I'm Bionic! Quincy's journal. Before and after pics added.

[Quincy]

Day 10, afternoon

We made it back home yesterday. While traveling, I ended up inflating twice each day for one hour at a time instead of 4 times for a half hour each. Also drove about half the trip naked from the waist down, sometimes when I drove and sometimes when my wife did. Kept wearing a long-tailed shirt, so I don't think I ended up flashing any truckers.

For those who must drive 12 hours or so after implant, like we did, all I can say is take the pain med of your choice and hope the road is smooth. All the jarring, bumping, and even vibration adds up after hours of driving, and you often can't change position enough to make things more comfortable. It wasn't too bad, but I'm definitely glad it's over.

Pumped up twice this morning, both in a hot bath. I plan on starting to use a heating pad, as Larry and others have suggested, tomorrow. The bulb is getting a little easier to push or else I'm getting better at pushing it. My ball sack is sore from the pinching and I keep trying to find a way to push it a little differently each time to reduce the pain.

I've gotten to the point where I'm sure the cylinders are as full as I can make them. Penile pain is higher at that point, and I just have to try to ignore it to get the amount of stretching time up. Each session this morning was about 45 minutes long.

It appears that the pump has adhered to the back of my scrotum. It's situated in a pretty good place, but I don't know if it is supposed to adhere or be free to move. Should I just keep pulling at the skin and trying to get them apart?

Oldbeek: You said your pump got attached to your left nut. How did you get them separated?

Swelling and pain at the incision site continue to drop. I can't press against the spot without some pain, but better than it's been. Once I can press there I should be able to get a good bone-pressed measurement.

The most pain I'm feeling now seems to come a while after I finish inflation. My whole dick aches, and some parts are very sore, especially to touch or rub against something, like the waistband of my undershorts as I remove them. Ouch.

My penis is darker in color than normal, which concerns me. I assume it's just part of the inflation and stretching process. I'm not bruised, just dark, dark red. I'd love to hear from others if they have had the same thing happen.
[Edit: color went back to normal a few hours later, appears to be fine now]

I asked my doctor about the amount of time I need to wait to return to some activities. Here's the list:

Walking for exercise - as soon as comfortable
Swimming in a public pool or using a hot tub - after the 2nd week
Weight lifting, racquetball - no restrictions, just so it doesn't hurt, and don't over-do it
Sex or masturbation - 3 weeks

I've started increasing the pace of my walking, though I'm not yet back to normal. Tomorrow I'll go to the gym to lift weights a little, and on Monday I'm going to try racquetball with friends. I'm really happy that recovery is going this quickly. I'm still a little sore while walking and I'll need to be careful with weight lifting and racquetball, but it's wonderful to be able to ease back into things this soon.

This journal has been fun to write and I hope it's useful to others. I'll be posting only occasionally from here, as things seem to be quickly reaching equilibrium. If anyone has questions, I'll be happy to answer.

Thanks again to all those who helped me get through this and for all the comments and help along the way.

Quincy

[David_R]

I am so happy for you, Quincy. So very, very happy.

[alibaba]

racquet ball and weights at day 11? You've got some balls man. Don't swell things up and slow your healing. All this naked time and your wife is going to become impatient! Cheers.

[Quincy]

Day 11, Morning

I guess I'll keep writing in this journal until there are no more useful observations. I have a couple of small items this morning

Alibaba: Thanks for your encouragement and humor. Haven't got my wife sitting on my lap yet to save on the heating pad, though. You mentioned to be careful and not slow my healing. I agree, and that's one of todays thoughts.

While I've been cleared by the doctor to lift weights or play racquetball, I clearly need to be careful. As he said, "Just don't overdo it". I started gentle walking, at a snail's pace and for very short distances - up and down the hospital hallway - as soon as the catheter came out. From then I slowly added more distance and speed. By day 4 I was up to 3 miles over 2 walks, at a slow walking pace. Before activation (8th day) I was 4 miles at a moderate pace.

I'm still not comfortable with anything that jolts my groin, so walking will have to do for a bit more. I walk to music and have sorted my tunes into groups with a similar number of beats per minute. I've stayed with the slower group for now, which is 100 to 120 BPM. At first, when the faster songs in that group came up, I'd simply skip forward to the next. Now I like the fastest ones and skip the slow ones. I decided yesterday that I'm ready to move to the next group of songs at 120-145 BPM, and I'll probably again start skipping the fastest ones. I don't know how long it will be before I can start some light jogging, but it's clearly not now.

I've tried to make sure of two things with adding exercise back into my life:

1: Doctor approval. I don't want to strain or stretch anything that could cause problems. He gave me good reasons for not going into a pool or hot tub and not having sex yet. But he also said that I should start getting movement and activity as soon as it was comfortable enough to do so, while being careful not to overdo it.

2. Listen to my body to make sure it's not too much. I don't really mind a little pain to achieve good results (otherwise I'd never have done an implant) but I don't like pain just to feel like I've accomplished something. Initially, and even now, wearing clothes to keep me decent causes some pain and I'm willing to put up with that to get the exercise. I don't feel like I'm damaging myself and I wear whatever hurts the least. For walking right now it's the David Archy 2-pouch underwear. When I start out I try to ignore the small irritations that come from being dressed and pay attention to my muscles and the overall feel of my groin. As the activity continues, I stop when I feel that my male parts have been bounced enough or there is extra stress on my incision site. Right now, that time seems to come at about 2 miles. So I do two 2-mile sessions instead of just waling 4 miles. I was mentally ready to go to 3 miles yesterday, but at 2 my body again indicated it might be best to stop. So I did.

