Recovery: Day Fourteen

Not much change cosmetically. Didn't manage to get to the doctors, but it is still looking a bit bad on the head.

Massive breakthrough today, had a go at getting an erection without the dressing protecting the stitches and it was a success. It was uncomfortable, but not painful. Stitches are still there though, so I'll be wearing a dressing during the day, but not at night which I think will really help the healing.

Recovery: Day Ten

The wound itself is healing well. Some of the stitches are coming out slowly and there is no pain or bleeding. I'm not comfortable with no dressing during the day, but I'm not wearing tight clothing to hold it in place anymore.

The head, where there was bruising and peeling isn't healing as well as I would like though. I'll go to an NHS Walk-In Centre on day twelve because I'm worried it looks like a skin infection and I might need antibiotics.

I'm still dressing it tightly at night to stop erections putting pressure on the remaining stitches. They're not painful though. The only problem is that I'm incredibly horny. On the plus side, I am not as shallow or judgmental as I usually am, every woman looks amazing as far as I'm concerned.

Recovery: Day Seven

Days five and six were all fairly same-y. Not much change. 

Today I have seen an improvement in the appearance of the head. It's still awful, but has started to look like it's clearing up.

Some of the stitches have started to biodegrade beyond usefulness today. I'm not sure if they might be going too quickly, there's no bleeding, but the skin doesn't look strong enough.

Over the last two days I have been taking some extra supplements from the chemist and health shop, to help out with the healing and keep my immune system up to keep any kind of infection at bay...

Vitamin C Supplement ... Tons. To boost my immune system and speed wound healing.
Zinc Supplement ... To help my body absorb the vitamin C.
Pro-Biotic Supplement ... To boost my immune system.
Bromelain ... Made from pineapples, it is a natural anti-inflammatory.
Gotu Kola ... A herb that helps with a number of things, but in this case to help healing and building stronger skin cells more quickly.

Recovery: Day Four

Much better night. The erections weren't so painful and I got some reasonable sleep. I feel so much better for it.

I was introduced to the idea of a jock strap yesterday, and am able to try it today. It is brilliant, highly recommended. Secure, but not too warm, very comfortable. I'm still keeping it dressed during the day though, don't want it bouncing around at all.

The appearance of my penis hasn't changed very much over the last few days, still pretty awful looking with bruising.

Recovery: Day Three

I am so tired today. Erections last night were painful and often. I stayed in bed for around 4 hours and then gave up. I was at a really low point for most of the day.

In the evening though, I sit in bed and read with the dressing removed for a couple of hours. I am able to see the stitching in detail. The head of my penis looks battered, but the stitches are neat. It's been bleeding in a couple of places, but not too much.

The head is VERY sensitive, just to the air even, but by the end of the two hours, it settles down. It feels comfortable enough and I am encouraged. I re-dress for the night time because  a tight dressing similar to the one the surgeons gave me will stop my penis from getting too long in a nocturnal erection and pulling on the stitches.

Recovery: Day Two

The night was awful. Nocturnal erections started happening every half an hour from about 0530 until 0800. It's not so much the painful nature of them, because it's bearable, it's the lack of sleep that's demoralising. At 0630, I got some ice out of the freezer, put it in a bag and laid it on my penis as I was going to sleep. This afforded me an hour of uninterrupted sleep.

I decided to have a shower and not to use condoms because I've got lubricated ones and I'd end up with lube everywhere. So I taped a plastic bag around it, which didn't work. It was soaked inside the bag, so I re-dressed it again just in case the sutres might start bio-degrading.

Wearing cycling shorts at work is effective, but very hot. I have to keep going to the bathroom every hour just to get some air around my loins. It's also very tiring because I haven't slept properly.

Recovery: Day One

I sleep for six hours like a baby, then awake early. Dihydracodeine disappears from the system after about 6 hours, and my penis aches a bit, so I get up and have some food and a drug cocktail before returning to bed for a couple of hours. This was a mistake, I had a sugary breakfast and I think it might be best to stick to six hours sleep for the time being. I don’t sleep well, and after an hour I wake to find bit of ‘morning wood’ causing me some pain. As I do some mathematical problems in my head, it subsides, but every time I drift off it sneaks back up and a few times it is reasonably painful. I give up and begin to face the day.

The chap looks like he's been in a fight. The head of my penis is clearly starting to dry out and the skin is starting to peel. This was expected. There is also dis-colouring, yellow-y black colours are creeping in and I think this is the expected 'bruising'. It is not swollen and I put this down to the strong anti-inflammatory. It doesn't feel as bad as it looks.

I'm not allowed to have a bath for a week because it will encourage the bio-degrading sutures to bio-degrade too soon and I'm not allowed to get it wet in the shower. I plan to use a condom to protect it but for today, I just wash at the sink to save on effort.

I will be returning to work tomorrow and work in a very active environment, there will be twisting, turning, reaching, lifting and I will be on my feet throughout, so I have only today to experiment with clothes. Advice suggests tight underwear to keep everything in place, and loose outerwear so as not to rub. I choose to go to the underwear extreme and try some lycra shorts I use for cycling. I only have one pair, so I wear some additional cotton underwear underneath at the risk of it being a little warm down there. I don’t have any of the skater jeans I used to have as a teenager, such is the fashion now, but I pick the loosest I can find. Getting dressed is uncomfortable and I recommend putting your socks on before anything else, bending over becomes more difficult after the ‘chap’ is held in place.

