Following up from their previous video answering questions on incontinence, Linda and Galen answer questions they often hear at community health talks on surgical solutions to erectile dysfunction. If you're thinking about getting an implant to fix your ED, here's answers from folks with first hand experience.
In this video, the Birds answer common male urinary incontinence questions. If you're incontinent and thinking about getting an artificial urinary sphincter, this video is a wealth of information!
What is often missed in discussions about ED and male incontinence is the impact it has on partners. In this touching follow up to Galen's story, Linda shares what it was like from a wife's perspective. It really has an affect on the entire family.
Galen and Linda Bird travel the country sharing their story to help men learn about solutions to ED and incontinence. In their first post, Galen and Linda talked a little about insurance and intimacy. Now Galen shares what led him to seek out surgery to solve his ED and incontinence and how it changed his life. It's a great little story and I don't mind telling you I got a little choked up watching it. If your story sounds similar to Galen's please know that you can get help. Also, Galen has graciously offered to answer your questions directly by telephone in Missouri (please be respectful of the time zone) at 816-392-6444.
Here's his story.
Continuing with Dennis' inflatable penile implant story, here’s the next four days. The theme during these four days is swelling, support, and sensitive. Dennis had lots of swelling in his scrotal area and it was quite sensitive. Ice packs and support helped. So did the anti-inflammatory medication. But I’ll let him explain.
Saturday Nov 20th (day 4): showered again. Having continued bowel and urinary difficulties in the AM but by afternoon everything broke loose, whew! Still using ice packs and 1 Vicodin every 4 or 5 hours to stay comfortable.
Sunday Nov 21st: a small set back. The genital area is still inflamed and the scrotal area where the new pump is installed is very sensitive. It needs to be braced forward slightly. When walking tempts you to hold that area in your hand so it can be positioned comfortably. It feels like the pump is big and hanging in the scrotum and requires support. I always have a bandage roll behind the scrotum pushing it forward. Then at night I roll up a hand towel and put that between the mattress and the body so the scrotum is lifted and supported instead of hanging between the legs down towards the mattress, the hanging hurts.
Monday Nov 22nd: today I spoke to the nurse about pain management. My pain isn’t bad but I wanted as much instruction as possible. She recommended adding Aleve because it’s an anti-inflammatory and a pain med. I take an Aleve in place of Vicodin at bedtime and think that helps a lot, follow the recommended dosage.
Tuesday Nov 22nd: today the nurse recommended an athletic supporter. You need a much larger size plastic cup than normal. The doctor instructs you to keep the penis up next to your abdomen. The distance from the head of the penis, in that position, to the bottom of the scrotum is so long that the top of the cup presses the tip of the penis if it is too small. You want to tuck your sore scrotum into the cup so it is comfortably tucked away. But you don’t want the other end of the cup pressing directly on the penis against your abdomen. I eventually removed the cup and used the jock strap over briefs. You add a small roll of gauze bandage between the scrotum and your upper thighs. That holds the scrotum forward comfortably; then tucking everything into the jock strap pouch adds support. If everything is supported properly the comfort level and pain is good.
Photo lode
- Study Gauges Best Treatments for Chronic Pelvic Pain in Men – Up to 25 percent of men with poorly understood, debilitating symptoms find relief
- BOOMERS: The importance of prostate cancer screening “‘A 65-year-old doctor came to see me for his first PSA screening, and it showed that he had a very aggressive cancer,’ Thrasher said. ‘He had not been screened sooner because he’d heard it wasn’t accurate or useful. If he’d been screened starting when he was about 40, there’s a 25-year window in which we could have been watching, diagnosing, and treating.’”
- BPH Drugs May Ease Prostate Cancer Advance
Photo Mouser NerdBot
via mymodernmet.com
This cool infograph is from 2008 but the numbers are astounding. More men will die from prostate cancer than from car accidents and motorcycle accidents combined. So, make a deal with your spouse. You'll get your prostate checked and as a reward the motorcycle fairy makes a delivery.
In November, Dennis had his inflatable penile prosthesis surgery and he kept a journal for us to share with you. If you haven’t read his first or second pre-surgery posts, check them out. This post deals with the first three days after his surgery.
The theme of the first three days appears to be prepare for laying around. As Dennis mentions, the penis has just taken a lot and will require time to recover. Before you have surgery why not get that book you’ve been meaning to read and movie trilogies you always wished you had time to watch? Remember, the more rest you get, the faster your recovery will go.
With that, here’s what Dennis' first three days after surgery looked like:
Wed Nov 17(day of surgery): I went home in the afternoon sore due to inflammation and the battering the penis underwent during surgery today. I took 2 Vicodin every 4 hours the first day. Urinary and bowel irregularity added discomfort. I started the first day using Milk of Magnesia. Dr Govier prescribed Flomax which helps with a normal urinary flow. These products took a day or two to do their job.
Thursday Nov 18th, (second day): a shower this morning was nice. Also, I’ve found using ice packs is good for pain management. Constipation is still a problem so I am adding a stool softener in the morning.
Friday Nov 19th: you are required to keep the heart level with the pelvis for 7-days because the penis area is full of capillaries and if you sit or stand bloods engorges the area causing inflammation which is not good. It’s boring to be supine so much but doable.
Photo: Dustin and Jenae
Continuing our theme from yesterday, today I’ll provide a couple of definitions for male incontinence and then the top four terms I hear that used interchangeably with male incontinence. First the technical description.
Male incontinence is usually caused by a damage sphincter. When damaged, often the unavoidable result of prostate cancer surgery, the muscle cannot close the urethra, which causes urine to leak.
This is a great description but there is another one I like that Dr. Kuan provided:
“If you are leaking urine at times that are socially unacceptable to you, you may be suffering from male urinary incontinence.”
Now that we have a couple of nice definitions, here are the top four terms I hear in community health talks that mean male urinary incontinence:
- Urinary incontinence
- Stress incontinence
- MI
- Male Incontinence
Those are the terms I hear most often so you can use any of them instead of male urinary incontinence. Remember, if you are dealing with any form of urinary incontinence, seek out the advice of your urologist.
