AMS Pump Malfunction

[Dave92014]

2/5/13
Last night I did a test pumping and had the problem again with the pump not pulling fluid from the reservoir. On the first squeeze I felt the big squish and thought it was starting off well. But the bulb did not recover roundness from that squeeze and remained totally collapsed. So I pushed the deflate button and the bulb immediately filled up again. Then I squeezed the bulb hard for a second pumping. The bulb refilled but rather slowly. I squeezed again and this time the bulb did not refill but remained collapsed. Next I tried something different. The bulb was oblong because it was collapsed. I moved my finger and thumb to the long ends of the oblong and squeezed the bulb. This caused the bulb to refill. I then did another squeeze but the bulb again remained collapsed after the squeeze. Next I tried another approach in that I simultaneously squeezed my penis hard with my left hand while pressing the deflate button. I thought maybe a surge of fluid backwards would get the pump valve unstuck. This seemed to work and on subsequent pumps the bulb did not collapse. After I pumped up I then checked to see if I was holding stiffness. But after about 5 minutes I observed I was only about half stiff so the valve was leaking some fluid out. I then pumped a few times to regain stiffness. Ten minutes later I was mostly stiff but had lost a little stiffness. So I pumped a few more times to get to maximum stiffness. Fifteen minutes later I was still at maximum stiffness so the procedure seemed to get the pump valve fully shut. My conclusion was that if I had been pumping for real sex, I could have gotten that with one or two false starts and maybe a need to do a couple of extra pumps just before insertion. So I am not ready to declare my pump broken and ask for a new one to be installed, as long as I can work around the problems of the pump when they happen, which is not too often so far.

[Dave92014]

2/22/13 I had not been doing daily practice pumping for the last 12 days because I was on vacation travel but the pump worked properly when I used it for sex. Tonight when I started to use the pump for sex, when I started pumping I got the big swish on the first squeeze but the bulb did not reinflate and remained in the collapsed state. I then tried squeezing my penis and pushing the deflate button which caused the bulb to reinflate immediately. I then squeezed the bulb again and it again it did not refill from that squeeze. I then again squeezed the penis and pushed the deflate button. Again the bulb quickly refilled. I squeezed the bulb a third time and again it did not refill after that squeeze. So again I squeezed the penis and pressed the deflate button. Then I squeezed the bulb again and this time it refilled as it should. I continued pumping 12 more times and the bulb refilled but it did not seem as hard on the last three squeezes as it usually does. The penis was stiff enough for sex so I went immediately to insertion and had good sex.. After sex I noticed that the penis was only half stiff so it had lost some stiffness during sex, whereas when I have not had the collapsing bulb problem it has remained fully stiff for 15 to 120 minutes after pumping. The somewhat loss of stiffness over a period of 10 or 15 minutes seems to happen often after I have had the problem of the bulb not reinflating, even after I had gotten the bulb to apparently reinflate properly. So far though with the above procedure I have been able to get the pump out of the “bulb not reinflating problem” and get adequate stiffness for sex.

[Dave48003]

A couple of quick comments. Somewhere on here a question regarding pumping up with full force was questioned. The implant is designed to take whatever force a human can exert. The doc told the patient to try to wear it out. Wish I could remember who said that, but my point is, I think your doc is not correct in telling you not to fully pump. AMS does say that the first pump must be firm and rapid to make the valve switch.

I have had the pump valve stick similar to what you describe. Pushing the deflate button than giving the quick squeeze to get the 'pop' of the valve fixed the problem. Only happened once.

Deflating should be done by holding the valve 4 seconds minimum. I usually wait for it to quit humming, then grab my penis and squeeze the rest out. I've never found the need to squeeze the penis at the start of the deflate process, only at the end.

[Dave92014]

A couple of quick comments. Somewhere on here a question regarding pumping up with full force was questioned. The implant is designed to take whatever force a human can exert. The doc told the patient to try to wear it out. Wish I could remember who said that, but my point is, I think your doc is not correct in telling you not to fully pump. AMS does say that the first pump must be firm and rapid to make the valve switch.

I have had the pump valve stick similar to what you describe. Pushing the deflate button than giving the quick squeeze to get the 'pop' of the valve fixed the problem. Only happened once.

Deflating should be done by holding the valve 4 seconds minimum. I usually wait for it to quit humming, then grab my penis and squeeze the rest out. I've never found the need to squeeze the penis at the start of the deflate process, only at the end.

Thanks for your ideas. I have ignored my doc's suggestion to squeeze the pump less forcefully because the first time I did that I had the collapsed bulb problem which I had never had before that when squeezing forcefully. It does seem that my bulb is somewhat easier to compress now that I have been pumping for 2 1/2 months. Either the pump is getting easier to work, which my doc susggeted might happen, or my fingers are getting stonger. Or maybe both.

