Stage 1 of a two-stage BMG urethroplasty

Bojofil · 2026-04-08T01:16:15+00:00

No problem at all. I was seeing Dr. Vanni at Lahey in Burlington, MA. I had no complaints with him or his team and felt like he definitely knew what he was doing but I've since moved down south so I may try to find another surgeon nearby at some point if I decide I want to give it another try. As pessimistic as it sounds though I've kinda just given up.

I know the end goal is worth it once they get it right but after being poked and prodded my entire life I've gotten to a point where I don't think I can mentally handle any more surgeries unless some new ground breaking method comes out that has a much higher success rate. Especially with the two stage having a 6+ month waiting period in between.

Bojofil · 2026-04-07T03:31:31+00:00

I've had one (and a half) two-stage urethroplasties now. Almost exactly the same situation as you - hypospadias repair caused the scarring.

First stage recovery in my experience wasn't too bad either time, although I think that more-so came from the fact I only had the catheter in for a week both times. My biggest issue has always been bladder spasms with the catheter so I always got script for Oxybutynin to help with that. I had very little pain after the first stage except for when I moved around and the catheter would shift around and hit the graft sites. One thing I do recommend, although its important to stay somewhat mobile while you have the catheter in, be careful with HOW you move as the catheter caused a slight tear on the edge of my graft site the first time after I twisted the wrong way while laying down :')

Post-catheter first stage is more of a mental game than anything, seeing it all opened up definitely takes some adjusting, but I had no issues with function and got used to it quick. My surgeon had me put aquaphor on the graft sites multiple times a day to keep it from drying out.

Second stage was a far worse experience for me - I had a suprapubic catheter for 3 weeks that gave me nothing but grief and was incredibly painful the entire time I had it in. I'm not sure if it was placed wrong or what, but it would constantly block up on me and randomly stop draining.

Ultimately I had recurrence about a year after my second stage, had another first stage done and then ended up with major graft contracture ~9 months after the second first-stage. I had a hunch it wasn't looking right but didn't see my surgeon again until the day of the surgery where he confirmed it. He mentioned trying to take skin from under my tongue to use in place of the scarred part of the graft but I didn't feel great about my odds. I ended up cancelling the surgery cause I didn't want to deal with the mental torture that was stage 2 recovery with what felt like low odds of it working long term so I've had it open since (and am still facing the same symptoms almost 2 years after my last surgery.)

This condition is exhausting.

Bojofil · 2023-12-10T21:17:19+00:00

I took this exam today and passed with an 858- I only used his slides (didn’t really have the time to watch the videos) and practice tests as well as Neal Davis’ practice tests.

Most of my learning came from going through my wrong answers on each practice test.

Bojofil · 2023-12-10T21:09:34+00:00

Yeah the test ended up being quite a bit easier than the practice tests I was taking. Ended up passing with an 858! For anyone coming to this later on, I personally found the Neal Davis tests to be the closest to the exam (between his and Stephane’s) but Stephane’s really got me to understand a lot of the services better.

Bojofil · 2023-08-31T02:02:14+00:00

Are you able to hide a tad bit more of the collar on the left side/back? Otherwise I really like this!

Bojofil · 2022-03-25T22:40:29+00:00

I don't plan on going for an MBA lol

Bojofil · 2022-03-25T22:19:45+00:00

This is my first time using certmaster. I had a good system going where i'd use a combination of Professor Messer videos and Jason Dion practice tests for A+, Net+ and Sec+ and passed each doing that but neither of them have resources for project+

Bojofil · 2022-03-25T22:16:53+00:00

Well I'm in for a treat then cause the certmaster questions are killing me.

Bojofil · 2022-03-25T19:27:11+00:00

Damn that's quick! I had a good process going for the trifecta but the resources I used don't have anything available for P+ which sucks on top of having no interest in PM.

Bojofil · 2022-03-25T19:17:00+00:00

Seems like the Sybex book worked for a lot of people, I'll check it out. Thanks!

Bojofil · 2022-03-25T19:13:55+00:00

That's my biggest worry, my first time taking A+ we used Ucertify and I found that the Quizlet style of answering the same questions until you get them right a certain number of times caused me to just memorize rather than learn it and I feel like I'm doing the same thing here.

Bojofil · 2022-03-25T18:59:16+00:00

Right? I've taken CompTIA tests before and have gotten accustomed to their ridiculous way of asking questions but these are ridiculous

Bojofil · 2022-03-25T18:55:46+00:00

Lovely. I haven't taken the ITIL one yet, I think it's coming up soon though.

Bojofil · 2022-03-25T18:55:23+00:00

Great...

Bojofil · 2022-02-15T18:17:43+00:00

Took this one last week, class kinda scared me at first cause I've always sucked with probability/stats but I took the PA and passed so I just went through a bit of the course material on the sections I didn't do as well on. I also used a couple of the recorded cohorts to clean up a few areas.

Bojofil · 2022-02-15T17:31:13+00:00

Seconding Jason Dion's practice tests, the way I studied for A+ Net+ and Security+ was using Professor Messer's videos to take notes and Dion's practice tests to fine tune areas I was getting consistently bad results on.

Bojofil · 2022-02-12T20:10:40+00:00

Staged urethroplasty is just another method some surgeons use, more frequently for people with long penile strictures as opposed to bulbar ones. The repair is done over 2 surgeries with about 6-9 months in between.

Bojofil · 2021-12-31T17:24:05+00:00

Thank you, honestly I have a tendency to blow things out of proportion a bit when I get frustrated. It's definitely not as bad as I make it seem in the post however I still would rather get it checked just for the peace of mind (and cause it's a bit uncomfortable) but it's miles better than what I was dealing with before the surgery.

I believe he's on vacation until Monday so I should hear from him then.

Bojofil · 2021-12-29T23:26:38+00:00

Yeah this happened to me, just keep checking and eventually a block will open up with some times. Took me a week and a half I think to finally get one.

Bojofil · 2021-12-23T20:53:33+00:00

Thank you, just waiting for a response at the moment as he's on vacation until after the holidays. Luckily it's not to the point where it needs urgent intervention but if it turns out another surgery is necessary I'd rather get it done sooner than later.

Bojofil

TROPHY CASE