One month on - Back to normal!

I have chosen to write the final section of this blog a month after my surgery. The reason for this is quite simple. A month on, I am more or less totally back to normal. The wounds are now fully healed; I am masturbating regularly (although still being careful); I am peeing totally normally. Most importantly, I now feel like I am getting used to my ‘new’ penis. It really doesn’t take that long.

The sensitivity which I experienced immediately after surgery is now more than bearable. I have even been playing badminton and tennis this last week – something which would have been IMPOSSIBLE about 2 weeks ago.

The skin on the glans does alter over time, and it doesn’t take long to do so. Basically, it goes drier and less sensitive to the touch. Obviously it retains a degree of sensitivity, as you will need this when it comes to your sex life. A lot of sources claim that, as the glans dries, you lose sensitivity. From what I read, measures can be taken to prevent this such as ‘massaging it with vitamin E oil’. I have not tried this, and I do not feel the need to. It feels fine exactly as it is. As my foreskin never used to retract at all, any sensation is far more than what I was previously used to.

Every now and then I experience days where it is slightly more sensitive than other, and I just have to be a little bit more careful. I guess this is something which is just normal. It certainly does not impact on my life.

My pee stream and ejaculate are both now far more powerful than they were before surgery. Be prepared for this!

I still have not had full sex since the operation, as I am still waiting for the last couple of pesky stitches to drop out, but I am not anticipating there being any problems whatsoever. I am not totally healed and, if the increased intensity I experience during masturbation is anything to go by, I think sex will be a totally new experience!

Circumcision, on reflection, is not a big deal. Yes, there will be times where you wonder if you are doing the right thing. There will be times where you experience pain, and sensitivity. There will be times when you are being driven mad by your own natural urges. However, just keep remembering. It is a MINOR surgery, and if all goes to plan, it will be totally behind you in around ONE MONTH. The only regret I have about the whole thing is that I didn’t have it done sooner!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I will try my best to help you out.

Remember, this is just ONE PERSON’S experience. I am not a doctor, surgeon or medic. I am just telling you how it happened to me in as much detail as possible.

Hope it helps.

Other unexpected symptoms and benefits!

This section of my blog is a little speculative. I have been to the GP in the past for advice and treatment regarding a couple of embarrassing issues ‘down there’ which the doctor has never really offered me any remedy for. Allow me to outline them for you.

1. Ever since I was a teenager, I have suffered, sporadically, from a condition which affects me after I ejaculate. I would say that 1 in every 8 times I do, I suffer the condition. What happens is, about 10 minutes after orgasm, I feel the need to urinate. However, when I do, it is quite painful. When I finish peeing, I get a very uncomfortable feeling in my prostrate area, almost like a burning sensation. With this comes a horrible half hour period where I feel unable to control my urination. I feel as if I can not ‘finish’ peeing. If I do, I know that I will feel the need to rush back to the toilet two minutes later to pee a little more. This continues for around half an hour, and gradually returns to normal. It can be so severe, that it actually prevents me from leaving the house sometimes.
2. A similar, but less intrusive problem can occur simply after urination. Sometimes when I have been to the toilet, especially if I am a little dehydrated, I get a similar uncomfortable/slightly burning sensation in my urethra which makes me feel like I haven’t quite finished. (NB – I realise that these symptoms are similar to those experienced with some STDs, but I have been tested. It is certainly not an STD!).
3. Leaking – sometimes, even when I have been for a wee, I feel that an extra few drops come out about a minute later once I am all zipped up! (TMI I know!).

However, since I have had my surgery, I have not experienced ANY of these symptoms even once! At the moment, I am surmising that these symptoms may be brought on by the presence of a tight foreskin, perhaps bringing about an unusual amount of pressure, or even ‘back firing’, when urinating or ejaculating. This is not something I have been told by any GP or medic, it is simply what has gone through my head since the surgery, but I guess it makes sense. I just wanted to add this section so that, if you have experienced similar symptoms before, you will know that you are not alone (and that your circumcision may help).

Masturbation/Sex after the operation

This is a section that I waited a month or so to write. I suppose it is one which most people will be curious about, so I will be as honest as possible about it. Depending on where you obtain your information, you will be told that it will be anywhere between 3 and 6 weeks until you can use your penis for any sort of physical activity. Again, I am simply talking from personal experience here. Do not take this as any sort of medical advice!

