10 year old DS, problems with foreskin/fused?

[Titsalinabumsquash]

I'll start by saying I have a GP appointment booked for him on Wednesday morning but he's asked me what they'll likely do/say, now he's a bit older he's a bit embarrassed to be showing a strange Dr his penis.

When he was about 4 he started getting really bad ballonitus (sp?) every few months and lots of ballooning when he went for a wee.

The Drs said it was because his foreskin was fused and they gave us a steroid cream to loosen it. We applied it twice daily for 6 months.

It worked on the symptoms and apart from mild ballooning he's not had any pain or swelling/redness.
I've had no reason to be looking since he's been potty trained so I assumed all was well.

A couple of weeks ago he asked DP to take a look because he was really sore and red when he was washing, DP made sure to check DS was washing properly and no more was said.

Then yesterday after a bath DS called down to ask DP to come up, he said again it was really sore a red and when he was trying to wash around/under(?) The foreskin it was bleeding a bit.

I've taken a look at it and it seems the foreskin as still fused everywhere except the tiniest little slit, when DS tried to show me where it was sore he gently pulled back on the skin and nothing happened, the foreskin doesn't retract at all but it's all very sore and angry looking.

Sorry about the indepth nature and tmi of this post but does anyone know what the Dr is likely to suggest? I've told DS the Dr will need to look at it but it's ok because he probably sees loads of people's bit everyday but we do need to get it seen to before he gets much older.

Any experience to put DS's mind at ease would be great, I obviously have no experience with owning a penis and DP has never had any issues with his. Thanks.

Same here - a relative of mine who is also now an adult had to have a circumcision at 14. His foreskin was still fused and no steroid creams, etc had worked for him (apparently they don't very often).

He had a GA and was home by tea time. He took painkillers for a few days and was very sensitive in that area for a couple of weeks, but after that was absolutely fine and pleased he'd got it sorted.

I also had a boyfriend years ago who had to have a circumcision - he was fine despite being a right wimp

Thanks!

DS is no stranger to GA's and hospital, he has cystic fibrosis so he's a regular but he's so used to seeing 'his' doctor the thought of a gp appointment has got him a bit worried.
Does the gp make a referral to a paediatrician or a specialist or can they arrange for it to be done without a referral to another Dr?

I'm not sure if his regular consultant will request extra covering antibiotics or anything because his chest isn't great atm, he's due some surgery in Feb anyway, I don't want to overload him with lots of GAs in a short space of time.

My DS was a similar age when he was circumsized - he had the op a month before he turned 10. My son's foreskin was very tight, although he had not experienced the soreness that you describe. However, we took him to the GP, who referred him to the hospital, and it was agreed that he should be circumsized. I'm afraid I forget quite how things unfolded - I think that the GP referred him on the basis of what we described, without an examination, but I forget. I do recall the doctor at the hospital engaging DS in conversation about football and maintaining that throughout the brief examination - I was very grateful for that simple trick to help keep everything so 'normal'.

When DS had the op, he was off school for two weeks - he was probably physically well enough to return after one, but still felt uncomfortable in anything other than very loose trousers, so we figured an extra week at home would do him no harm. He was very distressed when he first saw the dressings, and more so when he had to remove them - it took about three hours to get them off, but once done, things improved for him. He's not great with medical stuff, so it wasn't a huge surprise to me that he found this difficult. I still wonder if circumcision was right for him, but equally I am glad that he had it done as a child, rather than out of necessity as an adult - I hope we made the right decision.

Good luck, it's not easy, but it sounds like your son will benefit from some further intervention.