Friday, October 31, 2008
Not adult
Ok, I just changed my 'adult content' setting to No. There isn't anything actually offensive on this blog - sure there is the word 'penis' and pictures, but this is all in a medical context. I think being flagged 'adult' has prevented this blog from being indexed on search engines. So I will see if this helps get my story out there.
Progress
I know no one is reading this yet - it takes a while to get into google's index, but anyway ... here is a photo taken today. Compared to the one taken on 5 Nov, you can see progress is being made. It is slow progress, and sometimes I have been discouraged, thinking I have only imagined the improvement.
But I think this photo tells a different story ... noticed how the whitish, bumpy area on the glans has improved (you cant really even see it in this new photo) - you can actually just see how the skin is a bit flaky there, no doubt sloughing off the dead cells.
But also, you can compare how much less constriction there is.
At this rate, I will be applying sticky honey that the saran wrap doesn't quite contain during the night, waking up with sticky underpants, for another 6 months. But hey, its cheap and I will probably come up with a better idea than the saran wrap ... I'm thinking of jumbo condoms which would fit tight enough to contain the honey but loose enough not to be uncomfortable during spontaneous night time erections.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Theory
I said I would explain my theory a bit more.
Well, there are various possible explanations floating around in medical literature for BXO. But there is no consensus. My opinion is that it is an infectious agent. The reason I think it is a virus is because that is probably why it hasn't been discovered yet - virii are tiny, really, really tiny. Compared to a baterium, a virus is is as small as a pinhead is to a Volvo. More or less. Only when a disease is really high profile does it get the attention required to find if and what virus might be responsible. And then testing patients is costly too ... a true test will require costly DNA analysis ... because virii can't be cultured in a dish like bacteria. So a simple swab taken from the patient and inoculated on agar in a petri dish (which is a common, cheap test for baterial infection) doesn't work for virii (viruses ... I dunno the correct terminology for multiples)
Remember, I'm only a factory manager, so you will have to forgive me for my wikipedia science education.
Anyway, the other reason I think it is infectious is due to the way the disease progresses over time, transfers from foreskin to glans and possibly into the urethra. However, it obviously isn't contagious, at least not the way we currently thinking about contagion. But I don't think we have good grip on contagion anyway. They've told us for decades that cancer isn't catching. But it is, isn't it? How can I make such a rash statement? Because it is simply true. You can catch cancer. Its not that simple of course ... but we DO know this: Human Papillomo Virus (HPV) is known to be responsible for cervical cancer. HPV is a virus that can be transmitted through sex. In fact, the INCREASE in cases of throat cancer even when overall rates of smoking has been decreasing is attributed to increased tranmission of HPV through oral sex. I dunno how well-established that last statement is in the medical community, I read it on some website I can't even remember now. But anyway, we know HPV is contagious, and it causes cancer. Someone who HAS cancer (cervical in this case) could quite well still have an HPV infection, and could transmit this sexually to another person. That person could then develop cancer. So cervical cancer IS contagious - for all practical purposes. Also, how come other cancers tend to run in families ... is it because of genes ... or could it be the virus responsible for the cancer is contagious (though only slightly ... not enough to get passed on through coughing or sneezing like the cold virus) and the close promixity that families members live in gives the virus ample opportunity to spread amongst the family, but not amongst other contacts. Of course, the genes and even dietary habits of the family could affect how their immune systems respond to the virus too.
Anyway, I digress. I take it I have a rather captive audience, because you're probably only reading this blog because you are suffering with BXO, and so are probably highly motivated to read all my crap in the hopes I can help you. So I'm taking advantage of you. Sorry. But I'm not asking for your money, I just want someone on this planet to listen to my crazy theories!
