Kurt had a busy day downtown today. Quinn is doing well, down on oxygen and still doing okay. He had yet another new nurse today, and one of his primary nurses just went on vacation. So that means a string of even more new nurses. You would think eventually the rotation would come back around to people who have taken care of him before. I just don't get it. And really, I don't want to get it. I just want my baby home. But anyway...

Kurt met with a urologist to discuss Quinn's hypospadias, which means his urethra opens further down the shaft of his penis than usual. We came up with a list of questions for him and the answers weren't what I had hoped. The normal course of action for treating hypospadias in this country is to circumcise and use the foreskin in the reconstruction of the urethra. The US of course stands out in the non-Jewish non-Muslim world as having an extraordinarily high rate of circumcision. World-wide the circumcision rate is around 15%, which means there are other methods of treating this condition. Countries other than the US that actually appreciate the value of the entire body use a different method that doesn't involve circumcision, and uses tissue from the inside of the cheek instead, with good results. This doctor said that yes, they sometimes use the inside of the cheek, but only if the foreskin doesn't provide enough of what they need. I'm sort of glad I wasn't there. He used the words "redundant tissue not worth saving" in describing the foreskin. At best I would have laid into him for such a claim, at worst I would have wanted to slap him. Redundant tissue? Who are you to decide what part of the body is or isn't needed? If it's there, it's there for a purpose, and I don't think we are justified in cutting it off without a damn good reason. And if there is another method available that will preserve the foreskin, I don't see why we shouldn't go that route and leave as much of his body intact as possible. This doctor also said as far as pediatric urology goes, this practice is it for the region. If we wanted a second opinion, which I would do regardless of what he had said today, we would have to go to NYC or Boston, with no guarantee of different answers. The good thing about all this is that none of this is imminent. It most likely won't even happen this year, so we have a lot more time to think about it and talk to other people about it. It's not preventing him from doing anything normally right now, so it's a back burner issue. And I hope when the time comes to address it in the future, we make the right choice. Don't we all wish that in our parenting.