BXO treatment... _{Page 11 of 20}

You know what I first thought when I noticed my BXO? How much it reminded me of wet skin after you've been sitting in the bath for too long. I'm thinking specifically about the skin around the sides of the fingernails. That's exactly how it looked, and how it felt too. It was always urine that had made it wet, and I didn't initially realise it was a bad thing, as I thought it was just like wet skin.

Like you, I'd been noticing drops of urine coming out after urinating for a few years, and it probably ties in nicely with when BXO started. Now, I always use the stalls when going to the toilet, simply because I absolutely must use toilet paper to keep dry.

How much foreskin do you have? Are you fully covered when flaccid? What treatments have you tried?

The reason I ask is that I recall a few years back noticing what I suspect was a meatal stricture beginning to form. It never really affected my flow, but I was never happy about it. However, I noticed at the start of this year that it was gone - perhaps a result of the treatments I had tried last year to rid myself of the 'red marks on my glans' (which were actually non_BXO skin). It would seem to me that, if it's at all possible, you might want to try either exposing the tip of your glans, or at the very least, putting some powder on to try and encourage it to dry out.

Keeping it dry seems to be very important, but I have my doubts whether that alone would repair the white-ring phimosis. That needs the something to get to the fungus. For medical treatment, I am surprised laser treatments haven't been used as that could peel the skin a layer at a time. I suspect it's considered cost-ineffective by health insurers. BXO would be given serious attention if it wasn't for America's obsession with mutilating small boys.

My foreskin completely covers the glans most of the time and urine is trapped beneath it after voiding. Right now im under dermovate and most probably going for a circumcision shortly. I think dermovate has done a big improvement after 1.5 weeks of use and the inflammation has folded back noticeably. Laser is something im considering to vaporize the BXO on the tip of the meatus but that's something I need to discuss with my dermatologist. I am probably not the best person to talk on this thread, as someone pointed out before, though i will encourage anyone to follow a natural treatment if your BXO is confined only to glans or prepuce, which is not my case.

Hi everebody

I read something that says DFrance about this recovery, that I didnt stoped in the road to give some importance. I drink, eat, etc a lot of aspartame, whit the diet coke, whit the breakfast edulcorant, whit diet candys, whit all in the day to take my weight under line. I realize know that this is poison... although may be its not the only or THE KEY of the BXO, we didnt know. I say this to fin common things between us the patients of this illness, a way of help anyone... I dont have a lot of troubles whit the ring, but the EMU oil has helped a lot whit that mixed whit the DMSO to go trought the skin. My problem its the White pacht beside the uretra, and the Little inflamation that has progressed over the years. (I have 7 years whit this since started the ring and the Little White pacth that progressed to the size of a coin)

See you all, thanks for share

An update from me.

This thing is slow. Depressingly so, in fact. Yes, it's still improving, and yes it's still peeling, but at the rate it's progressing, I'm picking it won't be done until next year at the earliest. I see peeling, yes, and I see small patches of normal colour creeping back in at the skin that is at the very edge the BXO skin was, but the rest, while considerably softer, is still several layers away from reaching the same stage.

The affected areas on the glans are thinning, very slowly, and the phimotic ring is also thinning out, slowly. The areas that were less thick initially, however, aren't really improving anywhere near as 'fast' (and I use that word very loosely, because the quickest healing is still incredibly slow.

Maybe this isn't the forum to vent, but I'll say it anyway. I'm really over this, and I'm not sure I can be bothered waiting as much time as natural treatment appears to be going to take. Steroid creams may be harsh and nasty, but would you not agree that no sex and compromised masturbation for a year and a half is also harsh and nasty? That's how long it's been that I've been staring at my dick every day, hoping to see signs of improvement after trying some treatment. Granted, I only discovered the true cause a little over a month ago, but that doesn't change history. I've wasted a year and a half of my life, and going by the current rate of recovery, it's set to be at least two.

I've put a date in my calendar on the 15th of August. That marks two months since I began treating myself naturally. At the start of that week, I'll make a decision over the rate of progress I'm making, and if it's so slow that it continues to worry me, I'll make an appointment to see my doctor. What I've learned thus far is that the treatments I've been trying are capable of making the condition improve, so it stands to reason that, if I can use something more powerful to speed up the recovery, I'll at least be able to maintain it naturally once I'm back to normal.

