Penile Cancer

The most awkward thing because they do a skin graft onto the end of the penis they take a patch of skin off your thigh and  that then has to heal up. So keeping the bandage on, finding a way of maintaining the bandage because I think I was in for it overnight. I can’t remember exactly. I think it was overnight one night And then you come home. So the issue then was, as I remember it, was keeping the bandage in place. Anyway that was that was solved because my family are very friendly with a with an ex-district nurse who lived next door but one or two and she was able to solve the problem with a with a which involved I think the use of pair of tights or one leg of a pair of tights to hold it in place. So that was a slight a slight macho issue.

But the, I think I went in about a week later and the stitches were removed and also the dressing was removed from the from the where skin graft had been taken because that started to heal very quickly. So the recovery from that was remarkably quick.
 

How would you say you view the future now? You mentioned before about the reconstruction. Are you optimistic?

I’ve always, I’ve always tried to be. There were occasions where… and this would have been a bit up and down as well. When I was in hospital …one of my surgeon’s understudies came to see me and I were having a particularly bad time. It was to do with the lymph glands …they had to drain it and we had to administer some drugs or something, I can’t remember. And I broached the subject of reconstruction with him and that I would… I would like at some juncture to be able to go ahead with it. And he was very sure in what he said. And he said, ‘Well I was present for the operation Mark, for your penectomy, and there’s no chance that you’ll ever have any reconstruction’. And I was so deflated, you know on top of everything else, and I said, ‘Well why is that?’ He said, ‘Well they because had to’ When I first came out I felt so hollow. You know like when you get a tooth out and you’re forever sticking your tongue and you feel there’s something missing. I felt hollow like they’d taken loads away. And I explained this to him. He said, ‘They had to Mark’. And he said, ‘It’s just like having a light switch on the wall. If there’s no wires at the back of the light switch, you can flick it on and off all you want, the light’s not going to come on’. He said, ‘all your workings…’ So I got on a real downer about that and I just put it to the back of my mind. I never considered it. I never broached the subject again.

Up until I was seeing my counsellor and I mentioned to my counsellor that I wouldn’t mind some reconstruction but it’s not possible. And she sort of took it on board. And she found out, unbeknown to me and between that meeting and the next meeting, she’d been in touch with the relevant people- the surgeon and the his entourage. ‘Well of course it is. Of course it can be done’. Flippantly, ‘of course it can be done’. So she couldn’t wait to tell me the good news and I went back. So I was, I was delighted. And I remain optimistic.  I’ve made some enquiries. The last time I saw the gentleman at the hospital he’s going to make me an appointment to have another scan very soon. He’s going to make me an appointment to see the plastic surgeon as well. It’s fraught with problems. It’s absolutely fraught with problems. But I have seen the finished article and it is just truly remarkable. It’s just remarkable.  so I’m going to I’m going to go ahead and with Lady Luck perched on my shoulder, which I haven’t had for a couple of years, I’m hoping that… they tell me it’s all dependent on how  successful the first operation is. Whether there is any touch sensation to the new phallus. If there’s no touch sensation, it doesn’t happen overnight, it takes a while because they have to reconnect the nerves and what have you. But if there’s touch sensation then they can go on and complete it. If there’s no touch sensation I’m left with an enormous scar on my forearm and nothing to show for it. That’s the worst case scenario. But in answer to your question I remain optimistic, yes.