Dr. Anthony Bella (center) leads a unanimous ‘thumbs up’ with Bill Lifchus (right) and his associate, Grant Smith (left), during a follow-up visit to the ED clinic at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus.
Bill is a Pharmacist (B.Sc, Phm. M.Sc.) and practices in his Centre Street Pharmacy in Thornhill, Ontario. He travels periodically to the Ottawa Civic to provide educational and logistical support in the use of VCDs (Vacuum Constriction Devices) for ED patients.
I was very lucky to have this opportunity to meet Bill and Grant and to discuss a solution to my ‘tension ring’ problem.
You have to laugh at this – a ‘guys’ moment when everybody in the room struggles with keeping a straight face when Dr. Bella asks Bill if he can find me an even larger tension ring than is available in the standard VCD kit.
If you really want to know, a ‘tension ring’ is used to maintain an erection, created mechanically by a VCD, by preventing blood from emptying back out of the penis. The ring is lubricated and stretched under considerable tension around the end of the VCD cylinder before turning on the VCD. Once the VCD is activated, creating a vacuum and drawing sufficient blood into the penis for an ‘erection’, the tension ring is slid off the end of the VCD cylinder onto the base of the penis.
Because it’s under considerable tension, the tension ring abruptly snaps down to your ‘somewhat’ lower diameter penis like a ‘bear trap’ – I am not kidding!
If the tension ring is too small – meaning higher tension and more kinetic energy when released from the cylinder – well you can guess the ‘impact’ of that!
If it’s too large, the impact is much less – that’s a blessing! However, the effectiveness in retaining the blood in the penis and thus maintaining the erection is seriously diminished – that’s not a blessing!
It’s like a fast leak in your automobile tire – quickly deflating it and your male ego at the same time.
So, anyway, it looks like Bill is going to fix me up with a larger tension ring – what can I say?
Thanks Bill for your great service, valuable tips and for taking the time to meet up with me along with Grant and Dr. Bella.
With all of these thumbs up and wide smiles – or were they grins, how can a guy not be super happy – even if his prostate is missing in action!
