newbie plugging observations

[AndyJ]

> As soon as you let it rest for too long it will start to go back to its original size.

Yeah, I'm suspecting that...

I worked back up to 9mm again, but the inside end of the plug became painful again after a couple of days. The plug is about two inches long, and I'm shorter than that when flaccid. My underwear holds the shaft up, which made a new "bend point" at the end of the plug, which eventually makes the inside of the urethra sore at that spot.

Until the 9mm tubing to make a sleeve for the tetherspout comes in, I'm going unplugged. I could use the 8mm tubing I already have, but it's really a bit too small; I bought it before I found the 9mm stuff, which is an odd size.

I thought about cutting one of the 8mm and 9mm plugs (I have a couple of each) shorter like I did with the 6mm one; if the 9mm tubing doesn't show up soonish I may do that and restart the stretching process again.

I'll keep pumping in the meantime, and I need to get started on the programmable pump controller project.

I don't know if it happens to anyone else, but even 20 years ago when I pumped, and then took a leak afterward, urine would shoot off in some random direction instead of where I was aiming at. With a hollow plug, the stream goes where it's supposed to. Pumping with a plug in worked just fine.

[AndyJ]

I ordered plugs in each size I needed; 6, 7, 8, 9mm. And then when I needed some in-between sizes, I ordered more so I could sand them down. And when stuff didn't show up ("USA stock" is a lie about half the time...) and I was expanding faster than I expected, I ordered more from different suppliers. So duplicates and spares are still trickling in. I have a pretty good collection now....

Anyway, an 8mm bumpy plug showed up Saturday in a little white blister pack. Nobody I ever heard of on the return address, as is usual for eBay purchases, and no receipt. So I don't know which vendor it came from.

All of the other plugs were polished, machined stainless steel. This one appears to be chrome plated aluminum. And it's a casting; it has obvious parting lines on the sides, crudely ground off, and then some half-ass polishing before it was plated.

It is a functional penis plug, but it's not what I expected. So if you care, make sure the ad says "stainless steel" so you have some leverage if you want to get a refund.

[AndyJ]

The 9mm tubing finally showed up. I cut a piece to go in between the tetherspout's retainer and nut, then used a straight burr on the Dremel tool to open it up from just-under-6mm to 6mm-and-clearance. I didn't expect the tubing to be a precise size, so no problem there.

I had to restart from zero - or about 5.5mm - for a third time, stretching to 9mm. Took about a week this time. The 9mm plug fell out this morning. Time to do the tetherspout.

From the time the plug fell out to take a shower and get prepared was about an hour. In that time, the stricture shrank noticeably. I had to use the gauge spike to open it back up to 27Fr. Didn't take too much, maybe 15 minutes of probing and stretching.

I tied a piece of dental floss to the spout and the 26Fr retainer, then inserted them. I couldn't get the spout very far down the urethra; I had about a half-hard that wouldn't go away, making it difficult to manipulate the urethra. I pushed the retainer in, but I couldn't feel it at all when I tried to turn it to line up with the spout. I only had a short piece of floss tied on, and I was afraid of losing the pieces down the urethra, so I pulled them out, but the spout came out alongside the retainer on the floss, raking the opening with the threaded edge of the spout.

I pushed the 9mm plug back in as a retainer, tied a much longer piece of floss onto the spout, attended to some business, and tried pulling the plug back out to try again. Nope, the meatus and stricture are clamped tightly onto the 6mm neck of the 9mm plug; ain't coming out without a fight. I guess the meatus was traumatized.

One other thing I found out was that the vinyl sleeve needed a bevel on the end, otherwise it wouldn't pass through the stricture. I sanded a bevel on later. I also reviewed the instructions at the tetherproducts site; TP recommends using forceps to line up the retainer and spout on installation, and to remove them later if needed. I dug them out of the box I'd put all the bits in and I'll follow directions this time. For some reason the whole tetherspout thing has been *much* more stressful than simple plugging.

None of this would be a problem for someone with a normal-sized meatus; just push the bits in and knead the glans while flaccid until the pieces are in position. In my case I have to stretch for a week, and it's sore at the meatus when I start, and I don't have much time between removing the plug and the meatus shrinking too much to get the spout bits in.

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I mentioned a "buzzing" or "lawnmower" vibration when urinating with the plug; other people had commented on it, and blamed it on "hydrodynamic flow instability." But after wearing a plug for a week or more, it gets damned sore down at the bottom of the plug. I found by accident that if I moved the plug slightly in or out while urinating, the buzzing and pain went away. My theory is that a little flap of urethra is getting pulled over the end of the plug while urinating, and it's bruised a bit from the hammering motion. If it was "hydrodynamic flow instability" changing the position slightly shouldn't make any difference.

[slkdyk]

AndyJ,
I had similar problems inserting the Teatherspout at first. What I did to make things much easier is to get a piece of floss about 18" (plenty to hold on to), run it through the spout then through the retainer then through a plug (small one if you have one) does not need to be very large, just larger than the spout. Insert the spout into the urethra then the retainer. Using the plug to push things in some, not too far maybe 1/2", then while holding the plug pull on the floss. this pulls the spout up and aligns the retainer against the plug allowing the spout to go through the retainer. You can now remove the plug and pull the spout/retainer into position and remove the floss if desired.

[AndyJ]

I have one of the standard tapered-end spouts, the longest one. I bought it with the set of threaded spouts.

I think should set the threaded spout aside and work with the tapered-end spout; it should be easier to get through the retainer. I can use a threaded spout to push it in. I can use a barbell or safety pin to hold the plastic sleeve on.

Getting the sleeve through the urethra turned out to be impossible yesterday, but this morning I had a bright idea - use the floss to pull the spout and retainer out, then push the sleeve down the floss, over the retainer, and then the spout should keep it straight and I can push it in. Hopefully.

