Recently I’ve been able to wear the bigger O-ring retainer, which has about a 1″ (2.5 cm) inner diameter. If unstressed and clean (no oils), it stays on for a long time. I can’t sleep with it on, because eventually it pops off, but I can wear it for a while while awake. This still amazes me.
I still consider the O-ring retainer a bit of a dangerous piece of machinery. The tighter 2 cm (11/16″) one, if left on for a longer period of time can cut off circulation to the skin and it can really hurt when it comes off. More than 1 hour or so and it can really hurt.
I also tried putting a padded cylinder (an OB tampon) in the middle hole while using the larger one, in order to give it something to grip and hold longer, but the added pressure also made that technique more dangerous than I like. I thought it would make it last while sleeping like that, and it did last much longer, but it was painful several hours later when removed.
However, I’m still proud of the new ability to use the larger O-ring, which is much easier to load, and the images are shown in the gallery. Since I still can’t really monitor my growth very well, this ability to use retainers lets me know that indeed something is happening, and helps encourage my progress.