Bad Circumcision

Michelle, This is a scary thing. but I wanted to say that if he needs surgery get it done now dont' wait till he is older. if it is done now he won't remember it. but my brother had a bad one and they didn't repair it till he was about 11. it was awful. I remember how horrible it wa for him. and tht is something he will remember for ever. good luck.
S.

Michelle,

We went through a similar experience, our son had hypospadias and required surgery at Children's. It was basically a revised circumcision. Our doctor was Dr. Chaviano and he was wonderful! It was difficult watching him go under and waiting for the surgery to finish, and in the end he was fine. They allowed one parent to go into the OR with him until they put him under, and then they escort you back to the waiting room. He was cranky for a few days and had to keep the bandage on for about 5 days. But it seemed to be a fairly routine procedure, and the nurses were wonderful as well, and dealt with a near hysterical mother pretty well. I H. this helps!

T.

If you are seeing the doctors at Children's Memorial you are in good hands! My son had hypospadia and could not be circumcised until he was 4 months old. Like you we were very worried about him being put under. Biggest advice I can give you is what his doctor said to me. Whatever hospital it is done at make sure you have a pediatric anesthesiologist! Northwest Community Hospital does not, but Lutheran General does. He came through fine, it was harder on my husband than on our son.

I have not had an experience with a circumcision surgery however my 1 1/2 year old was put under for an adnoidectomy. He was at Loyola Medical Center. It went well. However, he had what was called post anesthesia delerium which I waqs not expecting. He was totally out of control, arching back and screaming for one hour and shaking. Evenyually they gave him more meds to help him relax. I did not know of this possibility so I was scared. He is and was completely okay but just thought I would let you know of this possibility.

Is this like a common mistake? I mean, it sure seems that a lot of moms wrote in about this happening! My son is 18 months and I have been procrastinating about shceduling the surgury. I wish the hospital would of been more informative about the after-care of his circumcision. I am quite angry with my OBYGN, he is the one who performed the procedure and when I brought it up at my 6 week app. he said, Don't worry about it, it will fix itself! Our poor baby boys! I am so scared about him having to be put under! I am going through Dupage Medical, Dr. Smith in Naperville, anyone have any info. about him? Thanks!

I know this isn't first-hand information, but I thought it might be helpful.

One of my co-worker's sons had to have surgery at age 3 due to a botched circumcision. The parents felt terribly about having to do the surgery and were totally anxious about it during the time leading up to the surgery. Upon my co-worker's return to work, I asked how it went and they wondered why they were so worried in the first place. Everything went well and their son barely skipped a beat.

It's totally normal to be anxious and nervous prior to your child's surgery; that's what we do as parents! Try not to worry about it and rest assured that he will most likely bounce back rather quickly. Better to do it now at 9 months than at 5 years when he will actually have memories of it, right?

Hang in there - we'll be thinking of you!

I don't have any advice, but I understand how you are feeling. My daughter had life-saving surgery when she was only 36 hours old to fix a malrotation in her intestine. It was the scariest moment of my life. Your son is older, though, and if the doctors think it's a good idea (I'm assuming you've gotten a second opinion) and it's necessary, he should be fine. Good luck, and I H. everthing goes okay!

well i dont have a boy with a bad circumcision but i do have a little girl with kiddney problems who had surgey at 4 months old. the worst parts are one when you have to make them stop eating so so long befor the surgery the baby doesnt understand why they cant eat. then i second worst part is when they take them back for the surgery. the best thing to do is if your going to go ahead with the surgry have family or a friend with you to help you pass the time. it will seem like forever but if you have someone to talk to it helps. surgey is a scary thing but for my little one it was life or death so we didnt have a choise on it. make sure to talk with your doctor about pain management after surgery some docs dont think babys need pain med. belive me they need it thankfuly or doc did give my little one pain med. we still may have to go though more surgery but she is doing good. Just remember childerns hospitals deal with kids all the time so they will take good care of you

Dear Michelle,

I'm so sorry that this happened to your son. As a labor and postpartum nurse I have to say that I see bad circumcisions a lot more that I would like. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying anything bad against you. I think we get the impression maybe from the doctors that this is a routine surgery and the risks are minimized. But this is surgery with all the risks of any including taking off too much!!! I H. that everyone out there in the future really thinks about circumcision before they procede. The Acadamy of Pediatrics says that there are no benefits to having a circumcision! Once again I am really sorry you have to go through this!

Make sure you take your son to an expert. If you are not happy with what the answers you get are then go to someone else. I am sure you will make the right decision.

