Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Busy-ness And Circumcision Information

Well, I am alive, no worries there. It's just been a very busy day and it's not over yet.
August has what looks to be some minor infection in the pee-pee area and I went with Jessie to to the doctor's today to get him checked out. He's not running a fever and but he's been a little fussy and now he's on a sulfa drug and that's the first thing he's tasted in his entire life except for his mama's milk and HE DID NOT LIKE IT! He fussed and choked and tried to spit it out.
Poor boy.
But the entire office was charmed by him and he got compliments out the wazoo on his smile, his big brown eyes and his obviously superior intelligence.
I got teared up, talking to the wonderful nurse practitioner who took care of August as she explained to me that she'd like to have me as her patient but that no, the office still isn't taking adult new patients and probably won't be as they are trying to ensure the doctor's longevity by lightening his work load and I can see that. He's pretty precious- the same doctor who drove out to Lily's house on a Saturday morning to do Magnolia's newborn exam. I mean, you can't just find a doctor like that every day.
After that, there was a lot of other stuff involving Mr. Moon, a lunch, a drive out to the Tallahassee Auto Auction, and a trip to the library. And also, snapping this picture at the corner of the busiest intersection in Tallahassee.


I know that circumcision can cause a lot of problems, including DEATH and that it's very painful for the infant on whom it's performed but I didn't know about the brain damage. 
Mmmmm...
Discuss among yourselves if you wish. 

Owen got his cast today and I hear it was difficult for him when they unwrapped his bandages and had to clean the area but the good news is that all is healing 100% well. 
And here's a picture I stole off of FB.


SUCH a good and helpful big brother. I always wished I'd had a big brother and although it was not to be, watching Owen with his little sister more than makes up for that. 

Sweetness abounds. 

So does the number of cats on my back porch which now smells like cat piss (LUNA!) and no, my good mood from yesterday did not spill over onto today. I am not in a terrible bad mood but just feel tears prickling my eyes repeatedly for no apparent reason and last night I dreamed and dreamed and dreamed and dreamed and it wasn't a particularly bad dream, except for a few parts of it, and then, in the dream, I realized it had all been a movie I'd been acting in and I was perturbed because the director had not given me one bit of direction throughout the entire thing. 

Aw well. We're going to Jessie and Vergil's for supper tonight and I am looking forward to that. 
I hope all is well with you. And have any of you heard from Rebecca? I am becoming most concerned. 

Love...Ms. Moon



12 comments:

  1. Rebecca has posted on Facebook in the past couple of days so I think she's okay. I was concerned about you as you didn't post this morning but I thought you'd be with Owen. I'm glad all is healing nicely with him. Now we have August to be concerned about. And your dreams. Did you talk to your Dr about them to find out if the antiD is causing them? I wish they'd go far away. Owen is a precious little gem with his sister. Sending loving thoughts to all of you.

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  2. Imagine slicing the hood off that little girl's clitoris? The mention of circumscision for anything other than medical necessity makes my stomach churn. Why the need to mutilate our babies?

    When D was small, he got a thrush infection on the tip of his penis, and it got quite swollen, red and sore. Of course it was a Friday night, so I went online, and found a site where you could consult a real life doctor. A New York Paediatrician answered my query, gave me a diagnosis and said, no, no need to go to the emergency room this minute. Which was great. But she also said that uncircumscised boys would get recurring infections.

    Well... I gave him tea tree oil baths, my homeopath prescribed three remedies, and it went away straight away, and didn't come back. That was maybe 6 years ago, so I'm not too worried about recurrence. He's not particularly interested in his penis, as yet, as far as I can see, but he did say to me some years ago when I explained about the procedure that he would *really* miss his foreskin if he didn't have it.

    It occurred to me that the Jewish doctor I talked to in Manhattan probably rarely, if ever, encountered foreskins, and can't have known much about them. She told me to pull it back to clean under it as well, which is a no no for boys of his age at the time. A little bit of research on the subject shows that a lot of the medical literature on penises was written by doctors who were similarly ignorant of foreskins and their functions and care.

    In Ireland, it's rarely done, though it used to be. My grandmother said she got my father circumscised, I'm not sure why, but that the experience was so traumatic for him and her that she refused for my uncle.

    It's an odd, odd thing. Why do we feel the need to cut bits off our babies?