I feel somewhat the same about cycling right now. Cycling has become easier and pumping a little less painful. Instead of feeling like my scrotum is constantly being tortured by a mechanic's pliers with sharp teeth, it's now more like using flat-sided pliers. But it's still painful. My doctor would like me to cycle 4 times a day for a half hour each. I just couldn't do it yesterday. I got 3 cycles in and held them longer, instead. It felt like adding a 4th session was just too much, so I didn't do it. Today I will probably do more, but we'll see.

With exercise, and that's what cycling is, too, I need to listen to both my doctor and my body. I'm certain other doctors would say different things about when to resume a variety of exercises. Ask your doctor, don't go by what mine is telling me.

FWIW, naked is still better than not-naked, but that may be a permanent thing for me from here out. When flaccid, I can wear a loose pair of shorts, commando, and have no trouble now. When inflated, I still can't find any combination of clothing that doesn't cause too much pressure, but extremely loose shorts can be ok. I still look obscene with the tenting, but no one can actually see my dick, so there's that. If someone visits, I cover my lap with my computer and don't stand up.

[oldbeek]

Quincy, My pump was attached some what to my left nut. In the hot tub I kept gently pulling them apart. My hot tub has a jet that hits my scrotum. I open that jet and put the pump on high and let the whole sack get beat around. It does not hurt and really loosens things up. Good to hear you are recovering nicely. Cycle 4 times a day? Interesting. I am doing it twice a day. I better get to work.

[Quincy]

Day 11, afternoon

Thanks, beek. I was able to detach it with some extra work. The hot tub sounds great. I've actually been considering installing one on my back patio. It's relatively private so I could be naked there. By the time it would get installed I'd probably be past most of the need, but hot tubs are nice, anyway.


I'm getting better at pumping and the pain from squeezing my sack is getting less. I've tried a lot of techniques. The thing that seems to work best for me is to gently hold the pump in place with my left hand and squeeze the bulb between the first joint of my thumb and the first joint of my index finger on my right hand. Be careful the scrotal skin is flat between these pressure points. Others may have better solutions for them, but this works for me.

While the pain from pump squeezing is lessening, the pain from being fully stretched is still there. It's not horrible, and I can take it for quite a while. I'm trying to get to 4 half-hour sessions a day, but life intrudes and I'm doing 3 three-quarter hour sessions instead. Will try to get to the 4 shorter ones tomorrow.

Stretching pain is different from other pain I've had with the implant. About the top half of my dick feels it most. Sometimes it feels like pins have been stuck into the area. Other times, it feels like mild abrasions. The pain reduces after I deflated, but stays around for a while. The skin is very tender and sensitive for a long time - I don't think it has stopped being very tender since I did the implant, but it doesn't always hurt. For a couple of hours after I'm done with inflation there is a dull ache everywhere. None of this is really bad, and I'm not complaining, just trying to let others know what it might be like.

As I've said before, nothing about this is painful enough to avoid doing it. Still, I'm looking forward to a time when inflation is a breeze and just an easy part of a great round of sex.

My sack feels heavy but doesn't hurt anymore until I squeeze it. I've been wondering if some topical anesthetic like Lidocaine would help for the after-pumping pain. If anyone has tried it, please let me know. I'm certain I don't want to try anything like IcyHot or any of those other topical pain products. They all have ingredients to heat up or cool down or something. I'm guessing those would hurt a LOT on this kind of skin right now. I've also been thinking about getting a penis health cream or lotion - not to restore sensitivity, but just to help the skin recover. If I do, I'll report results here.

That's it for now.
Quincy

[ED2013]

I used to take ibuprofen before pumping when first implanted. Helped a lot.

[alibaba]

Pain inflated and the heavy sack will be there for a while but they will lessen. The heavy sack will no-longer feel heavy in time. In the mean time, think about why your sack feels heavy and grin. Glad you are doing well. Cheers.

[Quincy]

Day 13, afternoon

Almost 2 weeks past surgery. Things are definitely getting better. The scrotal pain from pinching the pump is still there, but not as bad. Next time I'll try Ibuprofen before pumping - thanks for the idea ED2013. Penile pain while stretched still exists, and I imagine it will persist until I stop stretching. It's not horrible, just something to deal with. In between stretches I have periods where there is just a dull ache and others when the ache is a little stronger. About once a day, still, I take some Ibuprofen to help.

Deflating has been hard, but I think I may have had a breakthrough. I don't believe I was holding the deflate button long enough. I held it longer just now and things went back to flaccid fairly quickly.

The weight of my ball sack still makes me feel like I must have HUGE balls, but, as Alibaba said, I'll probably get used to it. Just feels funny walking around right now, especially nude and even more if I walk up a set of stairs. But it feels good. Similar feel with penis, but not as pronounced.

The pain was worse for some reason after yesterday morning's first cycle, so I took 24 hours off from pumping. When I started again this morning things were much better. I feel now like it was a good thing to rest all the parts for a day, and I can't imagine that a 24 hour break set back anything for stretching. Glad I did it.

The skin on my dick still feels a little like it's abraded. After a tip from Cincinnatus in chat and then speaking with a pharmacist, I bought some Aquaphor healing ointment. It's supposed to help repair damaged skin. I'm using it on both penis and sack and will let you know how it goes. I had some while using the VED and it seemed to help then, but I'd run out.

By tomorrow I'm hoping to be healed enough to take some good measurements. I took some before and after pictures and the results are very impressive, IMO. I'm not big like many of the guys here, but way bigger than before. Not sure I've got enough nerve to post them.

Best wishes to all of you, implanted and not, but especially to those who are still going through the early stages, or are about to do so.

Quincy

[stubby]

we need pictures!!