Circumcision for baby
Circumcision
is small surgery to cut off the fold of skin that covers the glans of penis.
Formerly, circumcision was practiced by Moslem, Jews and some Christian due to
religious commandment. But now, some people commit circumcision because of
health benefits, despite there are still pro and contra about the benefit
of circumcision.
Last week on Thursday, 20070712, my younger son, Rasha,
underwent circumcision, because of phimosis. At that time he was only 11 month
old, while I was circumcised at 12 years old.
This story began around 2 months ago, my son got fever without
cold nor cough. After a laboratory examination it’s found that his leukocytes is 23×109
per litre, normally every litre of blood consist of 4×109 to 11×109 leukocytes.
Our pediatrician guessed that the fever was caused by an infection on my son’s
penis foreskin; the foreskin was reddish although it’s not bloated. She noticed
that the foreskin was not normally retractable; it was difficult to retract
proximally over the glan penis.
We experienced the same situation 2 weeks ago, Rasha got
fever without cold nor cough again. At that times the pediatrician was sure and
declared that Rasha is suffer from phimosis, she recommends us to
consult with pediatric surgeon to prepare for circumcision. According to her,
phimosis would prevent my son from normal growth (retardation) and it also
disturbs his appetite.
On Monday afternoon, 2007079, we met the pediatric surgeon
to observe our son. He was on the same opinion with his colleague, about
phimosis on my son, and he convinced us that circumcision for a baby is normal
and common, nothing to worry, he said. Then we agreed that Rasha will undergo
circumcision on Thursday, 20070712. The pediatric surgeon recommends us to bring
Rasha to a full
blood examination, and to meet with anesthesiologists prior to
circumcision.
The day after that, on Tuesday morning we met the anesthesiologists
and took the full blood examination result. On a consultation with anesthesiologists,
he informed us that our son will get general anesthetic
during the surgery. Frankly, we were afraid about general anesthetic after
reading an article from Dokter_umum mailing list; a
boy dead after circumcision with general anesthetic. But we had no choice,
because local anesthetic is only applicable for those above 6 years old. The anesthesiologists
also told us to be prepared that at the period of 1 hour after anesthetic,
perhaps Rasha will keep on crying, and it is normal.
Finally the day D was coming, on Thursday afternoon Rasha underwent
circumcision. The surgery took around 15 minutes. After he woke up from
anesthetic he cried for around 30 minutes. He stopped crying because he slept.
If he woke up, he would cry again, and he cries even louder if he feels want to
piss. Every time he cries because of the pain, we (I and my wife)
blow the circumcised part in turn, until he was quiet or sleep again. At
that night, he always wakes up and cries almost every hour, a tough night for
us and him.
Next day, he was getting better; he could smile and piss
normally, he cries less frequent that the night before. I hope my son is
growing normally after the circumcision.
Under normal condition, circumcision is not covered by
life insurance. In the above case, our insurance cover 100% of the circumcision
cost because the circumcision is part of recovering my son from phimosis.