The tight cycling shorts are effective and I find myself moving around with relative ease. Bending over is difficult, but I'm happy to go to work tomorrow. I stop taking the dihydracodeine.

Disaster in the evening when the dressing fails. It just slipped off in the cycling shorts. Luckily I bought some gauze dressing and fabric sticky stuff during the day and am able to re-dress. Which is a fiddly process.

The Big Day

It begins. 

I have opted for a general anaesthetic  The last man to pre-assess my nether regions is the surgeon who greets me on the ward. He says the general will be easier because “it will be a bit fiddly”. I have to wait on the ward for a couple of hours during which time another doctor visits me to go through the process in detail. I recommend you prepare questions you might have about the operation and recovery in advance for this moment. It can be over quite quickly and there's not much more chance to ask.

When it’s time to go in, I’m wheeled in, it feels like a film, the surgeons and anaesthetists and several nurses are all about, and it is only a short time before my arm is aching and I feel a little drunk. No time for nerves at all. Then I’m awaking from deep sleep. I’m aware of my surroundings quickly, aware of the a dull pain where the procedure has taken place and it takes me around 20 minutes or half an hour, back on the ward, to return to being fully awake.

Once I’m back in a normal state, the nurse sorts me out with some privacy so I might become acquainted with the ‘chap’s new haircut’. I have been strapped up in thick gauze dressing which has been wrapped tightly round the circumference of the head of my penis, allowing about an inch of head visible through the top and secured to the shaft of my penis with strong sticky plasters. I am pleased that this dressing is smaller than I had imagined, and there is plenty of room to pee. This dressing should stay on for 3 days and shouldn't get wet. If

There is a distant pain consistent with what you might imagine after someone had carefully sliced some skin off you and I can feel the familiar haze of dihyrdacodeine running through my brain and keeping the pain entirely manageable.

I go for a sit-down-wee. There is discomfort before I start, not pain as such, but once it’s flowing, the whole procedure is very successful and I emerge triumphant.

I am provided with an anti-inflammatory and a paracetemol/dihydracodeine cocktail which I am familiar with from having back pain not so long ago. I know that some people are provided with antibiotics to keep infection at bay, but the doctor says that will only be necessary if there actually is an infection.

The pain subsides quite quickly in the evening. I continue to take the highest allowed dosage of drugs though because the night worries me, specifically when getting an erection at night, I’ve been told this can be painful.

Leading up to The Big Day

Early April…

Booked in to see GP. Never be embarrassed to ask to see a male doctor, they don’t mind. He took a quick look at my nether regions, very quick, said “ah yes, that’ll need to come off” and referred me to a specialist. There was a 6-8 week wait.

Mid May…

Went to see an Urologist at the hospital, similar appointment to that with the GP, but with more talking. He refers me for day surgery and gives me some advice on how the procedure works and some potential complications we might have to deal with afterwards. It sounds awful, but he says complications are rare and explains how they might be dealt with.

Late May…

Pre-assessment is very quick as well, they take blood and give me some leaflets.

Diary of a Circumcision

I am 27 years old and will be undergoing a circumcision due to a common condition called Phimosis. My foreskin has been getting progressively tighter since I was around 14 years old, such that I haven’t been able to expose the head of my penis.

It has taken me 13 years to get round to seeing my doctor about it because I was able to function just fine when passing urine and having sex. Plus, I was afraid. Afraid of what my sexual performance would be like after circumcision, afraid of surgery and afraid of the whole embarrassing process from seeing my GP, through surgery and recovery to meeting future sexual partners.

It’s a progressive condition though, so it’s got worse over the years and I’m facing up to it. I have read about peoples’ experiences on the internet and they can be quite different, so I want to add my experience into the general library of what one might expect during this process. To inform others’ decisions. I like writing, so it’ll probably be quite lengthy, but I’ll set it out in such a way as you can jump to the bit you’re interested in.

Briefly I'd like to offer a personal opinion. I am undergoing this procedure because I am medically required to. I have read about men who have wanted to go through this procedure because ‘girls think its cleaner’ or ‘I like the aesthetics of a circumcised penis’. This IMHO is a load of cock (haha, pun to lighten mood). This is surgery, don’t go through a surgical process that isn’t required of you. If you clean your penis, then your penis will be clean. As for aesthetics, that’s an argument for another blog, but I think that one must learn to appreciate the beauty and awesomeness of one’s body and all its naturally occurring perfection. If you can’t appreciate what you’ve got and how amazing it is, then by all means go and spend thousands on changing it, but remember once you start ‘tweaking’ your body for yourself or for someone who doesn’t appreciate you, you may not know where to stop.

To add some background information, I live in the UK and so my operation will be undertaken for free by the noble medical professionals on the National Health Service. I am recently a single man at this stage and will be undergoing the procedure and Kings College Hospital, London.