Dan's experience - added
20th November 2004
"Mr. Nervous"
I wanted to share the story of my vasectomy with others that might be in my shoes. My wife and I have two wonderful children and knew we were done! My wife was willing to have her tubes tied, but I knew this would require time out of work, more cost and most important more risk of complications for her. So after putting it off for sometime (we decided that one of us needed to do something over a year ago) we had to do something, as my insurance was changing. So to skip forward, she made the appointment for the consult and "we" went. I was so nervous I thought the young lady taking my blood pressure was going to freak out! She said " are you a little nervous", my comment was I would be calmer robbing a bank right now! So the nurse came in, explain the procedure and asked if there were any questions? My question was can you do it right now? She said now, why? I explained that I hadn't been to my primary care physician in over a year and that I had "white coat syndrome" and that getting me here was the hardest part. She laughed and said NO! So we complete the consult and headed to the receptionist to make an appointment. They had limited options between now and the end of the year when my insurance changes, so I said give me the first available appointment. WOW I didn't expect it to be the following Friday.
"V" - Day came around and I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. Went to work, and got some good razzing about my afternoon off. Well noon came and I headed home to shower and wait..... 1:30PM came and I was waiting in the waiting room (AKA panic room), and the door opened and my name was called. The nurse took me back to a room, asked me if I brought a athletic support and I responded yes. She told me to get undressed and wait for the doctor to come in. Once he comes in I will come back and give you a shot to calm your nerves, and I told her it better be a big shot. After getting undressed and waiting what seemed to be for ever the doctor appeared and I was surprised how young he looked. We he asked if I was ready and I said yes, let's get this over with! The nurse came back in and gave me a shot, she then checked my shaving job, and blessed it and said they were ready to start. Skip the details it was over and done in 30 minutes or less (better than Dominos). The doctor had some trouble on my left side, but that was about it. They told me to go home, relax, where an athletic support for a week and not to shower for 24 hours. I said that's it? No pain killers or anything. The nurse said nope, this way you will take it easy and rest. I got up and walked out with little to no pain.
I did what they told me to do and by Saturday afternoon I felt pretty good! It is now 4 days after the procedure and I have some bruising and a small amount of discomfort. I would have never believed I would feel so good.
If you get anything out of Mr. Nervous's story is that it is not as bad as you may think.
PS Doctor just called to follow up as I type this, I told him I was a little sore, but that was it! Great doctor makes it easy.
28th December 2004
Update
I wanted to share an update of my
procedure that was done back on 11/12/04.
About three days after the procedure I returned to limited duty (work, general stuff) but no picking up kids or running just yet. So I went to my primary care for a visit about a pinched nerve in my shoulder. He did some x-rays and prescribed an anti-inflammatory medication, knowing I just had a vasectomy. I started taking the meds on Tuesday evening.
Come Wednesday I was very sore but I thought it came with more activity. UNTIL I started to swell and bleed out of one of my incisions. So as reluctant as I was, it was back to the V doctor to see what was wrong. My surgeon was off and I had another surgeon take a look at me. To his surprise it was pretty bad (swelling and bleeding). He immediately sent me to get an ultrasound done (by a attractive female of course), and put me on antibiotics, pain meds. and something to stop the bleeding. Once the ultrasound was done I was told to get off me feet and stay off my feet until Friday. I asked if I could work and was told NO. So home I went in some pain.
Back to the surgeon AGAIN on Friday for a follow up. The swelling was going down but I was still bleeding a lot. Surgeon said that the ultra sound looked good and that the meds my primary care had put me on were causing me to swell and bleed. So more antibiotics and pain meds for a week and if the bleeding doesn't stop they would go in a "take a look around". I was so disappointed and swore that I would never let anyone go through this mess.
Anyway, here were are a little over a month ago and I have been back to normal for about three weeks. No pains, swelling, etc.. No change in sex drive and no discomfort during "release". I'm backing off my previous comments. I would recommend this procedure and surgeon now that the pain is gone. Remember I'm paranoid of doctors and this wasn't so bad!
Dan