My personal experience and some pondering in relation to circumcision

OK so to summarize an embarrassing an somewhat scary tale my mother had me circumcised when I was 8 years old. Said procedure came as a total surprise to me.

The day of as it were I'd just been told it was to be a 'routine' physical exam BUT instead of that my doctor began with poking and probing my dangly bits.. It was altogether quite embarrassing if I say so myself.

Before I fully knew what all was happening I'd been restrained as the doctor well got to work. In the end she made an incision in my foreskin before inserting a metal bell underneath my skin and pinching the rest tightening a bolt.. Then I was left to just lay there for a few minutes all exposed with an odd metal thing on my bits..

Soon enough well she trimmed the 'extra' skin and removed the clamp before going in to do a bit of neatening up such as removing my frenulum.

One thing I can't help but ponder is well how 'different' my procedure would have been if the doctor had chosen to use a plastibell instead of a Gomco.. If anyone knows I'd be interested to hear how things could have turned out.

Like say my snip had been preformed using a plastibell would I have kept my frenulum or would it simply have been removed first instead of afterwards like with the Gomco?

Also well on the healing and recovery front well a plastibell isn't quite as one and done so what is that like? I recall from my personal experience spending lots of time at home too sore to really do much in the weeks afterwards.

@VladimirFox Is Plastibell available for children that age? I thought it was only for babies.

@Pecan_nutjob from what Google says a plastibell can be used up to 11 if the patient is well small enough. The largest size is like .7cm or something? I didn't really understand the details of the paper it pulled up... Is what lead me to ask questions honestly. Am curious and would like to know more.

@VladimirFox Is Plastibell available for children that age? I thought it was only for babies.

@Pecan_nutjob from what Google says a plastibell can be used up to 11 if the patient is well small enough. The largest size is like .7cm or something? I didn't really understand the details of the paper it pulled up... Is what lead me to ask questions honestly. Am curious and would like to know more.

The largest size is 1.7CM, and it can be used up to ~11 years old. This study compared the complication rates between different age groups with the plastibell, ranging from 1 day to 11 years old: https://pjs.com.pk/journal_pdfs/jan_mar10/10.pdf

It's less common to use for older children, but they do make sizes that are used. Any larger than 1.7CM, and a string isn't going to be able to safely cut bloodflow to the skin. Larger plastic ring devices use something else to cut bloodflow, like the shang ring with a hard plastic outer ring, or the prepex with an elastic band.

The plastibell used on me was 1.1CM, which is the smallest size they make, and the most common one to use on newborns. I know because my mom saved it in a photo album.

@snippedtight what an interesting read. According to that paper I'd have been in group C (5+) an the ring could take 10 days or more to fall off... Gosh can't even begin to imagine what that would be like...

OK so to summarize an embarrassing an somewhat scary tale my mother had me circumcised when I was 8 years old. Said procedure came as a total surprise to me.

You didn't describe anything about getting anesthesia. I would most certainly hope so. If given, how was it done?

@agracier I was given a local injection in my bits. Learned later on that it apparently cost extra to put me to sleep soo I didn't get that an instead had to be awake.