Hi everybody

Hey Greaneyr... seems like you are really really impatient. I have this illnes since 2007 !!! 7 years men... !! Im married, and this doesnt prevented me to have sex... anyway, this s h i t its making crazy everyone in this thread, so if you have only negative things to say... go talk to your doctor and after that, if you find something positive, then come here again and share it whit us... it gonna be productive for all. Here we sharing knowledge that everyone has adquired over the experience of be a 'guinea pig' trying things out of common to see what happens, and share it if functions. Dont be negative. Dont ask a fast cure of a incurable illness of years.

So, after this introduction... a good tip. I cut a condom in the head and this Works wonders to have the prepuce retracted all day long. The glans its REALLY DRY all day. I Tried Time ago the Tacrolimus ointment (PROTOPIC) but in the laspe of a week I get herpes in the below the glans so I stoped inmediatly, but that was because (I think) I dindt have retracted the prepuce and that ointment has the hability to depres the inmune system, so affected all the skin when I wanted that only hitting on the glans. The thing here its... By night before go bed Im applying The protopic only on the BXO skin and whit the cuted condom y have retracted the prepuce all night so the ointment doesnt touch the rest of the skin. And for make more powerfull this, im applying DMSO before the protopic, so the protopic penétrate deep on the skin. In the morning. I continue whit the TTO and DMSO mix, because this helps to prevent from any bacterium or virus (like herpes). Remember that the Protopic depres the inmune system and the área its a Little free for the entry of the bugs...

I started this last night, ill keep you updated...

Again... share!! share!!... Thanks to all. Togheter we will find a way to overcome this...

Good Bless you all

Greaneyr, if your BXO is very severe and you have trouble retracting I would really encourage you to get doctor advise straight away. There are very good non-surgical treatments out there and you can discontinue them whenever the condition improves and resume the natural approach afterwards. Two months of Tacrolimus usage is probably way more effective than 1 year using TTO.
[message edited by draytek on Wed, 23 Jul 2014 14:55:23 BST]

draytek, I can retract easily. That is one significant improvement I admit I have made - the ring is SO much looser and narrower in width than it used to be. To look at, depending on how moist the area is, you can almost not notice any indentation when the skin is back.

The reason I've been avoiding sex is twofold. First, my penis doesn't look 'normal', so is hardly attractive to a woman who might be concerned about STDs etc (BXO isn't contagious, but she won't know that and it will probably turn her off). Secondly, last time I tried it with BXO, the tight skin on the underside tore and it was extremely painful, then took weeks to heal.

astor, I actually feel a lot better after reading your post. I think I actually needed someone to bash me into shape and remind me that this is a long-term journey. I have to say, after reading your post I'm not overly keen to try protopic if it raises risks of other infections.

I hit a standstill a few days back as I was being gentle and wanted an area that has been raw almost since I began to finally heal. I've been avoiding the stronger treatments while it heals over. It's slowly getting there. The point is, however, that I stopped using Hydrogen Peroxide. I was still using talcum powder by day and manuka honey by night. I tried hydrogen peroxide today and, as soon as the skin dried out, I could see fresh peeling in lots of areas. I think that shows that hydrogen peroxide is, for me at least, a critical part of my peeling. Hydrogen Peroxide for peeling, Manuka Honey for healing.

Thanks again for the slap across the face. I sincerely mean that. I feel so much better today.

I'm going to continue with my plan to see a doctor if I'm not comfortable by a certain point in time, but might move that date back a week.

Started eating lots of blueberries and drinking atleast 3-4 cups of green tea a day to see if the antioxidants would help to finish this disease.

I've had problems with eating healthy and not eating like ice cream and stuff with loads of sugar, trying now to eat only fresh meat and vegetables.

Applying TTO/DMSO mix twice a day, and also trying to keep the genital area as dry as possible so no fapping/sexy time for me for now, atleast to see if it would help.

