My son was born with a hypospadias. When the pediatrician that examined him the morning after his birth told me, she briefly explained what it was and said, “But don’t worry. After surgery he’ll have a beautiful penis!” (My husband was not there — he had gone home to get some well-deserved sleep.)

When he was three months old, we took my son to see a pediatric urologist, who I did not like. He had no bedside manner, which led me to have no confidence in him. My husband has been in the health care industry for quite some time. He asked around and the guy had a good reputation. However, we moved a few months later and prepared ourselves for finding another doctor.

We both work for a hospital system with its own health plan. There is not a pediatric urologist on staff, but there is one urologist who handles all the hypospadias corrections. Regardless, we requested that our son be referred to a pediatric urologist, but our request was denied. Off we went to see the guy on staff…

The doctor was confident that he could correct our son’s level 1 hypospadias, so when our son turned 11 months old, he had the surgery.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I removed his diaper for the first time! Everything was black and blue! And because we had to double-diaper a squirmy little boy, I lined up people to come and help me that week he was recovering. (Just to have someone entertain him while I changed him.) As the week wore on, everything started to look much better. After eight days, the catheter was removed with no complications.

On his follow-up visit this April, the doctor told us that the surgery was so successful, we would not even have to tell him he had a hypospadias — that he looks no different than other boys. My husband and I were, quite frankly, relieved. We will make that decision as he gets older. Our concern is that he NOT grow up with the stigma that he is different from other boys.

I must admit — I read a lot of horror stories about corrections gone bad and was very worried. However, this guy did a wonderful job — and our son looks perfect!

Shannon