My younger son is now 4 1/2 years old. He had a bad circumsion perfromed just before we took him home from the hospital. (It didn't look like it was even circumsized.) He had to have another surgery to redo it. He had to go under anesthesia, but because he was also 6 weeks premature, they advised us to wait until after he was at least 18 months old. We did, and everything went fine. We had it done with a urologist (Dr. James Brown-- no kidding) at Resurrection Medical Center. Our son was fine then, and he's totally fine now--no scarring or anything. I understand your trepidation, but I agree with other posters that you are in good hands at Children's Memorial. Good luck. H. this helps.

Michelle,

I know what you are going thru - I went thru the same thing. My son is actually 1 year old today and had his circumcision repair surgery when he was 7 months old. We used Dr. Flom she is also out of Children's - she is the BEST!!!!!! We had the surgery at Luthern General Hosp because they don't have residents do any work on peds so I knew I had experienced Dr.'s putting my son down. You are welcome to call me and I can tell you everything that happened we were SOOO scared - but it all turned out fine!! The worst of it was keeping him NPO - nothing the eat or drink so I demanded the 1st appt. I would personally would not go to anyone else but Dr. Flom - she is highly respected! Of course, I am sure anyone out of Children's is great! Don't worry it will be fine - just don't wait to long. The earlier the better as far as complications too. Please call me or email me back if you want any more of my opinions!! Good Luck and Happy New Year to you and the little guy!

Michelle,

We had the same thing happen with our little guy. Unfortunately our ped said .... "oh he'll grow into it" - "it will be better as he grows" - "blah blah blah".... well - he never grew into it & it became a bigger issue as he grew. We finally decided to go to a urologist for a 2nd oppinion. They advised to do surgery asap. So - at 2.5 we had it redone at Children's downtown. I so wish we would have done it when he was a baby.
The surgery was a breeze. It was quick & we were back home that night. We kept him on pain meds & he was fine. The hardest part was getting the bandages off.... we just soaked him in the tub for quite awhile & that helped loosen them.
Way harder on us than it was on him... Within a few days - he was completely over it - didn't seem to be in pain & it healed super fast!
Good Luck to you....

I did not have this experience (my son did not have it done) but when my son was a year old, he had a port put in his chest so we could give him medication he needs. he still has it actually. The one key thing I would recommend is to not freak out when all is done. When he wakes up, he will be very disoriented and afraid. He may not recognize you. When my son woke up, he was like this. It took a long time to calm him down but he was fine later on. He spent one night in the hospital and was okay during the night. When my daughter had her tonsils out at 4 yrs, there was a little boy-no older than a year. He woke up not knowing what was up and started crying and screaming. His parents totally creaked out and tried to take him out of the hospital. That just scared him even more. I wanted to take him and soothe him myself. the grandparents were even there and acted awful also. Another thing. I was told the procedure would take about an hour. 2 hours later I still did not get word they were done. Very hard not to worry when it takes even a little longer than they say..

I know you've received tons of responses but my daughter had surgery at Children's (downtown Chicago) for a cyst on her head and they were amazing. It's terrifying to put a child under but they are in such good hands there. You'll probably lose sleep going into the surgery (I'll never tell anyone not to worry) but infants are so resilient and won't ever remember what they went thru. H. that helps!

Whatever surgery your little one requires, rest assured that CMH is will take great care of him. They specialize in kids, so don't worry. He will be in the BEST hands there.

I haven't had this problem personally because my son is not circed, but as a nurse I have seen this happen a few times- not super common but not incredibly uncommon either. The boys seemed to go through it okay and everything worked out. Very young kids are really resilient- and even if it is tough for him to go through it I am sure he will be relieved to be feeling better afterward. H. everything works out for you guys and he is feeling better soon.

The exact thing happened to my son. We knew at his first ped. visit that the circ was horrible (the dr. couldn't even tell if it was done). We were told to wait until he was 1 to have the surgery redone, because that is the age they can tolerate the anaesthetic a little better. I put it off for a while because I was scared to death about the whole procedure, and remained hopeful that maybe it would fix itself. Finally the pediatrician told me that I need to do it before he'll remember it, before he's old enough to notice the difference, and before potty training when he'd really notice. So, a couple months before his 2nd birthday, I finally got it done. I was still terrified about the anaesthetic, but the whole procedure overall was pretty seamless.

