I wrote previously about having to wear a Foley catheter.  At the time I wrote those posts I could not recall the analgesic that I used to relieve the irritation and pain of the catheter.  Well, I found a pill bottle with my leftover stash.

During each of my two emergency room visits the doctors inserted a latex catheter. The latex irritated me. Most likely I had an allergic reaction to the latex.  Also, the latex catheter was stiff. Every time I sat down or bent over, there was a pain where the catheter bent inside my groin.

During my second ER visit, I pleaded with the doctor to give me something for the irritation and pain. He wrote me a prescription for Pyridium. Pyridium is a tradename for phenazopyridine. It is an analgesic for the urinary tract. The drug is a tablet taken orally, preferably with food. It is quickly secreted through the kidneys and relieves pain and irritation from the catheter. Read more . . .

Blogs, articles, and websites of interest to Intactivists that were published in the past week. This is a running tally of links to the ones I found interesting.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

DrMomma peaceful parenting: Forced Retraction: What Now?
Instructions on how to handle a forced retraction of an intact infant's foreskin. Too often medical personnel retract the foreskin, breaking the adhesions and harming the infant. The best thing to do with an intact infant is to leave the foreskin alone.
  Read more . . .

Sixteen months sounds like a long time, but it is flying by for me. At least, now it is. I remember when I started tugging I thought, wow, this is going to take a long time! Well, not really. It also helps that my progress has been rapid. I went from a wrinkled shaft to full flaccid coverage in that time.

Full flaccid coverage is a good milestone. After reaching this point in my restoration, I have two more goals. I want to have enough inner foreskin to cover my glans. The other goal is that I want to have enough restored foreskin so that I don't have to wear a retainer to bed. I am working on the first goal almost exclusively now. I figure the second goal, not having to wear a foreskin retainer, will happen in time. Read more . . .

I wrote previously about foreskin retainers. I hold my foreskin forward with a baby bottle nipple retainer. I also use the TLC Tugger Your-Skin Cone. And, there are other alternatives. The foreskin retainer is invaluable for those who are trying to regain their sensitivity and do not yet have enough skin to cover their glans unaided. The foreskin retainer keeps the foreskin forward and allows the glans and inner foreskin remnant to dekeratinize and regain their natural sensitivity.

TLC Tugger sells the Your-Skin Cone. When I bought my TLC-X bi-directional tugger it came with a Your-Skin Cone. I also bought an extra one. The Your-Skin Cone is worn similarly to the baby bottle nipple retainer. As seen in the picture to the right, It is white silicone.  The Your-Skin Cone is just as easy to clean as a silicone baby bottle nipple. I just use regular soap to wash and rinse under running water.

The Your-Skin Cone stays on best when the foreskin had some tension on it. As my foreskin grows and as the temperature changes, I alternate between the baby bottle nipple retainers and the Your-Skin Cones. I prefer the nipple retainers because they have a lower profile than the Your-Skin Cone.  I occasionally snag the outside edge of the wide part of the cone. This dislodges the Your-Skin Cone. Some say that you can use sharp scissors to trim the edge. I have not tried it, but it seems like it would help. Read more . . .

Blogs, articles, and websites of interest to Intactivists that were published in the past week. Here are the ones I found interesting, including a new discovery from October.

New Discovery!

Code Name: Mama: Our Perfect Son
A mother writes about her decision not to circumcise her son. Both she and her husband agreed that their son's sex life would be important to him and decided against a circumcision.
 

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Gloria Lemay: Jack Black, Telling it like it was
A YouTube video of the scene where Abraham tells the character played by Jack Black that he will be circumcised. The Jack Black character ends up running away because he does not want to be circumcised.
  Read more . . .

Before I started restoring my foreskin, my penis was not very sensitive. My glans and shaft were the same color and texture as my arm. That is, my penis looked just like normal skin. Also, it was not particularly sensitive. I lost a lot of sensitivity with 50 years worth of rubbing against my shorts. The rubbing calloused my mucosal membranes. Then, I started restoring my foreskin.

After 2 months of manual tugging, my shaft skin was very wrinkled. I was almost a CI-3 on the coverage index scale. My inner foreskin remnant was starting to bunch up against my corona. With my inner foreskin remnant bunched up and protected, it started getting sensitive.

Unfortunately, as I moved around the bunching of the inner foreskin rolled back and forth against my shorts. The rubbing of the newly sensitive inner foreskin was very irritating. The solution was to pull my growing foreskin forward so that the inner foreskin would stay inside and be protected. Read more . . .

Blogs, articles, and websites of interest to Intactivists that were published in the past week. Here are the ones I found interesting.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

no circumcision: circumcision rates
Information on the circumcision rates in Canada, up to 2003.
 

Monday, November 23, 2009

Alien In The Caribbean: Sex On The Brain 1- The Birth Of Shame & Secrets
Part 1 of a thorough three part exploration of sex and sexuality, including why we have circumcision. A very thorough read.  Read more . . .

For those readers outside the United States, Thanksgiving is a holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. The typical fare is turkey. But, the neck on the turkey for dinner isn't really what I want to talk about here.

One common side effect of routine infant circumcision is turkey neck or penoscrotal webbing. Turkey neck occurs when too much skin is removed during a circumcision and scrotal skin is pulled up to accommodate the enlarged penis during an erection.

With an infant, it is impossible to judge the size of his penis when the infant is an adult. So, typically, the doctor removes what he thinks is enough skin. If too much shaft skin is removed during circumcision, then when the adult has an erection, scrotal skin is pulled away from the body. This is typically more pronounced at the ventral side. The scrotal skin forms a web from the bottom of the scrotal sack to the circumcision scar for the most extreme case.

The picture below the break is NSFW because it shows an example of a turkey neck on a man. Read more . . .

I often wonder why some men strongly advocate for circumcision. I mean, if you are circumcised and happy about it, why would you go out of your way to advocate circumcising baby boys?

I understand why a circumcised man who is unhappy would advocate against circumcision. After all, he recognizes that a part of him was removed without his consent. If he is like me, he is unhappy that he has less than all the body parts he was born with. I think my sex organ is a pretty important part of my body. I would have preferred to keep it all. People that feel wronged often become advocates to stop what they perceive as an injustice. But, what is it with these other guys that preach incessantly about circumcision and advocate circumcising babies? Read more . . .

Blogs, articles, and websites of interest to Intactivists and Foreskin Restorers that were published in the past week. Here are the ones I found interesting.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Marketing by Permission: The tremendous fuss about circumcision
One man describes the troubles he has had with his penis and the multiple surgeries. He questions what motivates the pro-circumcision advocates. Read more . . .