Once I get the freakin' thing installed once, I can do it again. It's just learning the trick...

[bucket]

Any updates AndyJ, have you succeeded in getting your spout in properly yet?

[AndyJ]

Jeez, it has been a month... no, not yet. I need to get back to it! I did finish up the modified extender, and you can see one of the clear vinyl tubing sleeves. The tubing was just a hair under 6mm ID and wouldn't slide freely on the spout, so I worked on it a bit with a Dremel tool until it had some clearance. And after six weeks, my 6mm ID, 9mm OD stainless steel tubing showed up day before yesterday. In retrospect, I should have just made the sleeve out of round bar stock...

[AndyJ]

After damaging the thin scar tissue again a few weeks ago, I finally healed to the point where there are no more scabs or raw spots. I restarted plugging this morning, using a tapered sound to open enough for a 7mm plug... which fell out a few hours later. I dug it out of my underwear and stuck it in a pocket. This is good; I didn't have to start with the 5.5, 6, and 6.8mm plugs; the 7mm went in without much trouble. So the last couple of times, it didn't go all the way back to 5.5mm. Even if I only gain 1/2mm per set, that's excellent! I'll re-plug this evening.

I was able to go directly from 7mm to 8mm before, but I now have a 7.5mm I made by sanding down a spare 8mm plug. And I have 8.33, 8.66, 9, 9.33, 9.66, and 10mm now. I went with 1/3mm French steps since the circumference steps get larger with the diameters and I had spare plugs as all the long-delayed orders trickled in.

I also bought a "Berry's Bullets" cartridge case. It's a smoke-tint case designed to hold 20 .308 cartridges. It holes all my plugs and spares perfectly. I'll put up a picture later.

If I don't damage the skin on my shaft over the weekend somehow, I'll be able to try to get the freakin' Tetherspout in once again. If I can find where I put the plain-end spout I'll try that instead of one of the threaded ones.

[bucket]

Take a look at the video below of the guy who polishes the inside of the Tetherspout. Even though it's SS, the inside of the tube is ridgy and prone to rust and debris collection. You read like a handy guy so I recommend you polish it up while you wait on your healing.

http://tetheredchastity.blogspot.com/20 ... 0629ef4b21

[AndyJ]

Yeah, I saw that video. My spouts - I bought the whole set of threaded, and one long tapered - are all reasonably smooth inside. It wouldn't *hurt* to polish them smoother, but it's something that would have to be very carefully done with the threaded spouts. They're broached with an internal hex, like an Allen head bolt. If you bugger the hex while polishing you could wind up with the wrench stripping the spout, and then removal would be awkward.

I figured I'd wear one for a while and see if it was really a problem first. The tetheredchastity guy got his spouts several years ago; mine may be from a different production run.

The tetheredchastity guy's pages on installation and removal are a-verra-nahss. Way better than the tetherspout home page.

[AndyJ]

I started plugging in the middle of July. I didn't record the exact times, but I kept a log with plug sizes, how long between steps, etc. I went back through it and figured up the time, rounding down conservatively, and came up with 750 hours. That's one full month out of the last four.

Not too bad, considering I spent at least two months of that not-plugging because I was recovering from various damage.

Plan A was to use the Tetherspout to stay plugged 24/7. When I found my meatus was too small to accept the smallest Tetherspout retainer, I went to Plan B, which was to use sounds and plugs to stretch until I could get the retainer in. I also made a plastic sleeve to go over the spout so the meatus couldn't shrink down and make it a semi-permanent addition to my penis.

The first two times I got stretched out enough to accept a retainer, I couldn't get the bits assembled inside before the meatus shrank back down. This was mostly due to how fast the meatus shrank, and the raw meat condition of my shaft (which is still slowly getting better) made it too painful to knead the glans to line things up.

I originally had to start with a 5.5mm sound and work slowly up, a day or more at a time, in .3 or .5mm steps. But now I can start off with a 7mm sound, and sometimes I can go up whole millimeter steps. So now I'm up to Plan C; plug 24/7 on weekends, and at night W-Th-Fri. The meatus is pretty sore by Monday mornings from the stretching, so I'm giving it a couple-day break. Plugging during the weekdays is awkward due to work. I *was* doing it, but since I'm getting decent stretch without having to, it simplifies daily life some.

My meatus is still shrinking, but if, say, an 8mm plug falls out Saturday night, I can reinstall it without trouble on Sunday morning. Before, I had maybe half an hour before I'd have to back off to 7mm for a while.

Hey, any plan is better than none...

[bucket]

I can put in my 11.5mm plug at any time now. The difference is that I have to take it a bit slower inserting it if I haven't used it for a couple of weeks. Once I got over 8-9mm it never really went back under that. I'd say you're nearly at a stage where your stretch should be pretty much permanent. Slight internal tears and scarring will have changed you.

How are you managing lubrication if you plan to wear the plug 24/7? You will dry up a bit and it will get sore for a few days. Make sure to keep hydrated, you want to urinate more than normal to flush out dead skin cells, keep the plug cleaner and any skin secretions from abrasions.

[AndyJ]

I tried KY, silicone lube, an oil-based anal lube, and Vaseline. The anal lube is by far the most slippery, but I somehow manage to get even a tiny amount over everything within six feet. Vaseline is good enough, wipes off easily, and doesn't stain bedding or clothing.

The bumpy plugs slide in and out a bit from pressure from my underwear when I walk; I haven't had any problems with them sticking.

[AndyJ]

Yay! It took several days before this thread would accept a reply without a "403 Forbidden" error. But I could post in other threads... well, whatever it was seems to have resolved itself.

[AndyJ]

Not a whole lot happening; still on the weekend schedule, improvements coming slowly.