Raised mark on glans from DTR? (NSFW)

[shadowhgb]

Normally I'm not much of a forum person, but I'm a bit concerned, and reddit is of no assistance. I've been restoring for nearly a year now, but only recently have I noticed a mark left on my glans, after almost every time I use my DTR. It fades after about ten minutes, but it's got me a bit nervous. Is this something that has the potential to cause some sort of lasting damage?

http://imgur.com/dPbMHQ4

[parsecskin]

That? Oh shit, don't even worry about it. It's just temporary edema. If it goes away in 10-15 minutes, you're OK. Try a little less pusher pressure.

[mjwise]

Skin markings from device usage that fade in 10 minutes (and that don't leave any lingering pain or discomfort) are not something that will cause any sort of damage. My general rule is that if things aren't back to normal in the morning, then I need to change what I'm doing.

[Science Monk]

Please be advised, damage to the glans is permanent. It never completely heals. Wayne Griffiths, himself, once told the members of the old restore-list this.

At the NORM-LoAngeles meetings (I attended in 2001), guys would sometimes show up with chunks of their glans missing, or with pock marks or craters on the surface of the glans where a piece of glans epithelium got ripped off on circumcision day. This kind of damage never completely heals. The appearance may improve once you achieve full flaccid coverage, dekeratinize, and go wet.....but even minor glans damage never completely heals.

I do not favor restoration methods that use a plunger that comes into contact with the glans to provide tensioning. I think the risk of injury is just too great....and other methods do work. If you ever receive sudden unexpected jolt while wearing a plunger in position - if you are involved in a traffic accident, miss a step on a stairway, or are greeted by a member of your old football team on the street with a tackle - that plunger may be forcibly shoved right up your urethra!

If you definitely favor a method that contacts the glans, the balloon methods (or the use of the old-time foam rubber cylinders) seem safer. However, conceivably, these kinder methods may still permanently deform the glans over the course of the many years you may be restoring. (I say "conceivably," because I've never heard of a report of that actually happening. However, I don't know if anyone has ever used these methods for a extended period of years either.)

The little line of edema you are presently observing on your glans may be nothing, but what are you going to do if the epithelium starts to lift off there in gelatinous chunks one day?

Wise restorers heed the warnings from The Powers That Be. If I were you, I'd start looking for alternative methods just to be absolutely safe. (The DTR can be used without the plunger, right?)

David
World As Monkey Island

[Reality]

There you go:

You've got parsec on the blow-it-off/lighthearted end of the scale (a valid position in my opinion), and Science Monk on the alarmist end, with mj, and me somewhere in the middle:

1. It isn't clear to me that the plunger even works with any significant effect. It isn't like only the "outside" of the skin rolled onto the DTR is seeing tension. Both sides of the skin-pinch see it. Does the plunger really add anything much? Nobody knows, but if I had to guess, I'd say no.

2. Should you keep an eye on things but don't stress out, like parsec and mj, and I, say? Yep. Glans tissue is quite plastic (in the classic sense, unless you're a movie cyborg), so it will press, deform, and return. But monitor your tissues, for safety's sake.

3. Should you expect "chunks" of glans tissue, or the mucosal covering of the glans, to lift up soon, or sneak into the picture later, and ambush you? No, not unless you have a pre-existing condition, which would include no sense of pain. (Today's word, folks, is desquamate; the challenge is to work it into your usual cocktail conversation, be it at the Four Seasons or out back by the dumpster : )).

4. And I have to add in a general way (because I have this thing for speaking out about guys placed on undeserved pedestals): Anyone using the phrase "Wayne Griffiths himself", like he's the holiest of the holy, standing there holdin' them tablets, is a mistake. Things have moved on from those days. He was around at the beginning (more or less), so fine, but the NORM website seems to think that skin expansion is permanently "stretching" skin, or at least the last time I visited that site, they listed the word 'stretch' without quotes, and put 'expand' in quotes, like stretch is completely acceptable, and expand is a questionable concept. Unacceptable.

They might've cleaned up the website (haven't been there for awhile), in which case they need to edit some more of the misleading nonsense, which couldn't be farther from the truth. Like that tired old, and inappropriate "muscle building" analogy. And the site has underlying neurons traveling through glans tissue, closer to the surface, as part of the dekeratinization process, which is ludicrous. And it has (apparently all) mitotic activity originating in "muscle" tissue; maybe a reference to the so-called dartos sheath? In which case that's anatomically and physiologically inaccurate in several ways. And for some reason, they have the word 'grown' in quotes, when referring to additional cells arising from mitosis. Is 'grown' in question, for those guys? Those cells aren't pulled out of a hat, with the bunny.

Sheldon has spoken.

[horaciocs]

I get that always, and it always returns to normal real quick. Always did when tugging.

[horaciocs]

Bumping for an aditional note. Isn't it odd that all the complications we see are related to the skin, rather than the head? When there's a piece literally crushing the head, you'd expect it to suffer in some way, but it goes on unaltered. Sturdy little piece of me

[The Metal One]

Bumping for an aditional note. Isn't it odd that all the complications we see are related to the skin, rather than the head? When there's a piece literally crushing the head, you'd expect it to suffer in some way, but it goes on unaltered. Sturdy little piece of me

Yeah, I hear ya. I'm sure there's got to be some poor bastard out there who got overzealous, and ended up doing permanent damage to the head, rather than just some little skin tears that should (more or less) heal up without a trace. Actually, I think I recall reading a post on this forum about someone claiming they did that exact thing. Not sure if it was true, but I'm sure it's true for someone.