    Magnolia June is a Darlin' Puddin'. But I can't approve of small babies in real clothes - they look too grown up too fast! Back to the onezie!

    I'm sick of the fucking teariness. Suffering muchly from this at the moment too. UGH!

    Trust me when I say very few of us are receiving direction in this life. :/

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  3. Soooo . . . .my sister calls herself an "intactivist" and I think she would say that the brain damage comes from trauma to the brain caused by the pain of circumcision. The stress response, all that. I don't know why I'm even saying this.

    I cry at the end of Yoga with Adriene, for no apparent reason, on the reg. Have a lovely lovely supper!

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  4. I woke up to the basement sticking like cat piss because Norbert decided to pee on a blanket. I don't know why he does that but it makes me angry. I guess you could say it pisses me off! The blanket has been bleached and put away.

    I am sorry you are feeling teary. I am doing OK but it makes a big difference that I am not at work right now. My stressed brain and heart have just accepted that I am always going to be a depressed and anxious person and I am not going to fight it anymore. It is actually been a lot easier. Maybe I am wrong to not fight it but I have been doing that my whole life and it hasn't done any good. As long as there is pain, suffering, sadness, heartbreak and injustice in this world my soul will be depressed. Maybe that is OK.

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  5. My godsons are circumcised because their father said they would be humiliated if not. Is that true? Are people still doing this?

    I thought I knew more about penes. I guess just the ones on grown-up men.

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  6. Maybe Luna has a urinary tract infection? Or maybe dementia is starting? Those are the only reasons other than marking territory (usually a male behavior) that I can think of. There is nothing quite as stinky as cat pee.

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  7. I believe there's a growing trend to leave the foreskin intact with all the usual conflicting reports about the long-term health of the penis. My boys' father is European and was horrified that it's an option -- he thought it was only a religious rite. My boys were not circumcised, so their brains are intact, and I have to say that I didn't do a damn thing to clean them when they were infants or toddlers, and now that they're teenagers, I can only assume they're taking care of business.

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  8. Brain damage...well, that's news to me. I think it used to be standard procedure in the U.S. to circumcise boys but thankfully not anymore...it seems pointless in this era of modern hygiene.

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  9. Joanne- I don't talk to my nurse practitioner about anything if possible. And I am almost certain that the medication leads to intense dreams. It always has. August will be fine, I'm sure, and thank you! You are so dear.

    Jo- Well, we don't circumcise in this family either. And the doctor and his practitioners that we see for them are very knowledgeable and do not recommend things that should not be done. I am grateful for them. I love your comment about how none of us is getting direction in this life! Too damn true.

    Ms. Vesuvius- Your sister would probably be right!
    I think we all have tears, just waiting to be released. Sigh...

    Birdie- Those are wise words. Thank you. It is hard to just accept but sometimes it is the only way.

    NOLA- A lot of parents are opting not to circumcise their baby boys anymore. Your godson's father is an ass.

    jenny_o- She may have dementia. She is so old and her behavior has changed recently. All I know is that it's intolerable.

    Elizabeth- Yep. I don't know why Americans got so into cutting off their babies' foreskins. Hygiene, I guess. Our obsessive worry about germs. And the latest advice is to do exactly what you said and not to retract the foreskin when they are young. I feel certain that you are correct about them taking care of business...

    Steve Reed- It was a cruel and misguided procedure if you ask me. Thankfully, people are becoming more aware of the needlessness and dangers of it.

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  10. our son is circumcised and now I wish I hadn't had it done. but I was young and stupid and easily swayed. the practice is ancient. I wonder whatever possessed human beings to do that to their sons.

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  11. Ha! I spontaneously thought maybe it's the other way around: brain damage causes circumcision. I'm obviously from the 'European' side of the spectrum here. I think circumcised ones look weird. I think I will go look up now how many people do that kind of thing. Probably more than I imagine.

    I'm feeling fragile today as well.

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  12. I think people are still ridiculed in the States, while I know someone in the UK who got ridiculed by his peers as a kid as he had to have a circumcision at a young age for medical reasons - he finds the phrase 'intact penis' offensive as a result of that bullying - but Sex and the City had an episode with one character encouraging her boyfriend to get it done (calling him 'the Sharpei') and in the end he does, but likes it so much he leaves her to have lots of sex with his newfound glory... so yeah, still a thing.

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