Well, it happens. Sometimes our partners let us down sexually, but a vibrator should never fail, should never leave you pent up and stressed. The low end (under 100 dollars) vibrators are reliable because in the volumes they sell there must be quality control. But in SCI (spinal cord injury) we get the shaft. Small population of users, so highly priced equipment. The lower volume of sales, means the manufacturer requires higher margins — basic economics. The best solution is a mass produced device that works for everyone with simple adjustments, but that is asking for allot actually.
Reading about vibrator quality from a male quadriplegic seems a touch odd to you? Well, that is why I’m writing about it. After a spinal cord injury we really just want to feel normal, and the basic bodily functions are a always affected. Worse, some folks with spinal cord injuries simply cut off sexual activities because they don’t dare mess with Autonomic_dysreflexia (AD), or are embarrassed about the topic in general. (quads are strongly warned about AD in rehab)
The good news is that even long after in injury, the body can be retrained. With the right feedback, this can be done safely and gets easier over time. I’m almost 15 years into my injury and only getting a proper education now, and I’ve had to do much on my own because apparently this is taboo. Yes it may sound strange to overhear a few guys in chairs talking about their erections, volume and color of loads, but really… that is what much of our happiness and fears center around. Stay tuned on this thread and I’ll give advice on how to get away from relying on the blue pill on date nights. Think able bodied sex can be intimidating and nerve wracking regarding performance, well SCI adds a whole new level of complexity and potential risks (AD, embarrassment)
Enter the Ferticare: an over-priced vibrator that will let you down. At 800 bucks, this is a painful purchace and even worse thing to RMA. If you are used to the medical benefits of ejaculation, not having your device for a few weeks, or even months, is a real problem. It is not the motor, but some cheap battery and charger parts and charging issues. So, the warranty is up on mine, it won’t charge so… WE FIX. Because this is considered a “Medical Device” it can’t use power from the wall, but there is no reason to skimp on power — clearly more power is better? No, actually not. What makes this vibrator different is the ability to change both the frequency and amplitude to tune it to the signal that works for you. You should see your Doctor before inducing AD (see Boosting).
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So, this page will hold the efforts to make a smarter vibrator for Quadriplegics, and I’ll give away a hint… controlling the speed of the device from Heart Rate and Blood Pressure is the key to being able to successfully ejaculate regularly. (must be on a regular basis to get the benefits). I will post my Heart Rate and Blood Pressure data here as I test if ejaculation is better than Boosting. In other words, does this routine help fitness? Most say it makes them tired, but what it does do is limit muscle spasm when I reach my max heart rate of 120 beats per minute. This lets me continue when I’d ordinarily get shut down. We already know that vibration stimulation can raise pressure in the arteries for a short time and this can mitigate OH (dizziness when sitting up, common in rehab). Also, regular ejaculation helps prevent “retraction” as well. Retraction really freaks people out because with AD setting in, the penis can be pulled right inside one’s body. In many cases this means the person’s condom drainage pulls off and they wet their pants — very embarrassing.
More info in this article on disaboom regarding SCI and Sexual function
Please share links to SCI forms on this topic if you have them,Thanks.
Brad
Related devices:
- sex chair
- erection support device
- sex positioning pillows
- real touch (world’s first robotic vagina)
- TED talk on Medical Inventing
Thanks for this. I am in my first year in a chair, with a wierd incomplete C3-5 injury, and having a devil of a time getting info on what the Ferticare will do besides allow me to get someone pregnant (not my goal, if you know what I mean). No one talks about this. What does it feel like? I have touch sensation, but not pin prick and light touch.
Hi.. I understand why you would be frustrated. Basically put, orgasm and ejaculation are not the same thing and should be differentiated. One could argue about these definitions, but what ejaculation feels like for a person with an SCI varies on injury. What most men find enjoyable are the muscle spasms that cause ejaculation and this is something you can retrain your body to do. As a quad this will be pretty straight forward, but you must be comfortable dealing with AD (have a way to manage high blood pressure spikes). Without a fast rising Blood Pressure, lowered breathing and increased abdominal tone you will not ejaculate. (or can “retrograde” and go into your bladder instead.)
Good luck, ask your DR for info.. but don’t spend the 800 until you try one. You might be fine with just the Hitachi Wand that I use and is about 50 dollars instead. I’ll post more of my data soon, you’ll see that over timer this can be very easy and can feel “normal” again. I recommend doing your am routine, shower etc.. back to bed, do a catheter then try when flaccid. For ejaculation without a partner, don’t need an erection to start. As you get close to ejaculation you will get swelling and even with poor hand function you can get similar enjoyment compared to able bodied days of masturbation. The bonus is that you will get solid erections with little effort for the rest of the day — so do this on date nights and get rid of relying on Viagra. Don’t try more than few minutes to ejaculate. If you don’t get the Ad Blood Pressure spike, just give it a miss for the day, and don’t try again for few days. One last thing, don’t try to ejaculate more than twice in 24 hours, can really mess your blood pressure up. I can help you more if you have access to blood pressure and heart rate devices.
