Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/990281
24 T M C » P U L S E | J U N E 2 0 1 8 Intimacy After Cancer Treatment A penile implant helps one couple stay close process and during initial attempts to reignite a physical relationship with his wife. "It takes a while—I would say a few months— before you start cooking. It's like using new equip- ment in your kitchen. At first, it's kind of scary," said Erin, a traveling PET scan technician for Memorial Hermann. "I think it's really important MEN'S HEALTH The purpose of Men's Health Month, observed each June, is to heighten aware- ness of preventable health problems and encourage early detection and treatment of disease among men and boys. B y C i n d y G e o r g e R obert Fisher Jr. kept his longtime vanity proj- ect, a 1983 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, in storage for 17 years. A few months ago, when he finally had the muscle car delivered to his southwest Houston home, Fisher was amped about his latest resto- ration project. "I took the gas tank out, cleaned it, put new gas in it, topped off all the fluids and put a battery in it," Fisher said. "I stuck my arm in the door to crank it—one hand with the ether and took a little shot at the carburetor—and it fired up. I couldn't believe it." The high-performance car isn't the only thing he's been reactivating. Fisher was diagnosed with bladder cancer in August 2016 by Run Wang, M.D., the Cecil M. Crigler, M.D. Chair in Urology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. His his bladder was removed in February 2017 by Neema Navai, M.D., an assistant professor of urol- ogy and a bladder cancer surgery specialist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Fisher's recovery over the last year has included the challenge of recouping intimacy with his wife. "When they gutted me, I lost some specific ability," he said. "I'm 56. I'm not that old. My wife is a little younger than me, so we had a certain part of our lifestyle that was missing. So, we tried various methods to regain that. Pills. There's an injection. Neither gave the kind of fulfillment that, you know—it just didn't work." Giving up wasn't an option for the couple. "For us, that's a huge part of our relationship," Erin Fisher explained. "I said: 'We'll do what- ever we have to do to get us back where we were before.'" The couple opted for a penile implant and Wang performed the surgery in September 2017. Robert experienced pain through the healing Robert Fisher Jr. reflects on his recent rebuilding efforts in the back yard of his southwest Houston home beside his 1983 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. In the last two years, he has survived bladder cancer and regained intimacy with his wife through a penile prosthesis. He also renovated his house that was flooded in Hurricane Harvey and began restoring his 35-year-old muscle car.