My experience with stents

[Loveable_guy]

To be sure the line is attached I use a thin 10 lb test braided fishing line. The line is as thin as sewing thread would be but much stronger. Using a sewing needle thread the needle as if you going to sew a button. The  thread is tied forming a loop of thread. Then push the needle thru the inside end of the stent pulling the line almost to the end of the loop. Yes the knot you tied is at the end of the loop.  Now pass the needle thru the loop pulling it tight. The knot should now be inside the stent. Before cutting off the long end of the line I will attached an 1.25" O-ring. Tie it tightly to the O-ring then cut the excess cord.

[nass]

10 hours ago, Loveable_guy said:

To be sure the line is attached I use a thin 10 lb test braided fishing line. The line is as thin as sewing thread would be but much stronger. Using a sewing needle thread the needle as if you going to sew a button. The  thread is tied forming a loop of thread. Then push the needle thru the inside end of the stent pulling the line almost to the end of the loop. Yes the knot you tied is at the end of the loop.  Now pass the needle thru the loop pulling it tight. The knot should now be inside the stent. Before cutting off the long end of the line I will attached an 1.25" O-ring. Tie it tightly to the O-ring then cut the excess cord.

i don't get it, where is your knot attached to, to a hole on the side on the stent?

[Don Incognito]

After reading this thread, I'm thinking about making a stent out of a 16fr catheter, and I have some questions:

Instructions mention making holes with a leather hole punch. I have a Dremel with the drill press attachment (including a depth stop) - would that work?

I've seen waxed dental floss and fishing line used for retrieval lines - does either one have any clear advantage over the other? Would the flat plastic dental floss work there?

Some have mentioned retrieving the stent with a crochet hook instead of line, and I'd like to have that as a backup if anything happens to the line. How would one choose the right hook for that, and are there any instructions for pulling it out with the hook?

Thank you.

 

[Naviking]

This is hos my Stent look like . Happy with the retrival line and how it feels ( the stent  doesn't fell at all when inserted) . I am also active in fetlife with additional pictures how to make the stent. 

[Hannah YMS]

21 hours ago, Don Incognito said:

Instructions mention making holes with a leather hole punch. I have a Dremel with the drill press attachment (including a depth stop) - would that work?

It would work as long as the resulting holes being made don't irritate the lining of your urethra. You won't like the feeling of sharp edges.

21 hours ago, Don Incognito said:

I've seen waxed dental floss and fishing line used for retrieval lines - does either one have any clear advantage over the other? Would the flat plastic dental floss work there?

In my experience, the dental floss is a bit less irritating than fishing line, but still irritating nonetheless. Find something that is smooth and won't feel like you're being cut with a wire.

21 hours ago, Don Incognito said:

Some have mentioned retrieving the stent with a crochet hook instead of line, and I'd like to have that as a backup if anything happens to the line. How would one choose the right hook for that, and are there any instructions for pulling it out with the hook?

Ultimately, the limiting factor is the size of your urethra. Most people find that the narrowest part of the urethra is the meatus of the penis (the entrance). So basically, whatever you can fit should work, and whatever you can't fit, won't. Since you're using a 16fr catheter, you should be able to fit 4-6 mm in diameter, which seems to be the standard sizing range for stents these days.

Update

I am finally honing in on the dimensions of my urinary tract! Based on one of the first stents I've ever made, I find that the distance between my bladder neck and external sphincter to be about 3 inches (about 7.5 cm).

The stent has no tubing in the middle of it so my prostate is comfortably squeezing what can, and I don't feel like I'm aroused all the time.

The dimensions I've found are surprisingly comfortable! Even just fixing the length by 1 cm made a world of difference. The stent is seated well and I don't expect it to migrate anywhere. It hasn't slipped inside the bladder and it hasn't slipped out.

I've been uncontrollably wetting now for about a day and a half, and I've been loving every minute of it! I can feel urine escape every minute or two, depending on how much I breath in to adjusting how I sit. It's pretty wild.

The most irritating thing about it right now is the retrieval line (plain dental floss). The cool thing is, this stent has two retrieval loops that is perfect for a crochet hook to grab, so I'm really half tempted to cut the dental floss altogether and pray my stent doesn't slip inside my bladder. We'll see.

