Anybody have a nerve graft during prostatectomy?

New to the website, and haven't read all the posts. My friend Tamu wrote to me about it. Somebody may have already brought this up, but bear with me.  I have questions about plastic surgery on the nerve(s) that had to be cut into during prostatectomy. 

 

I had the daVinci robotic procedure Aug. 23, '06, and there was neurovascular bundle involvement on the right side, such that the doctor had to cut into it to get negative surgical margins.  I had negative margins, lymph nodes, and vesicles on the final path report.  My doc approximated the two parts of the nerve and then put a collagen tube around the injured parts which allows them to stay together and forms a scaffold for them upon which to grow back together.  He wanted me to get as much exercise (mainly walking) as I could before and after the catheter was removed.  After about 4 weeks, it was difficult to continue with this, because of a significant boring-type pain in the area of the loop of pelvic bone that is situated between the hip joint and the scrotum on the right side.  That has mostly gone away now at 4 months after the surgery, but now there is a feeling of a whole bunch of Bengay liniment inside, between the anal area and where I suppose the base of the penis is now.  This is constant, not related to exercise like the boring pain was.  I asked my doc if this might be nerve regeneration sensations, and he said it could be.

 

My questions are: has anyone who had the single sided nerve graft or repair had sensations like this that might be attributable to nerve regrowth? It's certainly not excrutiating, but it is distracting, so how long does it usually last? And the big question (hopefully big, if you know what I mean): who had the nerve repair and then successfully got their erections back, both with and without pills (pumps and shots don't count)? 

 

This website is a great resource.  Thanks for any information you can share.

 

dj