My son has distal hypospadius and needs surgery

[Havana]

My son is three, four in April. His willy has always looked a bit different, a bit squat, but I never thought anything of it until my husband noticed a second hole at the base of the tip. The doc reckoned he would need an op when he was five or six but have just been to the specialist and they have booked him in for surgery next month. I just wondered if anyone out there has has experience of this. Apparently they prefer to operate on under twos.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone whose son has had this condition and any tips on what to expect during and after (especially long-term after).
cheers
Havana

My DS was born with this and he had his operation at 20 months. He coped really well with it. He was only in surgery 1.5 hours ish in the end and within the hour had bounced off the bed and was nagging a nurse for lunch!

It will be different for you as I am presuming your DS is toilet trained. After the op his entire penis / scrotum / general area would be bandaged and he would have a catheter in for about 10 days. This is much easier if toilet trained as you can imagine - has to be kept clean so if he did a poo it was a mad rush to change him.

His was at the base of the tip and he had a partial foreskin. We ended up having him circumcised as well as there was not a lot of foreskin to pull back round if that makes sense and there were more complications if foreskin sewn back up - both then and in the future.

He was back in nursery within about 2 weeks and running around fine. He had to take calpol / nurofen, anti bladder spasm medication, antibiotics and lactulose - that was the worst part getting them down him! The next day he was a bit sad but nothing too bad. He slept absolutely fine and I took him out and about (but not to toddler groups etc - couldnt risk it being bashed). He got a bit grumpy by day 10 - think it was uncomfortable and itchy. As soon as it was all off then he was fine - I clearly remember him running away from my mum and her wrestling him trying to get him dressed that day! He is a good sleeper / good when ill though.

When he went back to the hospital and had catheter out etc we had to wait there til he had two wee's just to check he could. We then went back at six months and six months again and have now been discharged. His foreskin/circumcision is slightly strange - will no doubt grow into it as such but he can go back and have that fixed as a teen if he wants.

Oh - afterwards we had to keep the area moist with antibiotic cream - went through loads of the stuff but it was the same stuff you give for eye infections. The number of chemists who tried to give me eye drops and not cream and I had to explain what its for was hilarious

The whole waiting for the op was a lot worse than the actual op and recovery - at least you feel like you are doing something then.

My ds had his op at 14 months but my experience was quite different to Peppa's, guess it depends on the surgeon and the extent of the hypospadias. Ds had a partially formed foreskin but a lot of it so the surgeon was able to reconstruct the foreskin without circumcising.

Ds was in surgery for about an hour. I expected him to be bandaged but he wasn't at all which was a bit of a shock, his penis was hugely swollen and looked very bruised (dh couldn't look!) but he had his nappy as a bit of extra padding I suppose. He was catheterised for two days, which we spent in hospital. The nights were tough as ds found it difficult to sleep, don't think his penis was bothering him so much as the canula they insisted on leaving in his hand.

Once he had the catether out we had to wait for him to wee before we could go home. This obviously hurt as he would just be playing happily and then start screaming - this is the only thing that will probably be harder with an older child as they would be able to hold onto their wee if it hurt, maybe sitting in the bath would help - I'm sure they will have ways of dealing with it at the hospital. The screaming only lasted for maybe half a day and then he seemed fine.

We were discharged with calpol, ibuprofen and antibiotics. Kept up round the clock painkillers for a week I think, although ds never appeared to be in pain once we got home and slept fine. He had 2 weeks off nursery - he would have been fine to go in himself, but I was worried about them changing pooey nappies fast enough as we obviously had to keep his penis as clean as possible. Won't be a problem with a toilet trained child.

Like Peppa, I think the waiting was worse than the actuality! Although the worst bit by far was holding him down for the general anaesthetic and leaving him on the operating table. Apparently the gas doesn't smell very nice, so he struggled quite a lot, and I'm sure it is against every parental instinct to leave your unconcious child to a man with a scalpel!

Ds is 3.5 and toilet trained now and it all looks fine. We are due to go back for a check-up in the summer but I don't think there will be a problem.

Good luck!

Oh, and although you could see the line where they had stitched to begin with, I don't think you would be able to tell now that ds had ever had hypospadias.

Thank you both so much for sharing your experiences. Sorry it has taken me so long to reply... to be honest when nobody replied immediately I thought that nobody would. It's very reassuring to hear how it went for both of you and the fact that your wee boys came out of it okay... also good to know what to expect in the shorter term. I am dreading it.

They said it would have been better to do it while he was younger, but as you say there are advantages to him being potty trained. And at least I can to some extent explain to him what is happening and why, and we can spoil him rotten.

The registrar did warn me that watching him go under is a shock for parents... as it seeing the state of his willy afterwards.

At least when it happens (towards end of March) we'll be getting out of winter - I've taken three weeks off work and he'll have four weeks off pre-school because of the easter hols.

Okay thanks again both of you for taking the time to tell me how it went for you... hope everything continues to be okay with your DSs.

Thanks again and I'll let you know how I get on.

Missed your initial post but thought I'd share my experience. ds1 should have had his op at 18 months but was postponed twice so he was actually 22 months by the time it was done. He had a catheter for 10 days & was in hospital overnight. His bits were really bruised & swollen after the op but didn't bother him unduly. We'd been warned the catheter could touch the sides of his bladder & make him scream which it did. He would be playing fine then would literally scream & come running to me. He had anti spasmodics which were supposed to help with this but I didn't find they made any difference. He also had calpol, nurofen & antibiotics. Won't apply to you but he wore 2 nappies while he had the catheter. A normal one then a bigger one on top of it which had a hole cut in it for the catheter to go through. This meant that wee went into the outer nappy & poo was kept in the inner one so reduces the chances of infection.

Hi. Thanks (if you know what I mean) - it sounds awful but good to know what to expect. Also good that his bits didn't seem to upset him too much... I think with my DS being that bit older (four in April) he might find the look of them more upsetting, I mean as well as the pain.

That's bad that yours was postponed... they've assured me that this will only happen if there is some really dramatic event like a bus crash. Because you can't help counting down the weeks, so hard to have to start that all over again.

I hope all is well now anyway. Thanks again.