First, get your head straight on the question of whether you, as the parents, really have to be present for this operation. (Eating fried chicken is great, but you don't feel duty bound to be there for the butchering, do you?) A baby boy gets rather upset while having his whip snipped, so the first thing a doctor does is strap him onto a restraint board which immobilizes his arms and legs. Pain killers are rarely used because they add to the cost of the procedure and create additional risks and potential complications.
If your doctor uses the Gomco or the Plastibell Technique, the foreskin removal is accomplished by crushing the skin for several minutes until it separates, and the resulting mess is a damned bloody one. If electrocautery is the chosen method you're treated to the snapping, popping sound of an electric arc and the smell of (yucky poo!) burning skin -- and for what? Whether you're there or not, the M.D.'s going to do her job 'cause if she doesn't you aren't going to pay her the $300, right?
Now don't misunderstand my motives here. I'm not trying to gross you out in an indirect attempt to discourage you from circumcising your baby. I simply want you to realize that the sights, sounds and smells attendant to the procedure offer a sensory extravaganza that you can do without!
Was this a one-sided decision? Did your wife demand it, but you were against it? Then let her take the kid to the hospital and you go watch something with a little more class -- like an Alabama cock-fight, for example. If it was a joint decision, then, hell, pay for a baby-sitter to take him and the two of you go out to brunch. (Is a days-old infant gonna notice the difference? I hardly think so.)
Now that we've got that settled, let's consider complications. (Once again, don't get your panties all in a bunch! The possibility of error is a part of any surgical procedure and you already knew that.) Your possession of the following list puts you in better stead to go to your doctor and simply ask that she explain to you how you can help monitor the healing process. My search of the medical literature turned up 15 different circumcision related ailments. Retention of the Plastibell ring, Chordee, Keloid Formation, Lymphedema, Concealed penis, Skin bridges, Phimosis of Remaining Foreskin, Preputial Cysts, Infections, Meatis, Loss of Penis, Meatal Ulceration, Meatal Stricture, Iatrogenic penile deformities and, of course, the ever threatening Meatal Stenosis. Your job is to discuss these problems with the M.D., know the symptomatology and maintain post-operative vigilance. You, then, become doctor's helper.
Lest you fail to appreciate the importance of parental awareness of possible screw- ups, consider the case of the 3 year old boy who was found by a pediatrician to have an almost transected glans from circumcision at birth. (For the Latin- impaired, a transected glans is a cut-off pecker head. Ouch!) The parents never knew what to look for and/or never did any looking. All ended well with a little reconstructive surgery, but surely the parents would have enjoyed identifying this boo-boo a little earlier on, wouldn't you guess?
And now a few words about electro-cautery -- yikes! Forget about it! Cautery means to burn, and electro means to, er, it means electricity, Sherlock! What the hell do you think it means? One of the creepiest stories I've ever read about is the case in the 60's when one of two identical boys was being circumcised. After two failed attempts to burn off the foreskin, the doctor goosed up the current and fried the little guy's naughty-thing clean away. (I know you're calling me a liar right now. Well just take a look at the photos and ancillary information in the textbook Pediatric Trauma, edited by Robert J. Touloukian, M.D., of Yale University School of Medicine. And for the narrative account, see page 91ff of the book, Sexual Signatures, by the renowned sex psychologist and researcher John Money. So there!) The story ended happily because the parents enrolled the child in a transsexual program at Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Money says he (she?) took to womanhood like the proverbial duck to water. But all I'm trying to get at here is, ya got yer Gomco and yer Plastibell techniques anyhow, so if your doctor starts talkin' about electrocauterization -- scream "feets don't fail me now," and leave that bum in the dust.
So in summary, we have three valuable pointers for the parent(s) choosing circumcision: (1) Don't watch the deed being done, (2) Do make it your business to monitor the healing process, and (3) Don't authorize electro-cauterization. The operative philosophy here is the golden rule -- if your son were going to have your genitals surgically altered, for his sake and yours, wouldn't you want him to follow these three logical suggestions?
Think about it.
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