The reason I don't think it is a bacteria is because it probably would have been discovered already. But I could be wrong. It seems a common thought amongst the medical community is that it is some sort of auto-immune disorder. I think 'auto-immune' is a quack's term. I think it is used by the medical community way too much these days, simply for things we haven't found the cause for yet, that respond to immune-system suppressing drugs. Just because a condition responds to immunosuppressives doesn't make it auto-immune. It could well be the immune system fighting a "cold war" against a pathogen that is too smart and slippery for the immune system to ever really win against. And if the pathogen is outsmarting the immune system, it is probably stealthy enough to evade scientists too ... unless they have a great deal of motivation. Would they have ever found HIV if AIDS wasn't such a devastating and contagious disease? Think of how long HIV slinks around the body in stealth mode before causing AIDS. I bet $1000 that cancer is the same deal. Some slinky virus that sneaks around for years or decades before causing cancer. Hell, we basically know this already in the case of cervical cancer. We just have to find the viruses responsible for the other cancers.
So anyway, back to BXO and phimosis.
I don't want to go on about this forever, but basically, it seems consistent to me that an infectious agent would form on the underside of the foreskin near the end of the foreskin ... at first ... and then spread from there. The hardening and whitening may well be the body reacting. I'm not sure if the tissue IS scar tissue or not. This would explain why steroidal creams sometimes help - they prevent the body from reacting, and let the virus just live on. The virus itself probably doesn't do much harm. The most evolutionary succesful viruses would do no harm at all ... because then they wouldn't kill their host and could live on and multiply and spread forth and succeed. The worst viruses that kill their hosts quickly don't get much chance to spread.
And finally, I believe its an infectious agent, because so far, manuka honey seems to be getting rid of the problem. My foreskin is much looser and I haven't been doing any stretching.
I will post photos in a week or two when it will be obvious that this has been working (or not, I might have to post a photo of the nub where my penis used to be :(
Well, there are various possible explanations floating around in medical literature for BXO. But there is no consensus. My opinion is that it is an infectious agent. The reason I think it is a virus is because that is probably why it hasn't been discovered yet - virii are tiny, really, really tiny. Compared to a baterium, a virus is is as small as a pinhead is to a Volvo. More or less. Only when a disease is really high profile does it get the attention required to find if and what virus might be responsible. And then testing patients is costly too ... a true test will require costly DNA analysis ... because virii can't be cultured in a dish like bacteria. So a simple swab taken from the patient and inoculated on agar in a petri dish (which is a common, cheap test for baterial infection) doesn't work for virii (viruses ... I dunno the correct terminology for multiples)
Remember, I'm only a factory manager, so you will have to forgive me for my wikipedia science education.
Anyway, the other reason I think it is infectious is due to the way the disease progresses over time, transfers from foreskin to glans and possibly into the urethra. However, it obviously isn't contagious, at least not the way we currently thinking about contagion. But I don't think we have good grip on contagion anyway. They've told us for decades that cancer isn't catching. But it is, isn't it? How can I make such a rash statement? Because it is simply true. You can catch cancer. Its not that simple of course ... but we DO know this: Human Papillomo Virus (HPV) is known to be responsible for cervical cancer. HPV is a virus that can be transmitted through sex. In fact, the INCREASE in cases of throat cancer even when overall rates of smoking has been decreasing is attributed to increased tranmission of HPV through oral sex. I dunno how well-established that last statement is in the medical community, I read it on some website I can't even remember now. But anyway, we know HPV is contagious, and it causes cancer. Someone who HAS cancer (cervical in this case) could quite well still have an HPV infection, and could transmit this sexually to another person. That person could then develop cancer. So cervical cancer IS contagious - for all practical purposes. Also, how come other cancers tend to run in families ... is it because of genes ... or could it be the virus responsible for the cancer is contagious (though only slightly ... not enough to get passed on through coughing or sneezing like the cold virus) and the close promixity that families members live in gives the virus ample opportunity to spread amongst the family, but not amongst other contacts. Of course, the genes and even dietary habits of the family could affect how their immune systems respond to the virus too.
Anyway, I digress. I take it I have a rather captive audience, because you're probably only reading this blog because you are suffering with BXO, and so are probably highly motivated to read all my crap in the hopes I can help you. So I'm taking advantage of you. Sorry. But I'm not asking for your money, I just want someone on this planet to listen to my crazy theories!