We took him in in the morning & they got to us right away. We sat with him while the nurses took his weight, etc. and told us what was going to happen. We met with the Dr. and the Anaesthesiologist. They gave him something to drink (I'm drawing a blank as to what it was) that basically turned him into drunk baby. I was really worried about a tearful good bye, but he was so loopy that he was almost happy to go! That definitely made the waiting easier. About 1/2 hour - 45 minutes later, the doctor came out & told us everything went fine. A few minutes later, they brought him out. He was screaming & scared, but they brought out a DVD player & put on Dora for him. Between that, and me, and some juice, he calmed down. As soon as he was calm & drank & ate something we got to come home.

The first day home was pretty lazy. He was STARVING all day as a result of the anaesthetic. We had bought him some new movies, books & craft things to help "keep him down". The first day went very smoothly. You have to ice the area all day, but through the diaper is fine. You also have to change him about every 2 hours & totally vaseline up the diaper. Diaper changes were very unpleasant for a while, since you had to wash the area (I used travel sized shampoo bottles -- one w/ mild soapy water & one w/ warm water to rinse). For the baths, they can't be submerged for a period of time (a few weeks), so we did a "super cool bath" where I just ran the water, washed him fast & got him out.

They can't straddle anything for a while (bikes, sit & scoots, etc). So, with the no straddle rule & the no submersion rule, I definitely wanted to get it done before it got nice out where he'd be wanting to climb ladders for slides, ride his bikes, and go swimming.

In all, the whole thing was a lot less terrifying than I played it up in my head. Anaesthetic still isn't the easiest thing to swallow, but beyond that, it was as easy as I could imagine it being.

We didn't go to Children's, we went through Dreyer in Aurora. I would imagine their procedure is similar. If someone would have told me all this when he was 1, I totally would have done it then. So, sorry my story is so long, but hopefully it puts you at ease a little bit! :)

Hi Michelle, My son is 10 and had an undescended testicle. I don't know how we missed it until now, except that sometimes they can move up and down. He had surgery at 9 years old at Children's Memorial and it was a very good experience. The doctor addressed most things to him, because he was older and he was the patient and they treated us so very kindly. It was an out-patient procedure and although he was older and it was less than a year ago, he never mentions it any more. He used to talk about how his scars were healing and things like that, but I think it is just another memory, now. I would be very thankful you can have it done at an early age. I agree with others that the hardest part is taking them back to the anesthesiologist and then the waking up part. The waiting is no pic nic, either. Good luck to you. I think you are in good hands at Children's Memorial.

Michelle,

I am a nurse in outpatient surgery at Children's and I would see Dr.Kaplan. He's phenomenal and it is a very quick procedure. Your son will do great. We see on average 40-50 kids a day for surgery. Trust me when I say this will be much harder on you then him. Good Luck!

This happened to my son. He underwent surgery for a second circumsion or surgery to fix the first one. Yes, he was put under. The hospital let me go to the operating room with him and hold him until he went under. The doctor walked me back to my husband to make sure I was okay. My son is now 11 years old and everything is fine. If I remember correctly, you'll need to take extra care around that area for a few days. Beyond that, I believe it is scarier for you that it his for him.

Hi Michelle,

My son whom is currently 19 months had a circumcision at children's memorial when he was 7
months old. They waited until then because he was a preemie(30 weeker). The doctor said that he had an extra layer of skin and something else I can't even pronounce, but it was for the most part cosmetic. They put him to sleep he stayed overnight. I think the worst part of this whole procedure was taking the bandages off. Don't worry everything will be fine. The urineologist that performed the procedure is Dr. Houston. He was excellent. My son has no problems, and is perfectly healthy. It is good to take care of everything while he is little & won't remember. My hubbie whom is 30, refused to change our sons diaper until everything healed. Take Care

Children's is amazing and I'm sure they'll take the best care of your little guy. You'll probably also want to get a second opinion, especially after being a victim of someone not so great at the job (the plastic surgeons at Children's are also very nice, if there are any cosmetic questions).

It's always frightening to have your child put under (we've been through it twice [for other things], and it was really scary both times for us.) but it seems like one of those things that may be better to take care of while he is younger and won't remember. Best wishes for your little guy!

My husband went through this as a child but he was I think 3 when he had his done. He is fine now and remembers nothing about the surgery.

My son also had this problem. We knew he had to have the surgery so we had it done at 13 months. It is much better to have it done so early... he wont remember it and much quicker recovery. He was barely walking and since still in diapers there was an automatic cushioning there :) Good luck!!! It is worse on the parents to have to put him under than it will be on him.