My surgeon told me that my stitches should begin to drop out or dissolve between 2 and 3 weeks after the operation. I think it was nearer 3 weeks that they started to actually, but I think this was because I tend to take showers, not baths.

He told me that I would be able to return to sex “about 3-4 weeks after surgery, provided the wound had healed and there was no risk of aggravating or opening it.

My problem is that I have a higher than average sex drive and I found that, by around day 10, I was becoming pretty bothered by not being able to ‘relieve myself’. I scoured the internet looking for a website that would tell me that it was ok to masturbate this early on. And, well, I found one…

So on day 10, I masturbated for the first time since surgery. All I can say is DON’T! Like I have already said, achieving an erection is not a problem, despite the fact that it will still be pretty painful to get one at this point. However, it does not feel good once you achieve orgasm, and I believe it probably put your stitches at risk. I was able to bring myself to orgasms, but the movement and swelling in my penis as I got there seriously made it feel like my stitches were going to move, and the whole experience was pretty painful, meaning that it serves as no relief at all. My wife actually believes that, at the time, a part of the wound looked like it had stretched a little. On reflection, I was probably lucky not to have to return to hospital to get this see to.

So, when to ACTUALLY do it?

My stitches began to drop out just before three weeks was up. By this point, the wounds looked pretty much healed, and everything felt pretty good. It no longer hurt to get an erection, so I decided to give it another go.

This time was much more of a success! You will still have to be VERY GENTLE. Remember, you are still healing and stitched up. If you are rough or too vigorous, you could still end up back in hospital, and then you are back to square one.

One thing which you will have to prepare yourself for is the fact that you may well now need some sort of lubricant in order to masturbate. You may never have thought about this before, but it is the movement of the foreskin over the glans which causes sensation. If you have no foreskin, there is no movement! Therefore, you need to use lubricant to allow your hand to do the job. In my experience, you will find that things are much, much better than they were before your operation. You should feel a lot more, and your orgasm will probably be a lot more intense than before. You will certainly be glad you had the operation!

As for sex, it is now one month after my operation, and I am still waiting for three of my stitches to drop out. I have been advised not to have penetrative sex until all stitches have been removed.

As I say, many websites advise that you wait 6 weeks before even masturbating. Well, I am not medically trained at all, but I would suggest that you should be able to at least masturbate after three (provided you are very careful), and that sex should be ok after 4, provided you have healed totally, and your stitches have come out. Obviously, if you feel you are healing slowly, or if you experience excessive bleeding or infection, then these figures will not apply to you.

Urinating/Peeing after the operation

Post-operation peeing is something which has certainly ended up different for me. It may also be different for you.

I don’t know about you, but my phimosis used to cause some problem for me when urinating. It was almost like the foreskin was ‘in the way’, which sometimes meant that I sprayed a little too much when peeing.

Like I have explained earlier in the blog, your first few pees are very strange indeed. At first you will have next to no control over your stream. I really can not stress this enough. It is kind of like peeing our of a watering can! I would recommend that, until this passes, you sit down to pee where possible. I actually made sure that I didn’t go anywhere public until this had passed. It would be pretty much impossible to use public toilets whilst you are like this. This stopped after only around 2 days, so do not panic. As the swelling goes down, your stream will get more and more regular.

The feeling of ‘having a wee’ has changed for me. I am now totally used to it, but it is certainly different. The way I see it, it was as if my tight foreskin was preventing my urine from coming out the way it should. When I used to pee, my foreskin would sometimes ‘balloon’ a little, as if there was too much built up pressure.

For the first few days, you may not be able to feel yourself passing water AT ALL. This is due to the anaesthetic. It is a weird feeling (or lack of feeling) but it doesn’t last long. However, even when you get the feeling back, it is as if you can’t feel as much as you did before. I think this is simply because you will no longer have that build up of pressure that you are used to. Everything just happens a lot easier.

Lastly, you will have a few stitches under the bass of your penis which actually finish pretty close to the opening of your penis. Because of this, it is not difficult for a tiny amount of urine to come into contact with one of your stitch wounds. This stings – but it is not dangerous. Just be warned. It is like putting on aftershave after you have cut your face!