The design is basically modeled off of @cathdiap's refined design with the exception of there not being a plastic tube holding my prostate open. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't easy getting the thing in, but once in and seated, I've been continuously dripping non-stop. My wife won't even let me change without permission now! 🥰

I'll eventually post pictures of the final design of the stent. I have a couple of modifications I'd like to try out first.

[nass]

@Hannah YMS what Material is your stent made of? I would love to see detail shots of your stent. 
 

How do you measure your distance from bladder neck to the outer sphincter?

[cathdiap]

On 1/17/2024 at 12:02 AM, boyhood said:

Cathdiap, would you be able to attach this to your first post as the OP?

Done, thanks again for sharing it. 

[Hannah YMS]

9 hours ago, nass said:

@Hannah YMS what Material is your stent made of? I would love to see detail shots of your stent. 
 

How do you measure your distance from bladder neck to the outer sphincter?

Same as @cathdiap's: plastic tubing and silicone tubing strategically shaped and placed.

I didn't measure the distance from my bladder neck to my outer sphincter, I figured it out with trial and error, mostly with errors. You'll know you've got the right distance when the stent is actually comfortable for once and doesn't migrate. I'd say an average distance to work with is between 2.5 and 3.5 inches. Remember that in this case, even being off even a little bit will not feel quite right.

[Hannah YMS]

9 hours ago, nass said:

I would love to see detail shots of your stent.

I'll post some pictures with explanations after this stent comes out  

[diapered 4 ever]

On 2/1/2024 at 3:09 PM, Hannah YMS said:

I'll post some pictures with explanations after this stent comes out  

We could be waiting a while.  😂 
The last one I got that perfect stayed in for over 7 weeks and only came out because I had a scheduled CT scan. 
As a side note, after that time, (drinking the high end of recommended fluids) the stent came out spotless with zero buildup inside or out. 

[Don Incognito]

I've been doing some preliminary tests with catheters, and I notice that with the one I used, my sphincter was able to clamp it shut, which obviously wouldn't work for a stent. Does this mean I need the next larger catheter, or a stiffer material?

 

Also, I noticed that in this thread:

Some doctor advised OP to make his stents out of stainless steel. Would an all-metal stent actually work? How would one design one so that it will get in and out but not migrate in either direction? Actually making it shouldn't be a problem - I've found at least one online machine shop that does tube bending:

https://www.xometry.com/capabilities/tube-bending-services/

[Hannah YMS]

On 2/5/2024 at 11:37 AM, diapered 4 ever said:

We could be waiting a while.  😂 
The last one I got that perfect stayed in for over 7 weeks and only came out because I had a scheduled CT scan. 
As a side note, after that time, (drinking the high end of recommended fluids) the stent came out spotless with zero buildup inside or out. 

I forgot about this, lol. The sent stayed in for about 3 days. The retrieval line was too irritating to keep it in any longer. I'll have to come back to this and submit pictures, but really it's not much different than cathdiap's design. Nothing new would be shown.

[ReggieRolf]

Hello.  I will be participating from Japan.  I saw this article and was very interested, so I tried making it myself through trial and error.  I things didn't go well, and I had some bleeding by the stent I had just made, so I gave up.  Do you have any tips for the angle or length?  Please give me some advice.

[boyhood]

1 hour ago, ReggieRolf said:

Hello.  I will be participating from Japan.  I saw this article and was very interested, so I tried making it myself through trial and error.  I things didn't go well, and I had some bleeding by the stent I had just made, so I gave up.  Do you have any tips for the angle or length?  Please give me some advice.

It looks extremely long, do you have the measurements? Also am seeing many sharp edges present on the adjoining pieces which would account for the bleeding. Everything must be smooth to the touch or there will be irritation inside of the urethra.

[ReggieRolf]

48 minutes ago, boyhood said:

すごく長く見えるのですが、寸法は測ってもらえますか？また、出血の原因と思われる隣接するピースに多くの鋭いエッジが存在しているのがわかります。触るとすべてが滑らかでなければなりません。そうしないと、尿道内に炎症が生じます。

Hello.Thank you for response me!  Although I did not measure the exact length, I made it shorter than a normal balloon catheter.  Should the cross section of the tube be smooth?  I'm thinking about using sandpaper, but what do you think?

