ED

I can relate to this a bit... Have found that if I give Mr Johnson a break for a week or more that things come back. For me its the ol too much of a good thing can get boring.

Was offered AS, but at 52 at time of DX, would have not outlived the cancer. The estimate after biopsy was 80% nerve sparing on one side and 100% on the other. It was obvious those numbers would not improve over time with cancer progressing on it's own unchecked, and it was clear my PSA, Gleason score, weren't going to go down over time. So at that point, knowing I could lose MORE nerves, grow to higher Gleason score, it wasn't in my DNA to sit back and watch it grow.

The risk/reward wasn't worth it. I might have another year or so of hard-ons, but having the cancer progress would have made me look kind of stupid. If it was slow growing and I was 75 - AS would have been easy choice but I would have had heart attack watching my PSA go up over time knowing it was potentially eating into the 80/100% nerve sparing projection.

Also, I was treated at MD Anderson, the best cancer hospital in the world,with the surgeon who was one of the first in the world to use the Da Vinci robot, so felt my best shot was to get it out and recover. I knew I wasn't going to die or have it metastasize in bones in six mos., but I also knew it wasn't going to magically go away. Hope that makes sense and sorry for long explanation.

On the pump and drugs thing. Pump gets me plump, not hard, it takes some direct stimulation. Had bad experience with trimix injection and it took me until 1 yr. point to try it again. I need to use it more for therapeutic reasons as I've only used it maybe 8-10 times total, but hard to stick yourself for no partner. Just tried patience, and not doing great at any of that right now.

Man, thanks for input. I guess I'm hoping against hope someone will pop up and say, "yeah, at 2 yrs. it started working great".

Bueller, Bueller? Anyone? Anyone.

Thanks. I've waited this long, I can wait a few more days. Just kind of freaked me out because I thought I was headed in right direction.

Thanks everyone. Sorry for TMI, but marriage is in shambles and feeling pretty lost right now. I bucking up okay, and believe me, I am grateful to be cancer-free, it's just wearing me down after two years.

 

I feel your pain brother-- Just when you think your out of the woods with this ED stuff it seems to slip back-- I don't quite get it either. I was dreaming woke up with some action down there last night so I guess thats a good thing.

One thing I have clearly noticed is if I get good restful dreaming sleep I get wood. If I don't sleep well I get little response.

I think  I remember reading somewhere that REM sleep is needed for good erections. I remember one night I took some sleep aids ,slept solid and woke up with wood in the morning for the first time since the RALP.

So maybe we are all so worked up in our heads that we aren't sleeping well and that is contributing to our ED more then we may realize. Kind of like a viscous cycle.

Alcohol is known to disrupt REM sleep for sure, so by drinking (if you do) you may be throwing your REM off whack.

I know I snore and that also cuts out REM sleep. So maybe getting good sleep over a period time might be an answer. I'm sure someone has done a study somewhere.

Keep working at it I have the most gorgeus women and I mean it she is sexy as hell and I can't have intercourse with her -- dam that's a bad thing to work on your mind---

 

By the way, I see your stats and mine are very similar. Same age, same gleason 3+3, you had more postive cores then I did though. Nobody offered me AS, although the operating surgeon said I could go home for 6 months and think about what to do. I guess that was AS!  I was very much like you, worried about future events, what if, of course. I had terrible BPH, pissing every 2 hours night and day, so aggravating. I hoped and was right that that would go away from surgery. I also hoped that with my young age and good health I could get by in the erection department with just viagra. No such luck I'm afraid. Stuck with trimix. In hindsight I might of asked some doctor to do a TURP on me to get rid of the BPH and then got seeded to prevent ED and cancer recurrence. Oh well. coulda, woulda, shoulda.....

Thanks gentlemen. Thanks for the support and I pray for erections for all by any means possible. I sympathize with those similarly positioned. I've tried to compartmentalize the ED part of my life, but it really wears you down over two years.

Because T1c PCA is like 99% curable, a lot of folks seem to dismiss it, but cancer affects your life, no matter what.

I hope my rationale for the surgery made sense. I've never heard of PCA magically going away and I'd never heard of the cancer reversing course and affecting fewer rather than more of the nerve bundles, so I really didn't feel I had many options. The RALP seemed (seemed) to produce fewer side effects. not to mention wanting that cancer out of my body. Wouldn't have slept a night for the sis intervening months between checkup had I elected AS.

Penile implant has been mentioned twice by my ED specialist (not recommended or pushed, just mentioned) but that one I can wait on. Having zero sexual encounters due to a rocky marriage, the risk/reward for such a major undertaking would seem overkill right now.

I'm researching the testosterone angle because I thought testosterone sort of accelerated some body chemistry that could contribute to some cancer issues. I've seen a couple of things that point to the opposite, but the science is a bit sketchy (no controlled studies I can find). Quite frankly, I'd wave a chicken over my head, call a psychic, get a voodoo mistress, and jump in a circle if I thought it would help, so smearing testosterone all over my naked body would be fine if it achieved the results.

Curiously enough, it may just be conspicuous timing and nothing else, but this happened about a week after I started a supplement from a very well known urologist specializing in nutrition??? I sopped those pills immediately. i don't think there's any connection, I'm just not taking chances.

So for now I'll keep trudging. I wish I had a magic erection wand to wave over us all.

Franco,

Getting 90% on your own is awesome. I reckon that’s F'in good!

Its like sex, sometimes it good and sometimes its bloody mindbogglingly awesome (you know full body orgasm etc) and sometimes it just is; its as exciting as polishing shoes -- you just go through the motions.

So enjoy!