Another (Final!) Surgery for Daniel

I've typed and deleted and re-typed and deleted, trying to figure out exactly what I should share and how graphic I should be. This is actually a much milder version than I had, but....

Warning: If you're squeamish about medical stuff and body parts and body functions, stop reading here. If you continue, consider yourself warned.

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The five of us left straight from our homeschool group bbq/pool party on Friday to head down to our children's clinic (1.5 hours south of us in a neighboring state) to see our fav-o-rite doctor, our urologist, Dr. M. (She has done surgery on all 3 of our youngest, and if LK wasn't named after two grandmas, she'd be named Erica after Dr. M. Not. even. kidding.)

The reason for our visit?

Daniel's fistula from his last hypospadias surgery has never closed up. D has to sit down to go pee, in order to not pee back behind himself. And if he has to pee very badly, he actually gets two streams coming out.

So, while hypospadias normally requires 2 surgeries to fix, Daniel is about to have his 6th surgery for this next month.

Dr. M was easily able to see the problem fistula. I take notes during all my children's medical appointments (there is no trusting this memory!) so Dr. M drew pictures right on my notes to fully explain what our options are from here. This was very helpful as I explained everything from the appointment to Jas later.

The first two options (and the pictures to go with them) explain two different ways Dr. M can attempt to surgically deal with that fistula. The third option was "Do nothing". Can Daniel live just like he is the rest of his life? Absolutely. And even in his current state, his fertility would not be affected at all. But we just aren't comfortable leaving him like this...

Jas and I have decided to go with Option #2 for surgically dealing with the fistula. This option is the slam-dunk option (thanks for that term, Melissa) that will once-and-for-all deal with fistulas and means NO MORE HYPOSPADIAS SURGERIES for Daniel. And the great bonus (especially from D's p.o.v.) is that he will not come home wearing a catheter for 2 weeks!

His surgery is scheduled for 5.5 weeks from now - Thursday, October 27th.