” Dear Dr Chomicz,

I am summerizing you my experiences with my recent circumcision as a way to say thanks for what I consider as a pretty perfect job by you and your team. Feel free to share this report (without disclosing my identity, of course) with others. Seeing reports from two of your other patients in a patient forum helped me, so it is only fair that I help others with my report!

I have had problems with foreskin inflammation for many years, despite paying attention to hygiene. The inflammation was accompanied by an increasingly constricting fibrotic ring. Had the problems occurred suddenly, they would have been disconcerting. As they developed gradually, I just put up with them, and also never consulted a urologist. Finally, I told myself that at minimum I should do the oncologic checkup. On this occasion, you informed me that circumcision was medically necessary in my case, due to phimosis and a short frenulum. While I instinctively knew that this was coming in the longer term, it took me a day to get used to the thought of doing it now, and to acquaint myself with my options.

To choose the style I consulted the patient fora to see different surgical outcomes. I decided for a low and tight circumcision, with the scar hidden as much as possible in the coronary sulcus. Apart from my (clear) aesthetic preference, I thought that this style gave me the best chance to solve the inflammation problem for good. Also, I had the impression from reports of others that this type of circumcision healed very well. Most importantly, you confirmed that it was indeed a medically reasonable choice in my case. I had no preference for laser or scalpel. The choice of laser surgery was entirely based on your recommendation.

I will not hide that going to the surgery clinic on the day of the operation is scary and takes some self discipline. I expected the operation under local anesthesia to be painful and embarrassing. In the end, it was neither. I didn’t feel the anesthesia or the laser cutting, even though I had somehow missed to take painkillers prior to the surgery. When coagulation started to hurt, you added enough numbing medication to make this very tolerable too. During the operation, I was comfortable enough that I would have chosen to watch the operating field (it is not often that one gets to see how one’s body looks inside!). Perhaps wisely, you did not allow me to do this, and only showed me the final result.

My recovery was very easy. I was surprised how little pain I had when the anesthetic wore off, and how good results looked already at the first change of bandaging. Despite your warning to expect an edema, I had no edema at all. There was also no bruising, and barely any swelling. Initially, I thought that my luck was unlikely to last. But it did, my recovery in the next four weeks was completely uneventful. Apart from having to do the standard wound care, I was able to work normally (in an office job) from day one. As the theoretically dissolvable stitches showed little signs of dissolving in my case, you took them out in a separate session after a month. By now I had enough trust that you wielding a scalpel near my glans no longer scared me. I just felt some pinching, no more.

I can also say something about feeling. Reports about the drastic numbing/desensitizing effect of a very low and tight circumcision with frenuloplasty do not seem to be applicable to my case. Perhaps because of the very smooth recovery, I have a lot of feeling left, particularly in the frenular area. Desensitization is moderate at most if any occurred at all. I was willing to compromise in this respect to solve the phimosis problem for good. But needless to say that I like the preservation of feeling

Overall I’m very pleased with the outcome of the operation. It has solved the medical problem, and I am also very pleased with the cosmetic result. As a man, I am certainly less self-conscious now than I used to be. In retrospect, I should have consulted you several years earlier and solved the problem already then. So thanks again for doing a very good job and for making me comfortable throughout the process!”