Bathing after the operation

Before I start, let me stress the importance of using disinfectant to sterilise the bath/sink or wherever you are going to wash. Dettol or something similar should be good. My wife was kind enough to do this for me in advance. The last thing you want is an infection down there!

This is one issue where I simply followed the advice of my doctor, and it seemed to work OK. Basically, I believe it is advisable to keep your wounds dry for a while. Because of this, I didn’t wash the ‘area’ for two whole days, just to let the stitches take etc. If you feel the need to wash anywhere else, you will have to do this using a flannel or washcloth, keeping well clear of your wounds. Showers and baths are pretty much a no-go at this early stage. I think your friends and family will forgive you for not having a bath for two days – just this once!

On the third day, I very gently washed the area using luke-warm water which I had boiled and allowed to cool (so that it was germ free), and cotton wool balls soaked in water. Whatever you do, PLEASE make sure that you really let the water cool. The last place where you want hot water at the moment is on the end of your penis. Trust me! It needs to be cool enough that you could easily gulp it down if it was a drink.

Again, be warned that this will be very sensitive at first and will probably take you quite a while, and a lot of determination. To be honest, it will be pretty painful just to handle your penis at this stage. But persevere. Use the cotton wool to very gently wipe away any dried blood from around the wounds. Don’t rub them or apply any pressure. Just gently wipe with warm water until you think the whole area is a bit cleaner. I think I repeated this routine daily until day 5, when I took my first bath.

On day 5, getting in the bath was fine to be honest. Just make sure, again, that the water is much cooler than you would normally have it, and lower yourself in gradually. Don’t use soap on that area yet, and don’t put bubble bath or anything into the water. Just keep it clean. All you need to do is soak it and let the water get to it. Again, any other areas that you intend to use soap on, try and keep these separate for a few more days. I think it was about day 7-8 until I applied any sort of soap directly. Even then, it is best just to allow the soap to ‘run down over it’ rather than lathering it up!

You will judge this whole process by your own standards. After about day 6, you should know what feels ok and what doesn’t. Just be careful!

The next morning...

Being totally honest about it, the next morning is when reality hits. Again, there is nothing too serious to be concerned with. It just will probably feel a lot different to how it did the night before!

I woke up at around 5AM; I actually woke up at this time every morning for the next 10 days or so. The reason for this is quite simple. It appears that this is the time of the morning where I get an erection. Unfortunately, this is something I just have to warn you about. You do continue to get uncontrollable erections right through your recovery period. And, when you do, it can be quite painful (hence me waking up). The pain is nothing unbearable. It feels exactly how you would imagine it to, having a ring of stitches around your penis. I think that the feeling, in my case, was made worse by me worrying that I was somehow going to burst the stitches. This has never happened yet!

When I looked down check everything, I noticed that it had bled quite a lot in the night, so be prepared for this. I went to bed with the dressing still on, and wearing underwear and shorts, but there was still a pretty big patch of blood on my shorts when I woke up. I don’t think it was probably a lot of blood in total. Blood just looks a lot more when it’s spread out. But, anyway, this was one of the only times that it bled, so it certainly wasn’t any big issue. I went straight to the bathroom and discovered that during the night, the dressing had come loose and slid down, meaning that I pretty much had to remove it manually. Well, I did that, and got my first look at it. I will upload a picture underneath this so that you can see.

You will find that it is probably a lot neater than you are expecting. It was certainly not ‘like a dog had chewed it’ as I have read online. However, do not be freaked out by how it looks. The appearance improves rapidly. At first you will see a lot of red and traces of blood. In my case, the shaft of my penis was swollen to a pretty unusual thickness, meaning that the glans looked far too small, like an acorn or something! Over the next few days, the swelling went down, and the glans seemed to grow, almost as if it was finally able to reach its natural size.

It was only when I remove the bandage that I was faced with the real problem that would plague me for the next week or so.

