My Journal

[Thisworld]

Hey Merrix, I was reading at page 35 of your journal that at 5 months after the surgery you weren't able to get more than 30 pumps in it. Today they are way more, but if you pump only 30 where do you get at? Like at 50% inflation or so?
Cuold it be that the reason of why they increased so much its because you always pushed them to the limit?

[merrix]

Thanks Merrix
Always enjoy your thoughts and style, a Q for you…
What are your thoughts on renewing the implant when it eventually petters out (pon intended).
Tx Cb

My thoughts on renewing it...
Not much to think about. When it happens I'll have to get it replaced. It's been six years now, and still works great. Actually, it works better the longer time goes.
The only thing I've noticed is that it makes a bit more sound/noise when inflating now than it did in the beginning. Not sure if that's a bad sign, but I heard from Eid that it is normal.
So I hope it will last a few more years, but also realize that at six years, anything can happen. My time can come tonight.

I will definitely go to Eid if possible. I will have to pay everything myself, but I can and I will. Only issue would be Covid and how that impacts the possibilities to go have surgery abroad.
I will choose a Titan again. I am sure I would be happy with the other brand as well, but now I've had the Titan for six years and gotten used to its pros and cons.
I would probably get a smaller flaccid with an LGX, but I don't care the least. I like my flaccid. Now I am used to it, and I wouldn't want it any smaller. The hardness/softness of the flaccid is no issue as well. I am perfectly fine with it. I guess that when I put a new one in, it won't be as pliable as my six years old one, but I also know that over time it will soften.
Then it is the hardness. There are plenty of people around here who says that their LGX is harder than they need. That they don't even pump it fully because it gets too hard then. Everyone is different. But if we assume that what all doctors say is true - Titan is harder when hard and AMS is softer when soft - then I definitely don't want to change. I often pump my Titan till the absolute maximum. Meaning 60-70 pumps, the last 30 with two hands and all the force I can generate. Squeeze that bulb till my face gets blue. Meaning that I would not get that hardness with an LGX. And I would miss that. Different people, different preference. That's me.

So that's my thoughts.
When it happens, it happens. Go to Eid, get another Titan.

[merrix]

Hey Merrix, I was reading at page 35 of your journal that at 5 months after the surgery you weren't able to get more than 30 pumps in it. Today they are way more, but if you pump only 30 where do you get at? Like at 50% inflation or so?
Cuold it be that the reason of why they increased so much its because you always pushed them to the limit?

Impossible to answer of course. I don't know.
First of all, it is important to understand that my cycling was not as rigorous as many others. I think I have documented it pretty well in this journal, but from the top of my head, I never did 2*30 minutes per day, every day. Not even in the beginning. That would have been 14*30 minutes per week.
I probably did 5*30+5*5 or something similar. Not every day, and not 30 minutes each time. Just didn't have the time/patience for that. Sometimes just a quick 5-10 minutes while taking a shower.
I also stopped cycling earlier than many do. Not a specific cut-off day of course, ít gradually happened. But roughly, I'd say it reduced after one year, and by two years, I was basically never doing it. Only when using it.
I did however start early as Eid recommends.

Number of pumps, yes, I could only to about 30 in the beginning. That was however full wall to wall (W2W as I used to call them) pumps. I did that for the simple reason of being able to measure and track progress. If pumps where subjectively half-full, then I wouldn't know if I could do more than before. Maybe the pumps were just more shallow?
Nowadays I don't do full W2W pumps as I believe it is faster to pump with more, quicker half pumps than with fewer W2W pumps. The "refill" of the bulb just takes so much longer time that it does not compensate for the more fluid transferred on each pump. Plus I think that the pump will take more damage from the W2W pumping, and potentially shortening the time till revision.

The funny thing is that my dick kept growing even after I stopped cycling. Of course, just because I stopped cycling doesn't mean I stopped inflating. I still inflated 4-6 times per week for sex or masturbation.
I am probably a bit unusual in the sense that my dick now is longer than it ever was before implant. I have no answer to why, since I don't think I cycled more than what many others say.

On the other hand, I sometimes doubt that people on here really know what they are doing. An example:
Mr. B has a 21 cm AMS LGX. He says he pumps 10 pumps with one hand. He says after that his dick is rock hard, harder than ever his natural dick was, and he can hang a bath towel on it. And it's impossible to get more pumps in. And he pumps with one hand by the way.
OK, fine. But common sense tell us that's BS. Or at least that it includes a different meaning of rock hard than my meaning.