I do hold the deflate button at least 4 seconds as you suggest, and wait for the humming to stop before releasing the button.

[Bxguy1]

Pardon me if I'm getting a little ahead of myself, as I am waiting to set my own appointment with Dr Eid for an implant procedure (coloplast titan, hopefully in April). So basically no practical experience here and I'm going by what I've only read....It would seem that due to your loss of firmness after 15 minutes that that indicates a problem. If I were you, I.would contact ams and try and get their opinion. Also, get a second opinion from a high volume implant uro like Eid, Gerber or others. Why would you want to settle after going through the entire procedure. It seems to me you've gone this far so why try to figure things out on your own?

[Bxguy1]

Go with the Pros who are in the Know!
Good Luck!

[Dave92014]

Pardon me if I'm getting a little ahead of myself, as I am waiting to set my own appointment with Dr Eid for an implant procedure (coloplast titan, hopefully in April). So basically no practical experience here and I'm going by what I've only read....It would seem that due to your loss of firmness after 15 minutes that that indicates a problem. If I were you, I.would contact ams and try and get their opinion. Also, get a second opinion from a high volume implant uro like Eid, Gerber or others. Why would you want to settle after going through the entire procedure. It seems to me you've gone this far so why try to figure things out on your own?

The main reason is that I think that if my pump is defective the only way to fix it is to cut me open and install a new pump. That might also require installing the whole new mechanism which would be a repeat of the original surgery and healing period. Since I so far have been able to get
the job done with some fiddling with the pump I am remaining in the "information gathering phase".

Also I am an engineer and have a lot of experience diagnosing failing electronic hardware from external symptoms so I am willing to gather information on the problem before moving forward on it.

I see my doc for a follow up in April. I will definitelyi discuss it with him and by then I will have more information on how often the problem happens and maybe some more ideas about what techniques get it out of the problem. What gets it out of the problem may help AMS or the doc to understand what the basic problem is.

[Dave92014]

The last time I had the problem with the bulb not refilling, which caused me to start this topic, was 3/8/13, four weeks ago. I have been trying various changes in the way I pump and I have come to the conclusion that the problems I have had were inversely proportional to the amount of pressure I used when pumping. In other words when I used two-handed pumping and squeezed the bulb very hard, I had practically no problems. But when I used one-handed pumping and/or did not squeeze the bulb very firmly, I sometimes had the problem of the bulb not refilling or after I pumped, I lost half of the stiffness within a few minutes.

When I use the two-handed pumping and squeeze the bulb very hard on each squeeze, most of the time I get very good stiffness which lasts for at least an hour or two. Sometimes after 10 or 15 minutes I do lose a little stiffness but adding two or four more pumps brings it back up to full stiffness which lasts at least long enough for sex or longer.

I hope I am not declaring victory prematurely but since I have had four weeks of the pump working satisfactorily, I think that pumping very forcefully has solved the problems I was having.

[Bionic_by_AMS]

Dave,
Next time try this ... prior to pumping, hit the deflate button and squeeze the shaft at the same time. Now squeeze the pump ball and you should feel the slight "pop" where the check-valve engages. The reason it seems easier to pump is that the cylinders are stretching ... think of it as a long kids balloon, where stretching the balloon a few times makes it easier to blow up. I think the same applies to your 15 min. period (losing stiffness) it may just be your penis stretching?

[Dave92014]

Dave,
Next time try this ... prior to pumping, hit the deflate button and squeeze the shaft at the same time. Now squeeze the pump ball and you should feel the slight "pop" where the check-valve engages. The reason it seems easier to pump is that the cylinders are stretching ... think of it as a long kids balloon, where stretching the balloon a few times makes it easier to blow up. I think the same applies to your 15 min. period (losing stiffness) it may just be your penis stretching?

Thanks, I will try that procedure. One thing I forgot to mention though is that prior to 3/8/13 when I was trying different things I felt the pop you describe (which I referred to above as the "big squish") sometimes but not always. I felt it maybe one day in five. And as I correlated different results I had more of the problems on the days when I felt the pop. Since 3/8/13 I don't think I have felt the pop a single time, and things have been working well so I am not sure that the pop indicates the check valve has properly engaged. I am just guessing though of course.

I did use the procedure you suggest when I got the problem of the collapsing bulb. In those cases I did often feel the pop after I started pumping the second or third time. But the pop did not always solve the collapsing bulb problem. Sometimes I had to repeat the procedure a second time to get the bulb to work right.

I have the AMS CX so I don't think there is much difference in the amount the cylinders expand. I do think you are right though that sometimes when I have a slight loss of stiffness, it is just the penis expanding a little more. Whatever that is, I seem to be able to recover the stiffness well enough by squeezing the bulb a couple more times.