[ReggieRolf]

1 hour ago, boyhood said:

It looks extremely long, do you have the measurements? Also am seeing many sharp edges present on the adjoining pieces which would account for the bleeding. Everything must be smooth to the touch or there will be irritation inside of the urethra.

I actually inserted a balloon catheter and checked the length.  When I measured from the tip to the part that was protruding when not erect, it was exactly 30 cm (approximately 11.8 inches).

※For this length, I used an actual balloon catheter, not the stent shown in the photo.

[cathdiap]

@ReggieRolf Maybe you could check out my albums about stents on my profile. I have experimented a lot with stents over the years and am quite happy with my current stent design. The scale on the ruler in one of the pics is metric not in inches. I think my stent is quite a bit shorter in size than yours and the angles are also different. 

I hope this helps.

[Hannah YMS]

11 hours ago, boyhood said:

It looks extremely long, do you have the measurements? Also am seeing many sharp edges present on the adjoining pieces which would account for the bleeding. Everything must be smooth to the touch or there will be irritation inside of the urethra.

I would add that all edges should be smooth to the tongue. The urethra is extremely fragile and sensitive, so if your tongue thinks it's sharp, your urethra will also. Better yet, just make sure everything is 100% completely smooth.

[cathdiap]

My old stent died  RIP buddy.

So I used the new stent that I made for the series of instruction pics....

But it wasn't as good as the old one, even though they were almost identical in size and shape (after turning the bulge at the bottom sideways). It tended to migrate and caused too much discomfort. And then I realized I hadn't twisted it like I did with the old one.

So I twisted it like this

And now it is even more comfortable and immovable than the old one. I've been wearing it for almost two weeks now and it's almost as if it has become one with my body. Which just goes to show how big a difference such a small adjustment can make.

 

[ReggieRolf]

Hello.  I listened to a lot of advice and started over again.  This time I halved the length and wove both heads inside so it would fit smoothly.  It might come off because the bend is a little weak, but so far I don't have any pain when urinating after removing it, so I don't think there is any problem.  I think I'll try it from a different angle after work.

[bleie1990]

What would be some good start measurements be for a start? The pice inside the bladder, the middle part and the lower part 

[cathdiap]

19 minutes ago, bleie1990 said:

What would be some good start measurements be for a start? The pice inside the bladder, the middle part and the lower part 

Each square on the sheet of paper represents 5 mm. 

[Don Incognito]

On 2/17/2024 at 8:48 AM, cathdiap said:

But it wasn't as good as the old one, even though they were almost identical in size and shape (after turning the bulge at the bottom sideways). It tended to migrate and caused too much discomfort. And then I realized I hadn't twisted it like I did with the old one.

 

About that bulge: The instructions in your profile state that the inner plastic tube is made from a "plastic straw from spray bottle". Is there anything equivalent one can purchase if one doesn't have any empty spray bottles lying around? Thank you.

[cathdiap]

1 hour ago, Don Incognito said:

About that bulge: The instructions in your profile state that the inner plastic tube is made from a "plastic straw from spray bottle". Is there anything equivalent one can purchase if one doesn't have any empty spray bottles lying around? Thank you.

I have never used anything else. I know that InD uses titanium tubes, but I don't know where he buys them.

[cathdiap]

Two and a half weeks in and it is insane how unnoticeable it is 99,9% of the time. Only when my half full bladder empties itself when I have been lying in bed on my stomach I can feel the bladder neck repositioning itself around the stent. Apparently the bladder rises a little in the stomach when it's getting full and comes down again when emptying. This causes a little friction with the stent but it is not painful at all. 

Sleeping with my stent is better than ever before. I usually don't wake up until early in the morning when my bladder decides to contract, causing severe urination. I then have to quickly turn on my back because the front of the diaper is already completely wet. I usually have to change the diaper then, otherwise it is difficult to fall asleep again.

Highly motivated by Reddy's story, I pretend that my incontinence is not caused by a stent, but is the permanent result of a surgery. I know I'm kidding myself, but it nevertheless sheds new light on the mental aspect of dealing with incontinence. This is how I hope to find out whether irreversible incontinence is something I want.