The reason I don't think it is a bacteria is because it probably would have been discovered already. But I could be wrong. It seems a common thought amongst the medical community is that it is some sort of auto-immune disorder. I think 'auto-immune' is a quack's term. I think it is used by the medical community way too much these days, simply for things we haven't found the cause for yet, that respond to immune-system suppressing drugs. Just because a condition responds to immunosuppressives doesn't make it auto-immune. It could well be the immune system fighting a "cold war" against a pathogen that is too smart and slippery for the immune system to ever really win against. And if the pathogen is outsmarting the immune system, it is probably stealthy enough to evade scientists too ... unless they have a great deal of motivation. Would they have ever found HIV if AIDS wasn't such a devastating and contagious disease? Think of how long HIV slinks around the body in stealth mode before causing AIDS. I bet $1000 that cancer is the same deal. Some slinky virus that sneaks around for years or decades before causing cancer. Hell, we basically know this already in the case of cervical cancer. We just have to find the viruses responsible for the other cancers.
So anyway, back to BXO and phimosis.
I don't want to go on about this forever, but basically, it seems consistent to me that an infectious agent would form on the underside of the foreskin near the end of the foreskin ... at first ... and then spread from there. The hardening and whitening may well be the body reacting. I'm not sure if the tissue IS scar tissue or not. This would explain why steroidal creams sometimes help - they prevent the body from reacting, and let the virus just live on. The virus itself probably doesn't do much harm. The most evolutionary succesful viruses would do no harm at all ... because then they wouldn't kill their host and could live on and multiply and spread forth and succeed. The worst viruses that kill their hosts quickly don't get much chance to spread.
And finally, I believe its an infectious agent, because so far, manuka honey seems to be getting rid of the problem. My foreskin is much looser and I haven't been doing any stretching.
I will post photos in a week or two when it will be obvious that this has been working (or not, I might have to post a photo of the nub where my penis used to be :(
Ouch
In this picture you can see the constriction at pretty much full erection. Also, looking at the glans, in the bottom right corner of the glans as seen in this picture, you can see the bumpy, whitish patch. This is already much improved from before the honey treatment, and it is the rapid and obvious improvement in this patch that kept me going with the treatment even when I thought my foreskin might have been getting worse.
This picture was taken on 5th October, about 4 days into my experimental treatment with manuka honey. As you can see, the condition isn't at a terrible stage, but it is already better than it was at the start. I should have taken a picture before starting, but I didn't really expect any improvement ... its just honey after all! In the glare from the lights you see how the shaft is shiny, and then where the phimotic ring is, it is rough. Also note how the ring is pulling the foreskin not just to a smaller diameter, but is sort of concertina-ing it as well. Sorry, that's a poor explanation.
Introduction
Hi,
I am creating this blog to document my self-treatment of self-diagnosed phimosis caused by BXO (Balanitis Xerotica Obliterans).
My theory is that the whitish, hardened ring around my foreskin is caused by an infectious agent, probably a virus. The hardened skin may be caused by the immune system reacting to the infection.
I have what I think are good reasons for that theory, but being a factory manager, rather than a research scientist makes it difficult for me to test my theory. I will elaborate on the reasons in later posts.
Up until about age 27, my foreskin was normal. Around this age, I noticed a slight tightening, but for at least a year or two, I wasn't sure if I was imagining it. That is how slowly this condition developed. At about 29, I knew there was a problem, but since it was progressing so slowly, I didn't do anything about it. It wasn't affecting my sex life at all.
Then around age 30/31 it started to progress at a faster rate, and became a little painful during sex, because my foreskin couldn't stretch comfortably over my erect glans anymore.
Also, I noticed a small patch of little whitish bumps on my glans had developed too. At first I thought this was just a little scab or something caused by a little too-vigorous sex. But it didn't go away, and became worse. The best way I can describe it is like a little wart - very flat, only raised about 0.2mm, oval in shape, the bumps more widely spaced than in a typical skin wart.
