Hi I am Ky and am the founder of the yahoo club Mums with hypospadias kids.
My son was born in 1992 with moderate hypospadias. Back then I had no access to computers and didn’t do any research into the topic, I was just told that it had to be fixed (and who was I to argue; I’m not a doctor). Boy, if I only knew the things I know now. Don’t get me wrong; I would have still had it corrected, but I would have had the power of knowledge at my side to fight inexperienced doctors.
My son was 7 months old when he was operated on, and all went well although at postop appointment a doctor stated to me “Oh! he has made a bit of a mess with that one.” This was all that was ever said.
When my son was 2 years old, I noticed that he looked like he only had one testicle. This had to be repaired by surgery; not one doctor had picked up on it before I noticed it.
As my son grew, I noticed that he was very embarrassed by the way his penis looked. Mind you, there was so much skin around the head of the penis, it almost looked like a hammer, so I understood his embarrassment.
When my third son was born in 1999, he was born with an undescended testicle, so since I had to go to a specialist anyway I decided to take my first son along too and ask the doctor’s opinion. While she was having a look we found three fistulas, what were these holes from, I had no idea (I have since learnt that fistulas are like blowouts in the urethra). Now it wasn’t a question of whether to have him neatened up or not; he had to have surgery anyway. Both sons were operated on the same day in February 2000; what a horrible day that was.
My first son’s catheter dropped out twice and was reinserted twice. At the postop appointment, we found that one of the fistulas was still there and leaking. It was devastating to think that he had to be operated on yet again. It has been 5 months and we have recently discovered that the fistula has closed over, YEAH!!!!
I now have a club where I help other mothers learn through my experience and try and help them by offering support, knowledge and most importantly friendship.