use of viagra/cialis after surgery

i am being advised that i should use viagra or cialis after my surgery
on oct 31st. i am not clear about it's benefit. i think it is to help
and speed up the healing process as well as to minimize the side effect
of ed. what is the mechanisim on how it works to help the healing and
ed? also, what is the dosage i should take for healing? is it
measured by the amount it would take to facilitate an erection for
intercourse ?
if thats true and it doesn't create an erection right after the
surgery, how do i know how much to take? i noticed currently that
about 15 mg of cialis was not adequate to give me an erection whereas
about 75 mg of viagra is. it seems that viagra is more potent. it's
also possible that cialis affected my nervous system since my nerves
seemed to be painfully sensitive to it unless it was coincidently due
to something else.
is there a way to get medicare to help pay for it? would it be
effective enough to take about 50mg of viagra so i could cut the pills
in half, even though 50mg currently does not quite give me a full
erection for intercourse?

gary

gary.miller12@comcast.net wrote:
> i am being advised that i should use viagra or cialis after my surgery
> on oct 31st. i am not clear about it's benefit. i think it is to help
> and speed up the healing process as well as to minimize the side effect
> of ed. what is the mechanisim on how it works to help the healing and
> ed? also, what is the dosage i should take for healing? is it
> measured by the amount it would take to facilitate an erection for
> intercourse ?
> if thats true and it doesn't create an erection right after the
> surgery, how do i know how much to take? i noticed currently that
> about 15 mg of cialis was not adequate to give me an erection whereas
> about 75 mg of viagra is. it seems that viagra is more potent. it's
> also possible that cialis affected my nervous system since my nerves
> seemed to be painfully sensitive to it unless it was coincidently due
> to something else.
> is there a way to get medicare to help pay for it? would it be
> effective enough to take about 50mg of viagra so i could cut the pills
> in half, even though 50mg currently does not quite give me a full
> erection for intercourse?
>
> gary
Hi Gary,
best of luck on your surgery!
My surgeon also suggested a regimen of Viagra. The dosage was 100mg
every other day for 2 weeks. I was familiar with the side effects (
feeling flushed, stuffy nose etc), so I asked if I couldn't take a
smaller dose. It was the suggested that I take 50 mg every other day
for 4 weeks.
Apparently it is important to wake up the blood vessels early on to
help avoid ED.
I did some digging and found the following article on the use of
Viagra to get to full erections
http://www.cancerpage.com/news/article.asp?id=5834
It talks about 9 months on Viagra (either 50 or 100mg per day)
dramatically increasing the likelihood of full erections independent of

dose. I've seen other articles
http://mediwire.skyscape.com/main/De...t&ArticleID=15...,

that suggest the Viagra just gets you there sooner.
Ed

"eddiegr" <eddiegr@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1160788986.889796.311770@k70g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
....
> I did some digging and found the following article on the use of
> Viagra to get to full erections
> http://www.cancerpage.com/news/article.asp?id=5834
> It talks about 9 months on Viagra (either 50 or 100mg per day)
> dramatically increasing the likelihood of full erections independent of
> dose. ...

As pure speculation on my part, I'm wondering if the smallest
dose that you can feel is satisfactory. If you get the flushed
feeling from 25 mg, that means that's causing the blood vessels
in your face to dilate. Presumably it's doing the same thing in
your penis.

We all vary so much in our body weight, metabolism, and
physiology, that's it's easy to believe that there is no one
size fits all here.

Alan

gary.miller12@comcast.net wrote:
> i am being advised that i should use viagra or cialis after my surgery
> on oct 31st. i am not clear about it's benefit. i think it is to help
> and speed up the healing process as well as to minimize the side effect
> of ed. what is the mechanisim on how it works to help the healing and
> ed? also, what is the dosage i should take for healing? is it
> measured by the amount it would take to facilitate an erection for
> intercourse ?

You should do this under your doctor's supervision, and that would
include dosage. If your LRP surgeon isn't qualified to make such a
recommendation, ask him to recommend some who is.

> if thats true and it doesn't create an erection right after the
> surgery, how do i know how much to take? i noticed currently that
> about 15 mg of cialis was not adequate to give me an erection whereas
> about 75 mg of viagra is. it seems that viagra is more potent. it's
> also possible that cialis affected my nervous system since my nerves
> seemed to be painfully sensitive to it unless it was coincidently due
> to something else.