This patch was slowly getting whiter and greater in diameter. This concerned me a lot more than the foreskin, because I always knew, in the back of my head, that I could just get circumcised and my foreskin problem would be gone. But what if this warty thing took over my whole penis? The thought of losing my penis was quite scary.
I phoned my GP (a woman) and asked if I could have a referral to a urologist, but she refused to refer me without seeing me herself - so I told her not to worry about it, and took it no further.
One night, in the shower, the patch on my glans worried me more than usual. It was whiter and more pronounced than a day before - it seemed this disease was accelerating.
The Cure
I love The Cure. Well, some of their songs. Boys dont cry.
But that's irrelevant here. But I do love a cure too. I have known for a long time about the properties of honey - it has been used for ages to treat stomach ulcers. Manuka honey from New Zealand is renowned for its ability to treat skin wounds and skin infections, even of the highly resistant MRSA. I have used it a couple of times on slightly infected cuts and it has worked quite well, though I didn't really have much basis for comparison.
Since I had some in the pantry (some Active 15+ lab tested NZ Manuka honey)I thought I'd put some under my foreskin before I went to bed and see what happened.
Well, what happened blew me away. The bumpy patch on my glans seemed to have disappeared. It hadn't, but it had turned from white back into normal glans color, and it had shrunken. On closer inspection over the following days, I realised it hadn't gone down much at all, and I even wondered if I was imagining things. But the color had definately changed drastically. And it was that which spurred me on. I kept on applying the honey under my foreskin at night for about 4 nights, and it kept improving, ever so slightly.
I also noticed that my foreskin was changing. Around this time, I did some more reading on forums around the net and came across one post where someone said he cured his phimosis by retracting his foreskin almost continually (to simulate circumcision) and cleaning with hydrogen peroxide.
Well, I knew that one of the ways honey works to kill infection is by a slow production of hydrogen peroxide. But Manuka honey is even more effective than normal honey at killing bugs. So I figured I would follow that poster's method, except I would apply honey at night instead of peroxide.
I kept my foreskin retracted all day, as much as possible (it sneaks back in there all the time, and requires frequent trips to the men's room to get it back again). At night, I would also keep my foreskin retracted, coated in honey, and wrapped with saran wrap (or as we call it over here, Glad wrap) I learnt quickly not to wrap it tightly - spontaneous erections during sleep can be quite uncomfortable!
I have followed this program for two weeks now. The results are not conclusive as yet ... but I am encouraged enough so far to create this blog. I have some photos I will upload soon.
Either way, win or lose, I will leave the results here for others to read.
The most promising thing so far? My foreskin is looser, definately. It is no longer painful to have an erection, and I can retract my foreskin during erection easily. There is still tightness there, and in some ways it seems things may have gotten worse (I will elaborate later).
One thing I also learnt the hard way - penises don't like being washed with soap. Just a nice rinse with warm water and very, very gentle wiping with a finger are better. The poster who inspired me mentioned he used some sort of non-soap cleanser, but I read on a medical site somewhere that warm water is usually sufficient. Either way, after washing twice a day with soap for a few days, my glans started to turn all red and inflamed, which at first I thought was an infection caused by the honey, until that aforementioned medical site made me realise it was probably the washing with soap twice a day that caused the inflamation. It subsided slowly over 3 days when I stopped using the soap.
More will be published as it happens ...
I am creating this blog to document my self-treatment of self-diagnosed phimosis caused by BXO (Balanitis Xerotica Obliterans).
My theory is that the whitish, hardened ring around my foreskin is caused by an infectious agent, probably a virus. The hardened skin may be caused by the immune system reacting to the infection.
I have what I think are good reasons for that theory, but being a factory manager, rather than a research scientist makes it difficult for me to test my theory. I will elaborate on the reasons in later posts.