Just doing the maths. Volume of pump bulb and hence volume of saline transferred with one W2W pump, volume of cylinders, how much saline can the cylinders fit. It will tell you that Mr. B is nowhere near fully pumped. And hence, since he has a less than fully inflated LGX, his dick will be soft as a donut compared to a similarly sized Titan inflated with 60 pumps.
So when Mr. B tells us about his heavy-duty cycling regimen, we need to keep in mind that his cycling, even though he believes he inflated fully twice per day for three years, probably was a fart in space compared to my two-hands 35 full W2W pumps five times per week for a year.
People are different, and all stories need to be taken with some common sense filtering.

Regarding the one vs two hands. I seriously say that what I can achieve with one hand doesn't even come close to what I can achieve with two hands. And I am not weak. Doing 20+ proper pullups at 95 kg (211 lbs) bodyweight requires some grip strength at least.
But what I get with one hand is truly a semi-flaccid compared to my 60+ pumped two hand full erection. Just imagine, half the saline in the cylinders. My one-hand maximum would be what I call a wobbling semi pointing at 3 o'clock.

And where would I be today with the ~30-35 full W2W which was my maximum in the past?
Somewhere in between. Hard, but nowhere near as hard as my maximum.
Also, my 30 W2W today would make me softer than it did 5 years ago.
Why? Only logical answer I have is that my tissue has expanded. My dick, but maybe more so my crus. That means that I simply need more volume/pressure to fill up my tissue and get the super hardness.
Small hole to fill (crus and dick) - less volume of the implant required.
Large hole to fill - more inflation volume required.
That's why I need more pumps today to get the same hardness as five years ago.

But - I still think that even if my tissue has expanded and can take a larger volume (i.e. more pumps) now than before, I still get harder today from my 60 max than in the past from my 35 max. So the expanded tissue hasn't 100% compensated and made the extra pumps "useless". I still think a fuller implant gives a harder dick. Always. That correlation can't be ignored.

[JP1977]

I already know I’m gonna be scared of popping the thing pumping with two hands…..but if it worked for you….
Dr Eid surgery on Tuesday. Scared shitless.

[Echegollen]

My wife very rarely can orgasm more than once, and I know she prefers to come from vaginal sex rather than oral. But that was never easy.
She couldn’t enjoy herself, feeling stressed that she had to come before my crap dick went down. So I’d say that it was probably a 1/3 chance that she could orgasm from intercourse.

1/3 chance that she could orgasm from intercourse is light years better than me. I never made any women cum from intercourse. I just have too much ''hinge'' action going one with my erect penis.

Very nice update Merrix. Thanks.

[Echegollen]

I am probably a bit unusual in the sense that my dick now is longer than it ever was before implant. I have no answer to why, since I don't think I cycled more than what many others say.

I am wondering if it could be because prior to receiving your implant, your penis was never fully erect?

I know in my case, the length of my erect penis (even with Caverject) is 6.5''. However, when I contract my PC muscles, my penis gets all the way to 7'' in length. Did you experience something similar before your implant?

Whenever I go for the implant, I'll make sure to contract those PC muscles while the doctor will be measuring my erect penis.

[Gt1956]

I am probably a bit unusual in the sense that my dick now is longer than it ever was before implant. I have no answer to why, since I don't think I cycled more than what many others say.

I am wondering if it could be because prior to receiving your implant, your penis was never fully erect?
I know in my case, the length of my erect penis (even with Caverject) is 6.5''. However, when I contract my PC muscles, my penis gets all the way to 7'' in length. Did you experience something similar before your implant?
Whenever I go for the implant, I'll make sure to contract those PC muscles while the doctor will be measuring my erect penis.

Sounds good but won't work. You are unconscious when they measure you. No way to trick them on the measurement.
EDIT:
Do you want to be conscious while they shove what looks like a 5 or 6mm ball up the inside of your dick until the head stretches to a point....twice? I want to hear this reply.

[merrix]

My wife very rarely can orgasm more than once, and I know she prefers to come from vaginal sex rather than oral. But that was never easy.
She couldn’t enjoy herself, feeling stressed that she had to come before my crap dick went down. So I’d say that it was probably a 1/3 chance that she could orgasm from intercourse.

1/3 chance that she could orgasm from intercourse is light years better than me. I never made any women cum from intercourse. I just have too much ''hinge'' action going one with my erect penis.

Very nice update Merrix. Thanks.

I thought I mentioned this, but maybe I didn't: She does basically never come from just pure in and out vaginal sex. I have to make sure I rub her clit in some way during the act. Whether that is by grinding to her with my pubic bone/root of my penis or whether it is with my hand (e.g. while taking her from behind) doesn't matter, but it has to be done some way.

That was actually something I could do with even with a semi in the bad old days...

[merrix]

I am probably a bit unusual in the sense that my dick now is longer than it ever was before implant. I have no answer to why, since I don't think I cycled more than what many others say.

I am wondering if it could be because prior to receiving your implant, your penis was never fully erect?