It is the sheer sensitivity of the head of your penis which will drive you insane. You need to be ready and equipped to deal with this. As I read on somebody else’s blog, the glans is intended to be an internal organ, so it stands to reason that it will feel unusual when it is out (especially if it is for the first time). It is just so sensitive that it is very uncomfortable to have it touch anything at first. Walking along becomes a big issue because when it rubs against your clothing, it doesn’t feel good at all. I found that taking painkillers helped a little. However, I think the best thing is just to wear tight fitting underwear when you are walking around. The sort of underwear that holds everything in place. This reduces rubbing, and makes it easier to move about. However, you should probably not wear it for too long when you are sitting still. It is good to let the air get to it as much as possible in the early stages as, apparently, this promotes healing.

I was prescribed Paracetemol and Codeine from the hospital. I did take these regularly (never more than the dosage on the packet) for the first couple of days. They did help, however, I also found that it didn’t really hurt that much anyway if I was sitting still. It is not the sort of pain that aches. If you are at rest, you should be fine. The painkillers seemed to help a little bit with the sensitivity of the head, but I think this is something which just has to improve on its own. And this will happen quicker than you think. As I am writing this, it is two weeks after my operation, and it feels fine!

So, how does it feel and look?

I guess these are the questions that I wish I had the answers to in advance, so I will try to answer them as best I can for you. After your surgery, the medics will apply a dressing to the penis. For those of you who don’t understand what actually happens during the surgery, I will try to explain. This will probably help you to understand how it will look.

The surgeon (apparently) estimates how much of your foreskin needs to be removed, and then removes it with a scalpel. At this point, your glans (head) is exposed (possibly for the first time), and your foreskin now begins just under the head of your penis. Obviously where it has been cut, it will be bleeding, so you will have a ring of stitches right around the circumference of your penis where the foreskin has been stitched. The only other place you need stitches is your ‘frenulum’ which is a ridge of skin which attaches your foreskin to the underside base of your glans. It is basically the ‘safety pin’ which stops you foreskin from rolling down your shaft and not coming back up again. In our case, this has to be cut – so there will be a couple of stitches on the underside of your glans, ending just below your urethra opening.

The medics WILL apply a dressing to your penis after the operation. This dressing is basically a gauze bandage, wrapped around quite a few times, and fastened with surgical tape. I was informed that this dressing mostly falls off before you have even left hospital. Don’t worry if it does. Apparently most people go home without one. However, mine stayed on until the following morning, when I removed it myself. Because of this, I didn’t actually see what it looked like until the next day. On the dressing you will, obviously, see a fair amount of blood. This is nothing to be alarmed about, and is perfectly normal. In fact, it is normal for the wound to carry on bleeding to a certain extent for a good few days. Again, this is nothing to worry about provided the bleeding is not excessive.

In terms of how it felt, the answer is quite simple. I couldn’t feel a thing. Whilst you are under general anaesthetic, your surgeon will probably inject the base of your penis with a long lasting local anaesthetic. You will thank your surgeon greatly for this ‘parting gift’ as it will give you a few hours without any significant pain. Well, it did for me anyway. You might be different.

One thing I wasn’t prepared for was the first time I passed water. It is nothing scary, but I just wish someone had warned me! Basically, the nurse will want to make sure you can pass water before you go home. You don’t want to get home and then find you can’t! So I went to the toilet when I felt the need to go, and ‘let go’ as normal. However, it was the weirdest pee I have ever taken.

Firstly, I couldn’t feel it. This is a very abnormal sensation. I could see it coming out, but could not feel a thing. This was a little worrying at the time, as no one had pre-warned me. But as the anaesthetic wore off my normal sensation returned. Secondly, it sprayed everywhere! I literally had no control over where it went. Again, this is apparently quite normal for the first few days. No one warned me! I assume that this is simply due to swelling in the general area after surgery. I was a little worried that this might be what I had to put up with from now on, but I was peeing straighter than ever just two days later! In my case, I actually find that my pee stream is much more powerful than it was pre-surgery, so I have had to learn to control that a little. Also, it will feel slightly different when you pee, as you don’t have a foreskin anymore! This means that your pee has an even more ‘direct route’ out, and doesn’t have to brush past the loose skin at the end of your penis. It’s pretty obvious when you think about it!

Apart from this, however, I went home around 2 hours after I woke up from the anaesthetic. I was almost pain free, still bandaged up, and felt like I could have run a marathon to be honest!