Friday we made yet another trip to the Instacare down the street from our house. After running a few errands and a fun trip to the zoo, Park appeared to have some troubling pain. I noticed that he didn't like me to hold him like I normally do, shying away from any pressure on or near his bum. What in the world could be wrong? First I thought maybe his diaper was dirty and needed a changing...but I checked and that wasn't the case. Next I thought maybe his diaper was pinching him somewhere. So I laid him down to change him and he began to cry. When I took off his pants, he really let it out. But when I took off his diaper, what appeared scared the hell out of me. My sweet little boy's private part was super swollen near the tip...I had never seen anything like this on him before. I tried to touch it to look at it closer and he cried even harder so I quickly put his diaper back on, through on our jackets, and ran down to the clinic.
Once I got there, I thought to myself, am I one of those crazy mothers who thinks his son has something wrong with himself down there when really it's normal for this to happen because he is a boy? They are going to laugh at me!!! When the receptionist asked me what they were going to see him for I was embarrassed to say my son's penis is really swollen and doesn't look right. But I thought...who cares? I would rather be overprotective and laughed at then risk my son having something seriously hurting him.
So the doc came into the room and I showed him the "situation". He acted calmly and said it looked as though he had edema of the penis. I asked what that meant with which he replied that he didn't know and stepped out to look some information up. He later came back into the room and wanted to look more closely. We laid Park down on the table and while I held his arms and two nurses held his legs, the doctor inspected it. My son was crying so hard that I had my face right next to his talking to him and trying to sooth him. During this time I glanced down to see what the doctor was doing and to my horror, saw him attempting to pull back the foreskin of my intact child. He then asked me, "is it normally this difficult to pull back his foreskin?" with which I replied...YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO PULL IT BACK!!! IT DOESN'T RETRACT UNTIL THEY ARE OLDER!!
So when he was finished torturing my child he wrote a Rx for Cephlexin (antibiotic) and told me to put cortisone .5% cream directly on his penis. I asked what we were dealing with and he said he wasn't sure but that he thought it was an allergic reaction. I told him that there was nothing new I had given him and that I couldn't imagine what it would be. I asked him what I should do if it gets worse and he told me to call a urologist.
So we came back home and I let him take a nap before I did anything else. After consulting with a friend who didn't circumcise her sons either, I realized that Park probably had a yeast infection. I didn't know this could happen to boys. After he awoke, I changed his diaper to see how everything looked and to my horror as well as a bit of relief, (I will spare the details) I definitely knew that my son had a yeast infection. So we rushed back down to the clinic to tell the doctor what I found and to ask for a Rx for Diflucan. Now there is a lot more to this story but because I am still so upset about the doctor's words and reactions, I don't want to get into them. But let me just tell you that by taking my son to this clinic, I not only ALMOST gave my son a Rx that would make his situation worse, scarred him from ever being comfortable with doctors, but allowed for someone to hurt him even more when he attempted to retract his foreskin. My son was bleeding from it. I'm still in tears when I think about it and how I trusted that the doctor knew what he was doing when in fact, most don't know the proper care of an uncircumcised boy. Is that as crazy as it sounds? Where has this country gone when they are not training their physicians...those we pay for their services and trust to make us better...the proper care of a baby boy whose genitals have not been mutilated? You know, in the past I have always had a passive tone when it came to whether or not parents chose to circumcise their boys but enough is enough!
There is such a cultural lockdown and stigma in this country and no where else when it comes to the topic of circumcision in boys. Tell me all of you who disagree, how is this different from a female being circumcised in Africa? How is this NOT genital mutilation? There is NO scientific evidence that shows it is in anyway healthier for males to be circumcised. No where. In fact, std stats are higher here than in Europe where most males are uncircumcised, cancers of the genitals are not higher, etc. etc. You tell me that it is so gross or that it looks weird to have an uncircumcised penis well, I think that every itty bitty body part on my son is just the way it is meant to be and beautiful. After all, if a penis without foreskin was healthier for humans then wouldn't we have seen the disappearance of it throughout evolution? The way some people think sometimes amazes me. And not in a good way.
Educate yourself. I don't mean listen to what your friends say about it or what you were brought up to think about the topic, really educated YOURSELF. Look up the information at your library, on the web, whatever means necessary so that instead of continuing to think that it's "better" to circumcise you will actually learn the truth. Oh and by the way, I treated my son for a yeast infection despite what the doctor thought was the problem and in 15 hours, my son was 95% back to normal.
And one more thing, my husband and I are making a special trip to the Instacare where Park was "treated" armed with some information to leave with the doctor. I would like to think this would prevent what happened to Park from ever happening to another boy again by this doctor.
Below are some great sources to begin your education:
http://www.nocirc.org/publish/pamphlet6.html
http://www.circumcision.org/
Also, check out the blog www.drmomma.org
Mommy Bridget
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