Hey guys, I removed my pressure bandage and gauze wrap yesterday, on day 10 after procedure, as instructed by my doctor. I sat down in a warm salt bath for about 15 min to let the wrap get water-logged and began to very SLOWLY and carefully peel it away. The outside pressure wrap came off pretty easily and the gauze I had to be more meticulous with. Scissors helped cut all the bulky wet dressing away. The good thing is it didn’t hurt and more importantly, I didn’t have any major sticking- just one spot on the frenulum area where there was a good amount of blood. I had to work the bandage moving it a small amount back and forth to get the blood to dissolve and release. I found that two of my stitches on the top side of penis were barely hanging on anymore and they easily came off when I gently patted myself dry with a towel.
I’m very impressed with how the healing looks at this stage. The pressure bandage dressing routine my doctor uses really does help keep the skin edges very secure, close and tight to each other to promote rapid healing and keeps the overall suturing required to a bare minimum. It also provided plenty of strength to hold everything together when I had nighttime erections and seems to also aid in the prevention of swelling/fluid build up from setting in after the procedure.
I’m very happy with scar line placement. I wanted to keep a large amount of inner foreskin and I also told my doctor I wanted a medium amount of movement when erection. I was hoping that when I masturbate, the inner foreskin would be slightly pulled up onto the coronal edge to stimulate it. My husband’s birth circumcision is like this and I like the way his looks, and what I wanted to go for too. I told my doctor that I would prefer the skin not to bunch onto the glans when I am flaccid. He told me since I grow in size, wanted a medium amount of skin movement and have a lot of penile skin elasticity to begin with, it would be difficult to achieve both those desires but he would try.
My personal preference was to also keep my frenulum- Before I met with my doctor, I was on the fence about removal. I was unsure how it would look/come together along with the other “wants” I was more certain about. My doctor was supportive in keeping it and assured me once the frenulum was released, there would be no tightness or pulling, and he could tie it all together with the incision to look even and complimentary to my anatomy. He said if I was unhappy, a frenulum removal after you’ve already been circumcised is not as invasive and recovery not as long as initial circumcision. Well I’m really happy with how it looks and sensation-wise, when I run my finger along my frenulum, it actually feels exactly the same as when I was uncut. This was of concern to me before my circumcision because my frenulum is very pleasurable and I think the most erogenous zone on my penis aside from the glans. Happy it didn’t change. Sensation on my glans feels the same too when in the different ways I touch it. When using a firm tap, Or just resting a finger on it, I feels just the same as when I was uncircumcised and when I caress it with a dry or wet finger, it feels good and I start to get aroused just the same as before. This may be attributable to my glans being exposed when I was uncut. I didn’t “train” the foreskin to stay back, but 9 times out of 10 it would work it’s way back during the day with my body’s movement. I think this really goes to show that no two uncircumcised penises are alike in terms of their sensation and neither are circumcised ones... You can’t argue that it’s a definite thing that my glans will become leather when they have already been exposed for 30 years. Maybe they will as I age.. But in theory, the exposed glans of my uncircumcised penis would have done the same thing.. Who knows... you reading this certainly don’t.
To those of us who say that one looses “blank %” of your feeling with a circumcision.. well that could be true in certain individuals- maybe depending on a lot of factors, maybe primarily how you were circumcised. Not changing the way sex feels was a concern of mine however, I just didn’t believe that sex would go to shit after but it’s also why my personal preference was to keep as much inner foreskin as possible and keep my frenulum. Further thoughts on this subject: pleasure of sex is the prime motivation in continuously populating this planet. Babies are a ton of work- if all these circumcised men didn’t have any feeling, I’d think we’d stop having sex and kids by now.
Ok, got sidetracked there... just trying to say that I don’t notice any changes in sensation at this point... I text some pictures to my doctor and we set up a video call for later in the afternoon since it is not practical for me to fly into Atlanta to have a follow up appointment. He was very happy with the healing and instructed me to apply a generous slather of Vaseline or neosporin to the cut line and then wrap it up again for another 10 days with the extra gauze and pressure wrap I was sent home with just to keep it from getting disturbed in my pants and stretched/gap open if I get a erection at night. He said at this point the skin egdes are fused together but things are tender and soft and protecting it is essential to continue healing quickly and evenly.
If you are getting a circumcision performed for personal preference or medical reasons and you have the time and ability to consider using Dr Cornell, I cannot say enough great things about him.
Cheers guys! Happy to answer any other questions. I’ll do another update in 10 days when this second bandage comes off.