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Update on my 8 yr old

Written by Mom of 2 Boys at 27 May 2004 19:50:09:

Well, as I mentioned in another post, we went ahead with the circumcision last Friday. He did have some fairly good-sized adhesions, and the surgeon confirmed that the pediatrician was at fault and surgery would not have been necessary otherwise. I am definitely filing a complaint with the medical board against the pediatrician, and considering legal action. Not sure about the statute of limitations, though.

He came through fine - toughest kid on the block! The anesthesiologist came out ahead of time and explained everything, and he got a mask, tubing, the balloon thing, and a bunch of other goodies to take home. He was still making jokes as they wheeled him off. Of course his dad and I were crying as soon as he was out of sight. He had a hard time as he was coming out of anesthesia, getting the pain under control. They kept giving him narcotics in his IV (which they waited until he was gassed to place the IV so he didn't even have to feel the stick), but they were short-lived ones. I held his hand and worked on breathing and relaxing techniques we've done before, until he was finally able to drink a little sprite and eat a cracker, so they could give him some oral hydrocodone that would last longer. Once that kicked in, he was able to get on top of the pain and starting being himself again. I knew he was doing better when his modesty returned and he wanted to be covered up again. When I first came back to him, he was spread-eagled for the world to see and obviously didn't give a rip. He also told the recovery nurse that this was all Adam and Eve's fault, and also that it hurt like hell.

He'd been out of surgery for nearly 2 hours when we checked out. He was able to get his pants on - he was wrapped in gauze at this point. The ride home was a little rough, but he stayed on top of the pain and did fine. It took a couple more hours before he finally urinated, and we removed the gauze. We put neosporin on it, which was painful for him, and then some more gauze. After that I remembered what my friends with circ'd newborns did, and I loaded the gauze with the neospirin first, then wrapped it around his glans. That worked better for him.

He had tylenol w/codeine prescription every 6 hrs, and we alternated with ibuprofen, so he was taking a pill every 3 hrs the first day. When he woke up the next morning, apparently I hadn't gotten enough neosporin on the gauze first, and it was stuck. I felt really bad, but I didn't think he would sleep that long. We tried soaking it in a cup, like someone on this board suggested, but that wasn't working. We finally called a nurse who said to use vaseline, which we did. It was a rough morning, and we didn't put gauze on it anymore after that. From that point on he quit wearing underwear for a while. Other than a short trip to Wal-Mart for a new video game, he hasn't worn underwear since. That trip caused him to start oozing/bleeding again, and he hasn't had to go anywhere so he hasn't put any on.

Emotionally, he's doing great. The first day he said "oh I think I like it" - but honestly to me it looks butchered and awful but of course I'd never tell him that. Then the other day he said he said it had been "uglified" but he knew it would look better once all the swelling was gone and healing was complete. He's a pretty smart kid.

I'm glad we didn't try the stretching exercises, with the adhesions that he obviously had. Those areas look more scabby than the rest, and he says those areas hurt worse than where they actually cut the foreskin. It's pretty obvious now why it was hurting to move his foreskin at all.

So now, day 7, he's saying pain level zero (they gave him a pain chart) as long as he has no pants on. He's pushing back the overhanging skin and putting neosporin under that and on the adhesion areas twice a day. He hasn't had any codeine in 2 days. Now, if I can just get him dressed again one day.....


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