A small update from me. I've abandoned the nappy rash powder as I had noticed the peeling had stopped with it. Perhaps it is useful in the early stages when the BXO is quite advanced and the thicker outer layers need to come away, but once you get through those and onto the thinner layers, I don't think it's so useful. I'm still using the Manuka Honey every night, and I absolutely swear it helps the ring loosen. Most mornings when I peel the skin back for the first time, I notice the ring is fractionally looser than the day before.

The key to encouraging peeling for me is to use 3% Hydrogen Peroxide. I have a small squeeze bottle that once had saline solution in it, which I keep my peroxide in. I then squirt a little onto the crevices that are difficult to reach, pull the skin forward, drop some into the foreskin, then pull the skin tightly to ensure the liquid gets all over the head and skin.

The protocol I've read on the website of someone who treated himself with it suggests leaving it on for 15-30 minutes, but this morning I left it on for an hour while I exercised, and at the end, I saw a larger than average amount of peeling. That could have been a coincidence, of course, but I'm going to try that again for a few days and see if I notice the same.

I have some TTO, and tried it for a couple of days, but it hurt even without DMSO and made the healthy skin very red and inflamed. I'll shelve that treatment for now at least.

Maybe I'm going through a particularly active peeling/shedding phase, but I treated myself a second time yesterday with the 3% Hydrogen Peroxide and, once again, noticed considerable peeling on my inner skin. It wasn't quite so much this morning, but still there. I may not always get the chance to treat myself twice a day with it, but I'm going to do my best. Also, something I find useful is to wear something to hold the foreskin over the glans to keep the liquid in for the full hour.

I have a question for those who have used the tea tree oil. I used some for two days last week, and I think it burned my healthy skin slightly. There is a small amount of healthy skin just behind the line where it turns into BXO skin that is a darker colour at the moment, and has started peeling slightly. I suspect it's a result of the burning.

I used full strength TTO, so maybe that was just too much for me? I'm curious to know how those of you who use TTO avoid it touching healthy skin. To me, the minute you let the skin go back over the glans, you lose all control about where the oil goes.

The only reason I ask is that there is a possibility the TTO is what helped spark this run of peeling on. All the areas that are peeling the most are also the areas I applied oil to during the week. It would be good to figure out how to use TTO without affecting the healthy skin nearby.
[message edited by greaneyr on Sun, 27 Jul 2014 04:57:57 BST]

The peeling I talked about in my last post hasn't really stopped. It might for a couple of days, but there's generally always some area that is peeling. I attribute this to the use of TTO. I apply it using a q-tip to try and keep it off the healthy skin, and most of the time that works fine.

If I was to describe the roles of my three treatments, I'd say that the TTO attacks the disease, the Hydrogen Peroxide encourages the dead skin to peel, and the Manuka Honey helps to heal the skin.

One thing I do wish I knew was how to determine how long a particular area will take to come back to normal. I notice more and more pink, which is skin well on its way back to normal. However, the pink only happens when you get very close to the base layers, and as far as I can tell, there's no way to gauge how far from them you are.

Right now, my challenge for this month is to work out how to make things progress faster. Clearly, what I am doing IS working. If I could have one question answered right now, it's 'how long will it take for this to be back to normal?'

I've ordered some of the Perrin Creme Complete, as I've read a lot of good things about it from both men and women. Now playing the waiting game for it to arrive - not expecting it for a few weeks yet.

Progress continues here. Applying TTO once or twice a day, hydrogen peroxide every couple of days and overnight treatment with Manuka Honey appears to be serving me relatively well, while I wait for the Perrin Creme Complete to arrive.

In saying that, I've made an interesting discovery over the past couple of weeks and wanted to share it. I think it's fair to say that my case of BXO was quite bad. Virtually all the inner foreskin had a thick layer of white skin, and the glans was similar. As this has been peeling back, there have been lots of cracks, which wasn't helped in the beginning by my overly enthusiastic deliberate peeling. I'd get wounds that would take, in some cases, weeks to heal. These wounds didn't remain their original size either. Due to the lack of elasticity in the surrounding skin, they tended to expand in size before healing, due to damage occuring when the healing skin was still tender.
But what I have noticed is that those areas that were wounded and have healed are back to normal healthy skin - same colour, same texture (when viewed under a magnifying glass, this is obvious). This brings about at least three points:
1) It shows the body is capable of beating this disease
2) It shows the view of western medicine ('while inflammation may subside after treatment with topical steroids, the affected skin will remain scarred') is shortsighted. Clearly, the white skin isn't 'scarring' at all if it heals back to normal following injury.
3) I believe it presents an opportunity for us to better understand the mechanism behind accelerating the recovery from this. I began by treating the entire area via the same mechanism. Why is it that I have patches that were injured and have not only managed to recover from injury, but have recovered back to normal skin while surrounding skin still has a long way to go to get back to normal?