Again, I think you need to talk about this with your doctor(s). You
shouldn't be trying for intercourse for a while after surgery because
you want to give things a chance to heal. I don't think just having an
erection is a cause for concern, even with the catheter in place. If it
were, you can be sure your surgeon would make sure it doesn't happen by
giving you appropriate drugs to take. When I asked my doctor what he
would happen if I had an erection with the catheter in place, he said
they would shout Hallelujah! On the other hand, he wanted me to wait
something like six weeks before attempting sexual activity. With an
LRP, it might be significantly less.

I would guess you would use different doses depending on whether it waas
just for encouraging early recovery of erections of if you were planning
to have sex.

> is there a way to get medicare to help pay for it? would it be
> effective enough to take about 50mg of viagra so i could cut the pills
> in half, even though 50mg currently does not quite give me a full
> erection for intercourse?

I believe Medicare won't pay for Viagra and similar drugs even when
medically necessary. But you should check your actual Medicare drug
plan. You can thank the Republican Congressman from Florida, whose
name I forget, who felt he had to be a guardian of the public morality.
The argument is that there are so many other things to worry about
paying for that the public shouldn't be paying for horny old men---he
apparently forgot their spouses---to have sex. I hope the horny old
couples in his district and in all the other districts of
representatives who voted for that take this into account when deciding
whom to vote for this Fall.

You might even consider getting 100 mg tablets and splitting them in
three or even four. Also try to get as many samples from your doctor(s)
as you can. If you are doing it in order to encourage healing, I'm sure
that getting the dose exactly right isn't necessary.

>
> gary
>

gary.miller12@comcast.net wrote:
> i am being advised that i should use viagra or cialis after my surgery
> on oct 31st. i am not clear about it's benefit. i think it is to help
> and speed up the healing process as well as to minimize the side effect
> of ed. what is the mechanisim on how it works to help the healing and
> ed? also, what is the dosage i should take for healing? is it
> measured by the amount it would take to facilitate an erection for
> intercourse ?
> if thats true and it doesn't create an erection right after the
> surgery, how do i know how much to take? i noticed currently that
> about 15 mg of cialis was not adequate to give me an erection whereas
> about 75 mg of viagra is. it seems that viagra is more potent. it's
> also possible that cialis affected my nervous system since my nerves
> seemed to be painfully sensitive to it unless it was coincidently due
> to something else.
> is there a way to get medicare to help pay for it? would it be
> effective enough to take about 50mg of viagra so i could cut the pills
> in half, even though 50mg currently does not quite give me a full
> erection for intercourse?
>
> gary

Dear gary,

I am going to limit myself to the issue of ther effects of PDE-5
inhibitors (viagra, etc) and other treatments on "rehab" of the penis,
eg.. restoration of erectile function in the long term. I just did some
research on this on behalf of my husband who is just at his 1-yr.
post-op mark.

>From what i have found the only therapy with a proven record of
improving EF in the long-run is the use of injections, preferably
starting as early as possible. (my husb's doctor just got around to it
after 8 mos. and i wish he had gotten his act tog. sooner).

i don't know if there is any reliable evidence showing that pills can
improve long-term prognosis. The best I've read is that it does so in
maybe 30% of cases. My husband's ED doctor, Arnold Melman, who is one
of the top doctors in this field, does not beliefe pde5's do anything
in this case. Acc. to an article I just pulled up, "patients who have
undergone rrp are among the most refractory to treatment with PDE5'
inhibitors." However, some improvements were seen after 18-24 mos it
said (see medscape.com/viewarticle/532406 by mccullough, most recent i
found). (The article cited to on cancerpages.com is based on a study by
Viagra's maker, Pfizer, therefore I would not rely on it.)


There IS a lot of anecdotal evidence by men supporting the view that
pills do enhance performance (maybe not just in the short term).
Because of this my husband decided he would like to take some because
he took vitamin v for a short time after surgery and it had no adverse
effects so he thinks there's nothing to lose by trying it again. I
agree. These pills are expensive so we used foreign pharmacies to
acquire them at a fraction of the cost. We used rxoverseasdrugs.com
but I hear a lot of good things about alldaychemist.com. Incidentally,
it seems people report the best results with tadalafil (cialis) so we
are going to ask the dr. for a script for that one.

Pumps i don't know much about. Supposedly they bring blood to the
genital area which is good, but it is not "fresh blood" as is the case
with shots.

My husband and I incidentally have been very happy with trimix
(injections) and aside from any long-term benefits it allows you to
have good sex in the short term.

(I got most of the info cited here from an article by somebody at
tulane u. -- i don't know the exact cite bec. my husband has the
article at work. Do a google on phrophylactic (prevention) radical
prostatectomy and ed and i believe you will retrieve it.)

Best of luck,

Leah