Auto injector (Inject-Ease) failed on first try & Depth

[mrfloppy]

Hello everyone I’m new to FrankTalk, and two months from radical prostatectomy. At least one nerve spared, second nerve heavily calcified (like a rock, according to my urologist). Cialis had no effect after the surgery so now I’ve moved on to penile injection therapy. Which seems to be working so far (until last night). I've experienced some pain on INSERTING the needle, so I thought I would try out an auto-injector, as some other members of FrankTalk have discussed.

My Inject-Ease it arrived last night and I was excited to give it a try. Unfortunately we had a failure to fully launch. I have a few questions I hope some veterans can maybe answer about this model or any other auto injectors along with a few other questions that I have.


The Facts:
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BiMix - 3x week, 0.2 mL dose (30 mg papaverine and 1 mg phentolamine solution).

I use a 1/2” (12.7 mm), 31-gauge, 1.0 ml one-piece insulin syringe from Becton Dickinson (BD). Nurse say’s that my doc does not want to use anything shorter. (anybody know why this might be?)

There was some blood inside neck of the syringe needle, last night.

I didn’t get the same feeling in the penis, as when I’ve manually injected my self. No initial burning.

My penis become full and semi-hard initially

After my erection had failed, my wife tried oral, and was not able to resuscitate her favorite toy to its’ full glory, and complained about an odd taste (not alcohol)

Fully erect (with BiMix’s help), I’m at about ~4” (~110 mm) long and 1“ (~30 mm) wide. (I wish I had taken some measurements before surgery, I think I was +5” long)



Questions:
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1) I was quite nervous about using the injector. Since I thought it might be painful, because it isn't as precise (see below). It took me at least 10 min to pull the trigger, and was very pleasantly surprised at the lack of pain vs manually injecting myself.

Q1 Could my getting nervous have caused this BiMix not to be effective? I remember reading that adrenaline can cause an erection to fail. Is this true for BiMix? I did have the start of an erection, during foreplay, but by the time the main event rolled around, I had lost it.


2) When syringe is extended all the way, in the FIRED Position the needle seems to move around a lot, side-to-side, there is a fair amount of play. When fired, the syringe is not going to go straight down the barrel, I know it’s guaranteed not to hit the center. Not very precise piece of equipment. (no german engineers were used to design this fine instrument :)

Q2a – Anybody find this an issue? ie hitting a vein, or not going in at the 90 degree angle like it is recommended? Or any other horrible thoughts that might spring to a bored mind.

Q2b – So you hit the intended target, any solutions to keep the syringe centered in the injector, ie wedge or shimming the syringe in place?



3) I used the 1.0 ml spacer on the Inject-Ease and I’m sure that the needle didn’t go in as far as it has when I manually inject myself. My urologist wants me to push it to the hilt (where the needle meets the body of the syringe) so that the skin is dimpled, before I push down on the plunger and inject. I’m pretty sure that this didn’t happen.

I’ve observed, with the 1 ml spacer in place, base of the needle and the hilt, is inside the barrel of the injector, not likely to get needle as deep as my urologist wants.

Q3a: Could this be the reason that I didn't achieve a full erection?

Q3b: How much wiggle room is there to hit the target, the courpas cavernoa (CC)

Q3c: Does it really make a difference between a 5/16” 8mm vs 1/2" (12.7 mm) needle, I’m not very big.

Q3d: How do I make sure that the needle goes in far enough?



Q4 Safety
Is it safe to use a 31- gauge needle with an auto-injector? Don’t like the idea of the needle breaking or bending.



Sorry about all the questions, I’ve tried googling, but no luck finding any answers.

Mr Floppy :)

[Anonymous 3]

I started with an auto-injector and gave it up after the first try. There was no way to tell exactly where the needle was going in or how deep. I found manual injection worked the best for me as I had total control of placement and depth. I used 30 gauge 1/2" needles.

If I remember my first and only attempt with the auto-injector was a failure too, probably because I missed the cavernosa or the needle did not go deep enough. If you responded to Bimix before using the auto-injector I am pretty sure it still works.

I can't really comment on the other questions you have because my response to all your questions was to put the device away so I didn't have to deal with them. I used injection therapy for a number of years before it stopped working. Yes, there was a little bit of pain (sometimes quite a bit) but I knew where and how deep I had injected.

I am sure others who have had more success with the thing will answer you. Good luck with it.

[tomas1]

I'd also go with just the syringe. I wonder if you may have hit the urethra? It happened to me the first time I injected. Maybe that accounted for the odd taste. I can no longer use the 5/16" needles.

