tennisguy;469807 said:
It does suck to have to play the waiting game now, but for some good news, my glans looks much better today after having it continually lubed up with neosporin. Hopefully it will be completely healed in a few more days, as there are no discolorations today. Anyway, I hope this never happens again. Even though this is a setback I am still in love with this device since it is so comfortable. That may be its only downside, since the comfort can be deceiving.
Glad to hear it's healing well. Be careful about keeping it too wet, even with medicine. Blisters are a nasty animal. They are deceiving and misleading. What appears to have healed is actually a dark spot waiting to happen. All vacuum devices are comfortable: that's their attraction. But blistering will eventually cause you to give up. Too many take you out for too long.
I'm guessing that when you pressed your glans into the device some air was trapped between the glans and the latex diaphragm (LD). When the LD expanded it caused the air to expand as well. Because of the lube the glans does not 'stick' to the LD. When no air is present the lube causes surface tension adhesion between the glans and the LD. But where there's air... there's the possibility of a blister. Remember also that when you introduce tension you create additional vacuum.
In other words, the air bubble becomes even more of a vacuum itself as it expands under more vacuum. Remember also that water boils at room temperature under vacuum. I have always felt this is how blisters originate: 1) an air bubble allows a void to exist. 2) Tension creates even more vacuum. 3) Fluid (97% water) near the surface of the skin experiences enough vacuum tension to boil: voila, blister!
This may also account for how they recede and heal so quickly, unlike other 'traditional' blisters. The water simply re-condenses. (I have seen them in a clear vacuum
hanger before: they expand quite a bit! The moment you remove the device they reduce greatly.)
Back to the PM pro: The goal of the design is for the LD to produce a surface-tension-based containment wrap for your glans which buffers your glans from the air void inside the PD. This keeps the skin from experiencing 'open vacuum'. However in order to work properly this requires zero air inside the LD.
Therefore, this is the number 1 priority during application. This is also what prevented me from be able to use the device properly. I've had enough blisters to intuitively know when there's a risk (unfortunately I've had so many). In my case, not being able to 'slide' in as happens on the training video I could feel vacuum pull right at the urethra opening. I knew there was air in the LD. It's a sort of 'sharp pin-pointed' pull feeling.
It's very admirable that they tried to address this core problem and did so with quite a setup. However if like all other vacuum devices, it has the ability to blister I'd rather not use it because it requires the glans to be bare. When I use the
SS HD I always tape up.
SS invented the concept of taping under vacuum years ago and even include some with the device. (I use a different tape than they suggest.) I know it's a pain in the ass, but I also know I'll never get a blister. Shit. I was really looking forward to using this device somehow.