Regaining erections

Me self I

Hi Richard, we are living parallel lives! :>). 4.5 months post-surgery for me, nerves also spared. I had some spontaneous twitchings in the nether-regions, slightly above half-mast, but also had no "useable erection for penetration".
Tried the Tri-Mix a week ago, and bingo! Rock hard. Almost too hard. The wife is pleased. :>).
Try it; it works! And oddly, it's virtually pain-free. From what I understand, you and I are on a very typical healing schedule.

richardp6

Thanks for taking the time to respond with your similar experience and advice. My Uro says its my choice at this point to try out the tri-mix, but I have hesitated and now I think I will go ahead and give it a go.

Me self I

You're very welcome... hope the TriMix works for you as well as it did for me. A lot of doctors are recommending getting started with TriMix as soon as possible, like a week after the catheter is removed, to prevent atrophy of the tissue. Good luck!

Prostatefree

Beware if you have peyronie's disease. I had it and did not know it because there was no obvious deformity as is typically the case. I took three shots total, each more painful than the last and stopped. I have permanent deformity around the site of the injections near the base of my penis in an hour glass shape.

My erections have recovered fully as generally predicted, and would have without the risk of the shots. In hind sight, I would have been more patient. If there is any pain or discomfort, STOP!

__________________
Born 1953;family w/PCa-grandfather, 3 brothers
7-12-04 PSA 1.9; 7-10-06 PSA 2.0; 8-30-07 PSA 3.2; 12-1-11 PSA 5.7; 5-16-12 PSA 4.76; 12-11-12 PSA 5.2; 3-7-16 PSA 7.2
3-14-16 TRUS biopsy, PCa 1%-60% across 8 of 12 samples, G3+3
5-4-16 DaVinci RP, Path-65g, lymph nodes, seminal vesicles, capsule, margin all neg, upgraded to G3+4, Tumor vol 35%, +pT2c, No Incontinence-6mos, Erections-14 months
7-6-22 PSA less than 0.02; zero club 6yrs

Me self I

Wow, that sucks... thanks for the warning, ProstateFree!
The doctor originally started me out at 2 Units, but that felt uncomfortably pressurized, like my little head was ready to explode. LOL. I backed off from 2 Units to 1 Unit; it still works great, and feels totally comfortable.

Prostatefree

Regarding your ED, I noted in previous posts the size of your prostate. Surgical damage is not the only source of ED. The nerves run down each side of the prostate. As a prostate enlarges it can place pressure on the nerves as it compresses them, over time, against adjacent structures. The larger the prostate becomes the greater the risk. If this persist too long under too much pressure it can permanenetly damage the nerves. Typically, you can not recover from whatever ED was present before RP.

The nerves in question are the nerves that close and hold the blood in an erect penis. These are different than the nerves beneath the head of the penis that create the pleasure associated with an orgasm. While standing, you should be able to massage blood down into your penis to stimulate healing. You just can't keep it there.

Me self I

Thanks for the info, Prostatefree. Not sure if it was for me or for RichardP6. My surgeon said he was able to completely spare my nerves, so hopefully I'll be OK in time. If I can get back to where I was pre-surgery, I'll be stoked! Meanwhile the TriMix is completely effective for me, but eventually it would be nice not to need the injection any longer.
On a tangent, I've lost 3/4" in penis-length post-surgery; from 6.0" to 5.25". Still serviceable, but can I expect to regain some of that over time? They say 1/4" in lost length is more typical.

richardp6

richardp6

Interesting. I had no ED prior to surgery but did have some problems with ejac without orgasm from time to time. I wonder if the nerve compression had something to do with that. Ironically, Now I have orgasm without ejac or erection LOL.

I have not been able to find any articles or statistics about whether removal of a large prostate results in more damage to nerves within the spared bundles or a longer recovery. My surgeons says sometimes its actually easier to work with separating the nerves from the prostate when they are larger. I regret not having a longer more detailed discussion with him about how my surgery went in that regard. All I know is the report said both nerve bundles spared.

CentralPaDude

If you ever watch a video of a full RP procedure, you’ll see that they might spare removing those nerves, but they sure as heck give them a lot of pulling and prying and tugging. I am completely unsurprised that they might take some time to recover.

Me self I

It's amazing they can do this stuff at all!
So we hear 3 to 6 to 12 to 18 months before "full recovery". What is typical? What is "full recovery"?

Prostatefree

My understanding is the primary source of damage to the spared nerves during RP is the heat build up in the surgical cavity from the caurterizing tool they use to stop bleeding.

Nerve tissue is slower to heal than other tissue.

phil138

I’ve had surgery 16 months ago all nerve sparing and I’m still having problems yeah it’s it’s the luck of the draw there are many people that have nerve sparing and never have an erection again that’s hard and there’s some lead to depends on the nerves I’ve tried the pill works somewhat but not hard and I’m not doing the needles too many side effects many of the people I know tried it and they’ve quit using it it’s just a temporary bandageThe only good thing that came out of this is my PSA is nondetectable I guess I have to be grateful for that it doesn’t matter if you use the pill or tri max If your nerves don’t fully recover and work it’ll never be the same anyways I wish you all the luck

Me self I

Yeah phil138, we're all lucky to be alive, aren't we? Without modern medicine most of us wouldn't be. So there's that.
But dude, seriously; you might want to reconsider the TriMix. I didn't at first, for fear of needles, but it's actually amazingly painless. Sure, it's only temporary, but isn't it always? :>). Psychologically it's just nice to be rock solid every now and then. IMO.