I'd really like to open the floor to those with a better understanding of the body's recovery mechanism than I have to comment on the third point. I'm not suggesting we all go out and deliberately injure ourselves all over our BXO skin, but given we know that the body will recover back to normal if it's injured, perhaps there's some other way we can achieve a similar result?
The other thing I've found is that peeling only begins from around the edges, at the point where BXO skin meets normal skin. So those spots that were injured and have healed back as normal skin are providing some new edges for recovery to begin from.

All in all, it's a much more positive healing journey here than it was a few weeks back.

Did you want proper homoeopathic treatment for the problem?

I'd certainly be interested, yes. If it were able to accelerate the healing process it would only be a good thing.

I will post a questionnaire aimed at eliciting the kind of information a classical homoeopath needs. Could you copy it and provide answers on a separate thread, so that we can differentiate your treatment from the discussion here.

HOW TO DESCRIBE YOUR COMPLAINTS (Physical Components)

In homoeopathy, prescription is based on precise details of various symptoms from which you suffer. To tell or write to a homoeopathic physician 'I have a headache ', ' an eruption ' or “a cough” would not be enough. If you inform him 'I have headache with sharp shooting pains in the left side of the head and temple, these pains always come on when the slightest cold air strikes the head. I feel better by pressing the head very hard.” Then only you have given all the information required for making a good homoeopathic prescription. The success of the prescription depends; largely on how detailed your description of the symptoms is.
We require the following details about your symptoms.

LOCATION: Please give the exact location of sensation, pain or eruption. Also describe where the pain or sensation spreads.

SENSATION: Express the type of sensation or the pain that you get in your own words however simple or funny it may seem. You may have a sensation that a mouse is crawling or the heart was grasped by an iron hand or you may have a pain that is cutting, burning jerking, pressing. Express the sensation or pain as it feels to you. Try to explain the whole sensation in the exact way it is happening and not just the word. We need to understand the whole process of the sensation as it is happening to you.

WHAT MAKES YOU WORSE OR BETTER:

Many factors are likely to influence your complaint. Some factors may intensify it and some factors may relieve the trouble. A detailed list of the factors is given at the end. Please refer it while describing each of your troubles and indicate which factors make the complaint better or worse.

DISCHARGES: You may have a discharge from nose, ears, mouth, eyes, ulcers, fistula, eruptions on skin, private parts, etc. Please describe your discharge in detail including colour, consistency, appearance, odour etc.

1] Your Complaint:

(Use your own words as far as possible, but if you have recognized or diagnosed the condition, give this information also.) By answering as many of these questions as fully as possible, you are helping me to understand what your body and unconscious mind is conveying. This can help me find a remedy for you.)
• What is your complaint?
• When did the complaint begin?
• Where is it located?
• What sort of sensations (and emotions) do you associate with it?
When does it tend to occur (time/day)
• Does anything make it better or worse?
• How does it bother you? How is it coming in way of your day-to-day life?
• How does it feel like to have this/these problem/s?
• What is the effect of this/these problem/s on you?
• Did any event happen which caused the complaint? Describe the emotion associated with it.
• What are the other symptoms started with it, esp. mental and physical symptoms, which are not directly related to the main complaint.
• What are your reactions with it?

PLEASE ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FOR EACH SYMPTOM/COMPLAINT SEPARATELY. DO NOT INCLUDE ALL OF YOUR COMPLAINTS TOGETHER IN EACH QUESTION eg. all questions answered for Leg Pain, then same questions answered for Migraines, then same questions answered for Panic attacks etc.

MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL DESCRIPTION



(Please spend the most time on this section and give detailed answers - the homoeopathic remedy is very often decided on the basis of the mental and emotional state of the patient !)


