I hope you pick this up treacletart, emmafishman. I've only just found this thread.
My second son had one stage surgery in June to correct an intermediate hypospadias (a snodgrass repair). His little hole was in the middle of the back of his penis. It's been 100% successful, BUT I wish I had been informed of some things in advance:
Following the operation, my son had a pressure dressing covering his lower stomach, penis and testicles (he also had a testicle brought down at the same time). He had to wear double nappies to keep this dressing clean and dry. Basically, they wear the first nappy to catch the poo and the catheter is threaded through a hole in the front of this nappy so that the outer nappy absorbs the wee. They give them a mild laxative as straining can put pressure on the repair. It also means that you can get an explosive poo which wrecks the dressing, which means taking them back to hospital to have them cleaned and redressed. This can be a painful experience.
A catheter is inserted post op to allow the newly extended urethra to heal without infection. The catheter is a foreign body to the bladder, and the body will try to eject it by sending the bladder into spasms. These spasms are very painful and anti-spasmodic medication is needed to prevent them. Unfortunately, my son seemed to need an extra dose of this per 24 hours, but I had to endure a night's screaming before I could get hold of the consultant to increase the dose. You need to get the medication down them regularly as it takes about 20 minutes to work.
He was also on the full dosage of calpol AND baby neurofen, plus an antibiotic for 2 weeks. This amounted to about 50 mls of medicine a day, which he did NOT like and when I approached him with the syringe thing, he started going ballistic. I ended up shoving the whole lot into bottles of milk at night, and putting the rest into little fromage frais pots during the day.
When the dressing came off (after a horrible poo 6 days after the op), I was quite shocked by how swollen and raw his penis looked. The doctor said it looked really good. I said, I'm glad you told me that because I think it looks dreadful! We then had to wait for him to wee, which took hours as I think he knew that it would hurt. He then screamed every time he urinated for about 2 days.
You have to observe them weeing, to make sure that there are no leaks (fistulas)and that it all comes out of the new hole.
He remained on painkillers until I put him back in his cotton nappies with fleecy liners. I then discovered that the disposable nappies had been irritating the end of his penis (as he had been circumcised, to utilise the foreskin in the repair.)Finally, I got him off the calpol and neurofen.
My son found the whole thing a painful experience and I am very glad he had it done at 11 months so he won't remember anything. He is a big tough baby, not bothered by knocks or falls, or the rough play with his big brother but he was very upset about the operation and his recuperation. I think he was very scared by the pain and reverted to frequent night wakings, insistence on bottle feeds at night, being carried around and soothed to sleep. It was worse than having a newborn.
However, his penis now looks and functions completely normally. There is a small scar on the underside, but this will fade with time. He pulls it around just like his big brother and appears completely unfazed by it all.
I am the one who feels mentally scarred! I am sure the experience is dependent on the degree of the hypospadias though. I REALLY don't want to scare you but I wish I had been better prepared for it all.
You should ask your consultant to tell you his 100% success rate, the incidence of fistulas, holes needing to be widened and complete breakdown in repairs. There are national and international statistics for comparison.
I also made the mistake of thinking I could cope with it alone. My husband had to go abroad for work and stupidly, I let him go. I left my eldest son with my parents overnight, and then endured a very unpleasant hospital stay and 2 weeks recuperation. You need someone to look after you, whilst you look after your son!
I hope this is helpful. I can try to answer any further questions you might have.
lol