Reservoir between abdominal muscles?

[dgraham]

I had surgery on January 30 and I've been having a hard time of it.

At one week I was deflated and told to start cycling. Unfortunately, I was in serious pain and couldn't. I was always erect. I could deflate and pump to lock the valve, but I'd immediately be erect just moments later.

I thought I was going crazy. I went in to get the doc to deflate me twice and saw his Coloplast rep every Tuesday. I just couldn't figure it out. Doc suggested that I get a zero gravity chair and the worst pain subsided with that.

Then last week, at my 4-ish week check-up. Doc says that he could not get my reservoir under the muscle next to the bladder so he split between two muscles and placed it in there. He thinks it was this placement that was causing enough pressure to over-ride the valves and auto-inflate me.

Since Friday, I've been really aggressive on the deflate and I can feel the reservoir inside my lower abdomen. I still feel like I'm 20-30% (but I really don't feel comfortable enough estimating yet).

Has anyone else had a placement like this? How did it work for you?

[Bigdave]

That just does not sound like a good placement for the reservoir.
Definitely keep on your doctor about your problems. He may need to correct that placement.

[Old Guy]

You need the reservoir to create its space within the abdominal muscles. Getting it as full as possible through deflating should help. You are going to feel like you have an erection for a few months until the cylinders soften a bit. Also, once you deflate if you squeeze the inflate bulb once or twice that will lock the pump to prevent auto inflation.
Time is the only thing that is going to help. In a few months it should all feel better.

[jwitten567]

compared to the AMS, the Titan has the auto-inflation prevention valve on the reservoir. If it is getting compressed from your abdominal muscles or where the tubing initially comes out that can cause the valve to malfunction. I would keep the Dr in the loop if you are having issues because after 3 months it may or may not improve and they could talk about putting the reservoir in a different place.

[jwitten567]

I had mine most recently placed way on the side near my hip because the initial surgeon had problems doing through the traditional spots due to my surgery/radiation and since I'm pretty athletic build i could feel it when it was in the superficial location. Now I have no issues.