1. What are the issues in your life that bother you the most. Not physical issues but mental or emotional ones. List each one separately and describe why each one bothers you so much.

2. What emotions are the most troublesome for you? What situations provoke these emotions. How do these emotions make you act? Do you feel any ill effects from expressing or not expressing these emotions.

3. What incidents in your life have had a deep impact on you? Describe each incident in detail and how they made you feel? What did you do in those situations? What effect have they had on your life?

4. What are you afraid of? Especially important are phobias, but it might be objects, situations or events that just produce a high level of anxiety. How do you manage your fears? How do you react when confronted with these fears? What would be the worst situation for you to be put in that would provoke these fears? You may need to talk about each fear/anxiety separately.

5. What hobbies do you have? Why do you like each of these activities?

6. Do you have any persistent thoughts, ideas or beliefs that are difficult to stop or cope with? What are they?

7. Do you have any unusual gestures or movements of the body? Do you feel any unusual sensation or pain throughout your body? What exactly does it feel like is happening in your body?

8. When you experience your fears, persistent thoughts, or difficult emotions, what kind of sensation or reactions do you get in your body?

9. When did you feel at your best in your life? What was that like for you? If you imagine the complete opposite of this feeling or moment, what would that be like?

10. Do you feel like you are stuck in a pattern of behavior, especially when trying to deal with your problems? What is this pattern?

11. What difficulties or problems do you have in relationships? Talk about your family, your romantic relationships, your spouse or partner, your friends, and your work colleagues. You may need to talk about all of these separately.

12. List 5 positive things about yourself. Are there any situations where this positive attribute becomes negative (is a problem)?

13. List 5 negative things about yourself. Are there any situations where this negative attribute becomes positive (is useful)?

14. Do you have any reoccurring dreams? Describe them in detail, including any feelings that come while dreaming.

15. Did you have any reoccurring dreams as a child, or earlier in your life? Describe those in detail including any feelings that came with them.

16. What were you like as a child, your character, your personality, your fears, your dreams, your problems?

17. What kind of environment did you grow up in? What problems where there at home, with your family, with your parents, with your siblings, with school?

GENERAL SYMPTOMS

(Symptoms that don’t fit anywhere else, but are things that tend to affect all of you as a person, but are not emotions or thoughts)

1. Sleep - what position do you tend to sleep in?
- what position can you not sleep in?
- do you do anything unusual in your sleep?
- any problems with going to sleep, staying asleep, or waking up?

2. Appetite - What foods do you crave/desire strongly?
- What foods do you hate eating (have an aversion to)?
- What foods have a negative effect on you or cause symptoms?
- What foods have a positive effect on you or seem to improve your health or symptoms in some way?

- What is the effect of hunger or fasting on you?

3. Thirst - What drinks do you crave/desire strongly?
- What drinks do you hate to take (are averse to)?
- When are you most thirsty?
- When are you least thirsty?

4. Stool - Do you have any problems with your bowels or passing stool?
- What is the shape, color, odor of the stool?

5. Urine - Do you have any trouble passing or retaining urine?
- What is the color, odor of the urine?
- Do you have any sediment or debris in the urine?

6. Sweat - How do you feel about the amount of perspiration you have?
- Where do you have the most sweat?
- What is the odor?
- What color does it stain clothing?
- Does anything in particular cause you to sweat abnormally?

7. Sexuality - Any problems with your sexual desire?
- Any problems with your sexual ability or function?
- Any history of sexually transmitted diseases?

8. Menses (Women)
- How many days is your cycle?
- How many days does the flow go for?
- What is the appearance of the flow?
- What is the odor of the flow?
- What kind of stain does the flow leave?
- Any discharge before, during or after?
- Any pain before, during or after the flow?
- What symptoms come before the flow?
- What symptoms come after the flow?

9. Environment – How does the weather affect you?
- How does the temperature affect you?
- How does the season affect you?
- What physical activities affect you?
- Is there anything else in the environment you are sensitive to?

Treatment is depressingly slow. Seems that any apparent breakthrough is followed by worsening symptoms. I'm really not sure if this 50/50 TTO/DMSO works.