Up until about age 27, my foreskin was normal. Around this age, I noticed a slight tightening, but for at least a year or two, I wasn't sure if I was imagining it. That is how slowly this condition developed. At about 29, I knew there was a problem, but since it was progressing so slowly, I didn't do anything about it. It wasn't affecting my sex life at all.
Then around age 30/31 it started to progress at a faster rate, and became a little painful during sex, because my foreskin couldn't stretch comfortably over my erect glans anymore.
Also, I noticed a small patch of little whitish bumps on my glans had developed too. At first I thought this was just a little scab or something caused by a little too-vigorous sex. But it didn't go away, and became worse. The best way I can describe it is like a little wart - very flat, only raised about 0.2mm, oval in shape, the bumps more widely spaced than in a typical skin wart.
This patch was slowly getting whiter and greater in diameter. This concerned me a lot more than the foreskin, because I always knew, in the back of my head, that I could just get circumcised and my foreskin problem would be gone. But what if this warty thing took over my whole penis? The thought of losing my penis was quite scary.
I phoned my GP (a woman) and asked if I could have a referral to a urologist, but she refused to refer me without seeing me herself - so I told her not to worry about it, and took it no further.
One night, in the shower, the patch on my glans worried me more than usual. It was whiter and more pronounced than a day before - it seemed this disease was accelerating.
The Cure
I love The Cure. Well, some of their songs. Boys dont cry.
But that's irrelevant here. But I do love a cure too. I have known for a long time about the properties of honey - it has been used for ages to treat stomach ulcers. Manuka honey from New Zealand is renowned for its ability to treat skin wounds and skin infections, even of the highly resistant MRSA. I have used it a couple of times on slightly infected cuts and it has worked quite well, though I didn't really have much basis for comparison.
Since I had some in the pantry (some Active 15+ lab tested NZ Manuka honey)I thought I'd put some under my foreskin before I went to bed and see what happened.
Well, what happened blew me away. The bumpy patch on my glans seemed to have disappeared. It hadn't, but it had turned from white back into normal glans color, and it had shrunken. On closer inspection over the following days, I realised it hadn't gone down much at all, and I even wondered if I was imagining things. But the color had definately changed drastically. And it was that which spurred me on. I kept on applying the honey under my foreskin at night for about 4 nights, and it kept improving, ever so slightly.
I also noticed that my foreskin was changing. Around this time, I did some more reading on forums around the net and came across one post where someone said he cured his phimosis by retracting his foreskin almost continually (to simulate circumcision) and cleaning with hydrogen peroxide.
Well, I knew that one of the ways honey works to kill infection is by a slow production of hydrogen peroxide. But Manuka honey is even more effective than normal honey at killing bugs. So I figured I would follow that poster's method, except I would apply honey at night instead of peroxide.
I kept my foreskin retracted all day, as much as possible (it sneaks back in there all the time, and requires frequent trips to the men's room to get it back again). At night, I would also keep my foreskin retracted, coated in honey, and wrapped with saran wrap (or as we call it over here, Glad wrap) I learnt quickly not to wrap it tightly - spontaneous erections during sleep can be quite uncomfortable!
I have followed this program for two weeks now. The results are not conclusive as yet ... but I am encouraged enough so far to create this blog. I have some photos I will upload soon.
Either way, win or lose, I will leave the results here for others to read.
The most promising thing so far? My foreskin is looser, definately. It is no longer painful to have an erection, and I can retract my foreskin during erection easily. There is still tightness there, and in some ways it seems things may have gotten worse (I will elaborate later).
One thing I also learnt the hard way - penises don't like being washed with soap. Just a nice rinse with warm water and very, very gentle wiping with a finger are better. The poster who inspired me mentioned he used some sort of non-soap cleanser, but I read on a medical site somewhere that warm water is usually sufficient. Either way, after washing twice a day with soap for a few days, my glans started to turn all red and inflamed, which at first I thought was an infection caused by the honey, until that aforementioned medical site made me realise it was probably the washing with soap twice a day that caused the inflamation. It subsided slowly over 3 days when I stopped using the soap.
More will be published as it happens ...
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