On an interesting side note: who is helping you with this? You want to sort this out before you are dating really.. so, better hire staff that will be comfortable around this! Never apologize for wanting to masturbate for good health or enjoyment — because we all do, and are too embarrassed to discuss it openly.
Thanks,
Brad
ur article on del.icio.us today — liked it.. bookmarked it , will be back to check out some more later .. nice post ..
Hi there I like your statements above
Hi, I bought an used ferticare. Obviously the battery doesn’t keep the charge as written in the manual, so it often dosn’t last enough to make me ejaculate. I would like to know if you could see some point on the vibrator’s body where it can be opened to change the battery. Another idea was to add a switch so that it can work directly with the charger.
Thank you.
(sorry about my english, is it clear?)
The older ferticare devices were great, but the batteries in the new ones are pretty bad. I’ve cut mine open and used a power supply to bypass the battery. This is something you do at your own risk of course, but it does work better. These battery vs wall powered issues are important for liability of a medical grade device, but for is less practical. I also wanted a better switch to turn on and off because my hand function is poor — worse while in full on muscle spasm!
If you want to hack on your ferticare, I’ll give you some advice. It is not that easy to open the case. You need to cut the end (push button) right off, then you can access the battery and wires. Test how many AMP’s it draws at the highest setting you would ever use and be sure your power supply can handle it. It charges at about 300ma, but the motors need way more than that. So, just using the power supply it came with will not be enough.
good luck, let me know how it goes.
Hi,
thank you for your answers! I cut off the end as you said (the button rubber cover) but below I can’t directly access the board (in order to pull it and the battery out from the body) but rather ther is a sort of stopper, supposedly glued to the body, holed at the center through wich the switch arm protrude. I tried to pull out with tongs but it seems to be resistent.
Unless you have a better idea, the only solution may be to cut a little window on the plastic body more or less where the battery and its wires may lie (not cutting the 360° body, as in picture, otherwise how to tightly re-aasemblate it?) and operate from there, isn’t it?
Have you already made some electrical measure? I’m not so skilled in this field. I found a 7.5V 1A power supply at home, may it be good?
Cutting the end off.. you need to cut above that plug. I took off about 4cm or so. Near the hole were the speed potentiometer dial sticks out. From there you can pull out the circuit board and battery pack. Before going and hacking it with a power supply, I recommend replacing the battery, or at least testing it — see if you can charge it. Then you’ll know is really just the battery/charger issue.
Amps… know this. 1 amp can kill a horse. Be careful if you don’t know electronics. I’ll try top post a how to video soon.
Try a Hitachi wand yet? 50 bucks.
Yessss!! What a good idea: a video! Thank you, I’m looking forward.
The power supply I found at home (7.5V 1A) belonged to a tiny wireless router, I can’t imagine a horse killed by the electrons that excite minuscule transistors… 1000 mA is a bit more than three times 300mA, that you indicated as insufficient. How would 1000 mA damage the circuit according to you? Anyway I trust you, if you say that it is not good… it was just to try to recycle materials (and not go to find a power supply across the city)
Oh.. even 300 milli amps could hurt you if it was across your chest and the current path had very low resistance (wet skin). All you need is enough current to throw your heart into an irregular pattern.
That power supply will work fine.. just don’t start cutting wires just yet. Try charging the battery and get a voltmeter out if you can get one. You’ll need to drop that 7.5 volts down to match the circuit in the ferticare. I’ll pull out my old one and do a video soon.
While waiting for your video, I have a question: why do I have to drop the 7.5 volts down to match the circuit? I read in the product specification that the battery is 7.2V 350mAh. What would happen if I directly put the power supply on to the wires coming from the battery (obviously putting a switch so that the power supply doesn’t go up to the battery) ?
I know that seems like pretty close, but I’d go to the trouble of the added resistors to get it to match. If anything, you connect the wall charger in place of the battery. Watch the polarity too. Now, your supply can source an amp.. more than 3 times more juice (pun intended), so that is serious. The ferticare is very powerful vibrator as it is. I recommend the Hitachi first for that reason. Don’t ever use the fericare for more than a few minutes, it can do damage.
Interesting news story about a quad benefiting from regular ejaculation.
Thank you so much for your post. My boyfriend is a quad (injury @ C7). He has little feeling in his shaft, most is in the head of the penis. His injury was six years ago and he has only ejaculated once since then (way before we started dating). Previous to the injury he says he was a masturbating machine… now he no longer does it because of poor fine motor, etc.
!!!!!!
I want nothing more than to help him orgasm, I don’t care if its with a vibrator, with me, or whatever. My question is HOW DO I DO THIS? There is very little info out there and I can’t afford to go to a doctor for this. We got his stomach to spasm after a two hour session with my hand/sex but still nothing. If I get a vibrator where do I put it? What do I do with it?
If you or anybody has any advice to knowledge of resources please let me know. Thank you