Seems that the white ring is similar to what happens when you press a fingernail, which means the area really needing the treatment is underneath - next to the glans. TTO is uncomfortable to apply. Keeping everything dry is also a challenge, moisture is quite an enemy.

My discovery recently has been that the BXO skin changes colour depending on what it has been in contact with. Any kind of oil (TTO, vitamin E) or liquid on it for a long time makes it turn much whiter than it is when dry. Letting it dry out is, for me, the only way to get a true gauge of progress.

My progress is continuing very very slowly. TTO definitely helps me, and so too does Perrin Creme Complete. I've been given a homeopathic remedy specific to my circumstances too, which has been making me feel so much better energy and motivation wise, but as I'm only 4 days into the treatment I haven't yet noticed any additional effect on my BXO. My goal for this month was to try and discover ways of making the peeling happen faster. I haven't really achieved it with any kind of certainty yet.

The thing I found really helped my white ring was to apply Manuka Honey to the area every night. Maybe it was just optimism, but I feel like I noticed a very minute change every morning after that. I still apply Manuka Honey at night, along with the Creme Complete.

How has everyone else been going with their BXO treatment? Mine is coming along slowly but surely. For a couple of reasons, I went to a doctor over mine recently, and while I've had mine confirmed as LS, I've also come to the conclusion that western medicine really does not understand this. My doctor gave me clobetasol, and said it might be worth considering circumcision because the BXO skin will thin and has already tightened. The patches where my skin has returned to normal seem to me to have all the elasticity of other healthy skin tissue, so it makes me a little hesitant about using the clobetasol (if that's what it will do). I'm going to use it on only the worst areas, and stick to TTO, manuka honey, and perrin creme complete for the next month until I see my doctor again for a follow-up.

Not medically understood because of Americans almost all being snipped at birth.

I do, however, think that circumcision offers the ultimate solution to the moisture problem.

Meanwhile I don't know whether my progress is slow or nonexistent.

I have seen a positive amount of progress in the last few months, however I have not been using any topical treatment that others on here are using. I was wary to begin DMSO/TTO and thought I would clean up my diet first and keep the area as dry as possible. This has helped my BXO a great deal.

To begin with my BXO had the signature tight white ring which was itchy and hard and I could barely pull my foreskin back when errect. Now the white ring has subsided significantly and has returned to almost normal skin colour along with the skin feeling smooth and flexible. The white patch on my glans has improved slightly I think but not as much as the white ring I feel I almost no longer have. Looking back to how I was 6 months ago seems unreal.

I strongly believe keeping the area as dry as possible is one of the key things to do when treating this. After urination I always wipe dry and leave my foreskin back for an hour or so. I also now take great care to clean up properly after ejaculation by rinsing my penis in a glass of water and leaving retracted to dry out. I used to be quite careless with these things so now taking these steps I feel it has improved the condition of my penis a great deal.

I am going to keep this up and hopefully I will see further improvements. I have manuka honey on hand which I am also willing to try as I use it as a facial mask which is improving the skin on my face. I'll continue to keep a steady eye on the forum and will still keep the DMSO/TTO treatment as a future option upon my own progress and others experiences on here. Hope others are improving slowly but surely.

I sometimes think that doing nothing is as effective as using topicals if you keep the area as dry as possible. Dryness really is that critical. The first treatment I stumbled across that did anything was nappy rash powder, and I now realise that this was because of the drying effect.

I'm the same as you in that my white ring has improved considerably. The indentation is where the change is most noticeable. It now hardly dents in at all. The width and depth of the BXO skin are far more acceptable, and a lot of the surrounding skin that once was white is practically back to normal.

One thing I've noticed recently is that there's an area of once white skin that has all but returned to normal colour and texture. I wish I knew why, or what treatment I'd been using to make it happen. I hadn't really been paying attention to it, but noticed it from earlier photographs.

Like you, I'm also finding the glans to be much slower at healing than the remaining skin. If I could just figure out a more foolproof way to keep my foreskin back all the time, I'm sure I could get it to improve though.

It's great to hear of your improvement greaneyr...hopefully we can continue to improve! How are you finding the perrin creme complete? I'm thinking of getting some as have also heard nothing but good things about it. Also anyone else using it is welcome to give an update...