This past week I was able to get an O-ring to hold the skin forward over the rest of the shaft. I’ve never been able to do that before. You can see the first image here.
I left it on for about 15 minutes. I’m still scared that I’m not doing it right, or that the O-ring size is too small (the inner diameter of the one in the picture is 13/16″ or 2.0 cm. I have another one that’s 15/16″ or 2.5 cm, but that one would come off). If the ring is too tight, I imagine it could restrict the blood flow and cause some problems.
Actually, maybe someday I will have so much skin that I can use the bigger O-ring and it won’t slip off or be too tight. Maybe that is the proper way to do this.
The goal of the retainer is to have something to wear throughout the night or during exercising or some time when it’s inconvenient or dangerous to wear tape or use the DTR. Actually, I’d hope that I could use the DTR during the day and the retainer through the night without issue. But I’ve never been able to do that. I’ve just consigned to use tape most of the time for now.
Anyway I’m still pretty amazed that I was able to wear the retainer for a while without it coming off. It’s a nightmare to actually get on. You have to grab part of the skin and pull it through, and then yank the rest of the skin slowly through the hole without letting the parts that were already pulled through slip back out. I haven’t figured out a fast way to do this, but I have noticed that if I ignore the idea that it might actually hurt to pinch and yank on the skin, it tends to be easier to pull it through. I don’t think I can photograph the process but I should be able to make a video at some point.
One final note. I noticed that if the skin and ring has any oil on it at all, it can’t hold. So the best way to get it to hold securely is to wash the skin and the ring with soap and dry them before installation. The ring is a bit harder to get on this way, but it stays much more securely and for a longer period. I’ll need to test at some point exactly how long I can wear it before it either hurts or pops off.
But anyway, it stayed on for a while, which is a notable accomplishment for me!
Update 12-18-2018: The smaller 2 cm O-ring retainer can cut off circulation if left on for a longer period of time (>30 min – 1 hr). I suppose the people that sleep with these are using the bigger sizes, with even more excess skin that doesn’t pull back through the bigger hole of the O-ring. In the beginning, don’t leave these things on when you sleep or when you can’t attend to them. I have noticed pain on removal after longer periods of time, which doesn’t bode well for even longer periods of time.