I know in my case, the length of my erect penis (even with Caverject) is 6.5''. However, when I contract my PC muscles, my penis gets all the way to 7'' in length. Did you experience something similar before your implant?

Whenever I go for the implant, I'll make sure to contract those PC muscles while the doctor will be measuring my erect penis.

Regarding size: I have thought the same. No idea. Maybe that's why. I can't help thinking that sounds a bit strange, but I don't have any better suggestion...


Yeah, as mentioned above, contracting your PC muscles won't help much. This seems to be a misunderstanding on FT that just won't go away. No doc (at least no good one) will measure your penis before surgery and decide what implant size you will get. That might give him a ballpark idea where to start, but there is no way he can know how deep your crus is or how much scar tissue you have in your dick.
In Eid's case, I believe one major reason he measured my dick was to set the expectations right from the beginning.
He just measured me and said "You are 16 cm. That's what you will be after surgery".
I remember I told him that I am normally 16.5 on a good Viagra erection, but he just said "16 is what you are today, we both see it clearly. 16 cm is what I guarantee your end result will be. Maybe a little bit larger, but 16 is what I guarantee".
I remember I asked him something like what the chances are, and what will happen if I end up shorter. He just said that won't happen. My length will be the same as what we measure here.
So that measuring session was great in the sense that it clearly set expectations and accountability.

In my case, Eid thought I'd have a 22 cm implant based on the measurement pre op. Maybe with 1 cm RTEs, potentially only on one side due to my curvature.
As I have described in this journal, during the surgery he started off with 22 cm, thought he could get in more, added 1 cm RTEs, thought he could do more, ripped it all out, threw it in the bin, took a 24 cm implant and then he was happy that he got it right.
Expensive for him (or Coloplast), excessive trauma, bleeding and recovery time for me. Probably increased infection risk (my guess). But maximum customer satisfaction in the end.
I also (probably) remember that he said a deep crus will often improve the angle of the inflated penis. And make it less wobbly. The deeper inside the body the joint between the fixed part of the implant and the inflatable part ends up - the less wobble and the better angle.
I think this is also why there are stories here (which I cannot confirm) that he has been experimenting with trimming the fixed rear part of the implant. So instead of e.g. using a 22 cm + 1 cm RTE, he will go for 24 cm implant and trim off 1 cm. This will shorten the fixed part with 2 cm, increase the inflatable part with 2 cm and move the joint (between fixed and inflatable) 2 cm deeper inside the body.
There is a conference paper by Eid et.al. where he talks about rigidity factor which is simply calculated as inflatable length/total length.
In these two examples, that would be
(22-5)/(22+1)=0.74
and
(24-4)/(24-1)=0.87

As I remember it he claims there is correlation between rigidity factor and erection quality.

Of course, using a lot of RTEs will decrease this factor.
Some docs use excessive RTEs, especially with the AMS models and often because of their tubing insertion placement.

An 18 cm AMS with 5 cm RTE would have:
(18-5)/(18+5)=0.57 - meaning only 57% of the implant is actually inflatable (and hence deflatable), while as 43% is just solid plastic and can neither be inflated nor deflated.
This will also put the inflatable/fixed joint very far out. For someone falling under the rule of thumb saying 1/3 of the total implant length will be inside the body and 2/3 in the dick, this implant setup would have the fixed part extend inside the dick actually. A rigidity factor of 67% would be needed to avoid this.
On the other hand, since I think a lot of people have rigidity factors below 67% (actually I would guess around half of all AMS guys would have), I think the 2/3 rule can be questioned. Otherwise plenty of people would have the fixed part extending into their dicks, which I can't see work well.
In my case, I have a 17.5 cm inflated aroused dick (maybe even a few mm more). I estimate implant to reach 1 cm from my glans tip. This would mean I must have 16.5 cm implant in my dick and 24-16.5=7.5 cm in my crus. 16.5/24=69% which makes me barely pass the 2/3 mark. And that is without any RTEs.

I also remember him saying one reason you want as short fixed part as possible is that the fixed part is never deflated (of course) and hence puts constant pressure on the crus and over time causing the tissue to expand. This will then lead to a more and more "wobbling" erection as time passes by.

Whether other docs would agree with these theories I don't know. This is what my surgeon told me if my memory does not fail me after all these years...

[warrenw]

I think this is also why there are stories here (which I cannot confirm) that he has been experimenting with trimming the fixed rear part of the implant. So instead of e.g. using a 22 cm + 1 cm RTE, he will go for 24 cm implant and trim off 1 cm. This will shorten the fixed part with 2 cm, increase the inflatable part with 2 cm and move the joint (between fixed and inflatable) 2 cm deeper inside the body.

In my case Dr Eid did trim the rear part of the implant to give me 20cm on one side and 21cm on the other.