[mrfloppy]

Thanks for getting back to me Watsup . I’m glad that someone agrees with me on how imprecise these devices are. Since these injectors were built for diabetes , it didn’t matter if the needle drift a bit off-target, if you are aiming for the stomach or the rump, I'm guessing. It matters a lot if the target is so small especially these days :).

I haven’t given up on the injector yet. We tried again last night, this time it was a success :).

Since I’m very very new to erectile rehabilitation I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing. I have very limited experience, injected myself a only a total of seven times so far (manual and injector). Five were successful in achieving a erection. One of the times, I just couldn’t get the needle in, I was by myself, no wifee to encourage me on. Next night no problem with her there, really helps when the prize is in-sight :). The injector has been used two times, first time, part-failure, BiMix didn’t work and one success, last night.


Two things may have helped with Injector:

First, I was a lot less nervous, maybe that help with the BiMix working for the full session.

Second, I changed the spacer so that part of the hilt of syringe was sticking out of the injector when it was fired. Let me say that was Painful ! (short lived thankfully) vs the first time when I didn’t feel it. I’m not sure if I hit some thing inside the penis or if the hilt of the syringe caused the pain when it hit the out side of the shaft. The odd thing was that I injected on the Left side and the pain was on the Right side.

Can anyone else share their experiences?

Mr. Floppy
/(^x^=)\

[mrfloppy]

I'd also go with just the syringe. I wonder if you may have hit the urethra? It happened to me the first time I injected. Maybe that accounted for the odd taste. I can no longer use the 5/16" needles.

Thanks tomas1, I might just end up going without the injector, but for now I’m going to try it out a few more times and see if I can get it to work for me.

If I hit the urethra wouldn’t there be a lot of pain? I remember the pain and the burning when the doc’s pulled out the catheter, first time for my TURP and then after my radical prostatectomy. Also wouldn’t there be some blood later, or is the needle so small that it would seal up and show no signs when I urinated?

Why couldn’t you use the 5/16“ needle, did you have to move up to 1/2”?


Mr. Floppy
/(^x^=)\

[tomas1]

When it happened to me, I didn't experience pain, but I felt a slight urge to urinate.

I started out using the 1/2" and tried the 5/16 a couple times. I think things got thicker in there and I bend the hell out of the fine/short needles. I'm still having some trouble on the left side and hope to find new ground there soon.

[ocitgo]

Q2- When syringe is extended all the way, in the FIRED Position the needle seems to move around a lot, side-to-side, there is a fair amount of play. When fired, the syringe is not going to go straight down the barrel, I know it’s guaranteed not to hit the center. Not very precise piece of equipment. (no german engineers were used to design this fine instrument

Q2a – Anybody find this an issue? ie hitting a vein, or not going in at the 90 degree angle like it is recommended? Or any other horrible thoughts that might spring to a bored mind.

I am having similar problems with my auto injectors. I might give up using them. The needle moves around too much for me. My last incident was very bad. I am just getting over it.

[ocitgo]

After looking at my autoinjector I see why this happens. I think a simple sleeve in the injector or on the needle might fix it. Most users don't use it on their penis. I am not going to use mine useless I can make it more precise. It's going to be a challenge because my tremor often become worse barehanded.

Update about Autoject:

There are 2 models of the Owen Mumford Autoject® Injection Aid Device - white and blue. I prefer the white (Aj1310) one with the longer tip because it is much more precise. Look at the bottom of both and with syringe installed, the longer adapter has a guide that limits movement. I found this out today. With my needles. I use the Sure Comfort U100 syringes, you can see why by looking at both adapters with a needle. All the way in my ½ inch needles are set for 5/16 penetration have with very little wiggle out the end. This means the needle will be much more accurate.

Owen Mumford Autoject® Ei Injection Aid Device Aj1310

https://www.amazon.com/Mumford-Autoject ... 527VF0AM36

[ocitgo]

I used the recommend dose of 60 units without my injector. This from a new prescription fill . My tremor made it a major hassle. I was dropping things and bending the needle so badly I had to make a new syringe. I did settle down and do a slow injection just like I was pro. It was still not hard enough without the aid of a pump and constriction rings for intercourse. Next try will be with a higher dose. The erection felt good without extra help. It reminded me of when I was young.

[tomas1]

Good luck with the next round.
Maybe you can use the anchoring grip on your hand when injecting.
It used to work for the older golfers.
What I meant was maybe resting the heel of your hand on your leg to steady it.
I had to get a golf metaphor in somehow lol.