Kevin - added 9th April
2003 updated 13th May 2003
My vasectomy diary
Well, its been 9 days now. Man, for a bit there I was wishing I had never had this done (and am still experiencing a few problems) but things are at least looking up.
Day of the surgery I was in a horrid state of panic - and the fact I had to sit at the damn hospital for 3 hours waiting for the OR to open up was sure as hell no help to that. By the time I was called I was almost ready to run :)
In the OR, found it cold as hell, and went thru the standard pre-op for anything done here (Shaving (Bastards - bloody dull razor) - iodine wash, etc) and waited for the doc to arrive. I chose to go with no sedation (Something I would NEVER recommend to anyone after going thru it. Take the happy drugs - seriously) Doc started on the left side - no real pain with the needle for the local, only mild discomfort thru the procedure - mostly the tugging sensation almost everyone reports. Closed up, no real complications, and moved to the right side. The second local injection I bloody felt, and damn it hurt - but subsided really fast. Again, fairly "normal" on the right side, although at one point (not sure what, I wasn't watching) I sure as hell felt a really sharp pain - I'd rate it a 9 on a 10 point scale - which caused him to do more injections of local and finish the procedure with really only the annoying tugging sensation.
Post op was a breeze, and I was released from day surgery in all of 15 minutes.
First couple days weren't too bad all in all. I took T3's for the pain and iced up the twins as much as possible. Recovery seemed to be going very well, and I returned to work (computer tech) 2 days after the surgery.
Day 3 though became a bit of a nightmare. The right side of my scrotum turned black & started swelling up & became very sensitive to touch/pressure. I left work 1/2 way thru the day & went and saw my GP who told me that bruising like mine can be very common and there was no actual hematoma, but to get the hell off my feet for a few days & continue to ice up as much as possible.
The swelling continued for a couple days, and the bruising went from being fairly local to the incision (about the size of a silver dollar) to encompassing my entire scrotum & even reaching about 1/2 way up the shaft of my penis. As long as I stayed nearly motionless & laying down the pain wasn't too bad, but getting up/walking/moving was extremely painful, even with the T3's.
Well, I'm now at day 9. The bruising has gone down considerably, to the point now that the "silver dollar" sized area around the incision on the left side is almost back to normal, although the rest of my left side is still somewhat purple/green. Pain has come down considerably, and I'm off the T3's, but I'm still fairly swollen & tender to touch on the left side. Its almost like I have a 3rd nut. I can feel a significant swelling almost to the testicle, but the left nut itself is almost back to "normal" size. Its probably a swelling of the epiphedrial (sp?) or a granuloma (sp?), but I don't see the surgeon for another week and a half. The pain is fairly minimal in the morning (1-2) but gradually increases during the day, getting as high as a 5 or 6, although it seems to be getting better very slowly over time.
7 weeks
later...
Well, its been a long 7 weeks. Thankfully
the problems I was experiencing turned out to be relatively
minor. I found out about 4 days after the original story that the
swelling/discomfort was caused by a minor hematoma and that it
would go away - although it would take time. So I kept off my
feet as much as I could, avoided heavy lifting, etc, and it did
slowly go down. Took a total of about 3 weeks.
Long-term my outlook looks good - the surgery seems to have been done correctly and I'm basically completely pain-free now 7 weeks post-op, although I do notice that I'm way more sensitive to being bumped than I was before the surgery. All is quite good, and I no longer have any regrets about it.
And just yesterday I got my all-clear from the doctors. WOOHOO!
Kevin