserting dermal grafts, I read different terms used, such as describing it as a procedure similar to circumcision while avoiding mentioning "degloving", but I believe that they are always doing degloving. The dermal graft has to be stitched using sutures, and I do not see how this can be done without degloving the penis.
I even read clinics describe that the dermal graft is "injected" into the penis, but again I do not think this is accurate. As far as I know, the dermal graft always needs to be sutured, and this can only be done by degloving the penis. Clinics simply avoid mentioning the term.
Besides the risk during surgery, there is the risk that the dermal graft has to be removed for some reason in the future, and then the penis has to be degloved again. Then there is the risk of neurovascular damage occurring.
As you can imagine, I do not want to encourage anyone to have this kind of procedure. At the same time however, many people do have permanent filler, and there is a risk with that too. Then dermal graft might certainly be an alternative.
Knowing what I know now however, the only procedure I would be comfortable to have in retrospect would have been HA filler, and it is the only thing I would think is safe enough to recommend to others. If something goes wrong, it can just be dissolved, unlike permanent filler.
I am glad that you read about alternatives, such as MegaFill, but I do not know if Dr. Kim truly prefers it because it is like he claims superior and safer, or because it is simply much more simple than MegaDerm. It astonishes me however that Proud Urology can perform the 5S procedure as quickly as they say. Everywhere I read that when degloving the penis it is a lengthy surgery.
As for my own recovery: everything generally seems okay, but the sites of the incision do still get irritated easily, for example when wearing underwear that rubs against the incision sites. Like I mentioned, the incisions are barely visible now, and the pain there is minimal and usually not noticeable at all.
I have no pain in the penis, except once in a while there can be a sudden sensation of pain that lasts for a couple of seconds. It can happen once a day or less frequently. I do not feel so worried about it, because if it was nerve damage, I think the pain would be persistent.
The foreskin is still a bit tight and swollen, but I can pull it back behind the glans during erection. I do some stretching every day, and I believe that might be causing the swelling, but it is also important in order to loosen the foreskin. I am not sure if this is going to become an issue or if it will pass.
It is so mild that I think no honest urologist would do anything about it. There is preputioplasty, which is a much milder form of circumcision, but I think my tightness is too mild for it to be an option, as I believe circumcision is risky. Outside of the USA it is not a common procedure in many parts of the world, and strongly discouraged.
As for erections, it does seem no different from before, and I do not believe I had any penile retraction. I believe this would be noticeable, so I think it did not happen. There is no curvature either, but during erection the dermal fat graft can be felt.
The bulge I previously mentioned definitely seems less noticeable from when I first noticed it, both when erect and flaccid, however I think it is unavoidable that the dermal fat graft will be felt or noticed in some way. Fillers generally seem much more noticeable, with a less pleasing aesthetic result for many, it would seem.
For me the hardest thing post-surgery has been the constant worry. Not because there have been complications, but because there is the risk of complications, especially during the recovery period.