Dan’s experience: All in all, not too bad!

I’m 34, a banker, and my wife just had our second child in Sept. We have a girl and now a boy, the family is complete! The plan was if she had a c-section with our son, she would have had her tubes tied. Fortunately (for her) she had a natural birth. Unfortunately for my “twins”, she had a natural birth!

I had the initial consultation before my son was born, just to be ready. After the “touchy-feely” part of this exam, I told the doctor I must be “easy”, as I should have at least insisted he buys me dinner first! He only halfway laughed, which could explain the rough handling described below!

The vasectomy

I had my surgery on Jan 15, which was a conventional procedure using only one incision (thank goodness!). I was a little more nervous than I thought I’d be. I generally handle doctor’s appointments well, but then this one was a bit different, huh?! I had been told to shave my scrotum before coming, which I did in the shower that morning with no problem. However, the nurse informed me that I should have been told to shave my entire groin! She, of course, had to bring in a couple of other nurses to confirm I was still too hairy. She clipped and shaved for 20 minutes, still not removing all the hair. She was using admittedly cheap razors and cold water – “sorry, the water doesn’t get hot back here”! My testicles had almost gone internal by the time she was finished.

Once the doctor arrived, he said “Wow, you look a little ‘uptight'”. He then proceeded to grab the left one, PULL AND TUG to get it down where he wanted it and then gave the injection. I CAME UP OFF THE TABLE at that point! The worst I’ve ever been racked. Once the injection took effect, I was fine. Of course, the right one was next – same deal, same pain. The actual procedure lasted about 6 minutes, and I was feeling nothing at the end – which was good. He put some gauze over the stitches and was told to go back to the changing room and dress. I had to hold the gauze in place and dress at the same time, which would have won $10,000 on the funniest video show had it been taped – HOPEFULLY, IT WASN’T! A jockstrap is hard enough to put on with two hands – you should try putting one on with only one!

After the procedure

The recovery went really well, almost two weeks past and I’ve never really had any pain. Was tender for a while, just a feeling you know you had something done. I had the frozen peas all ready to go, but really only used them a couple of hours the first day. The jockstrap was THE BEST, I ended up wearing it for a week (yes, I did wash it from time to time), though I was hesitant at first. It sounded like a pain-inducing device, ended up being a lifesaver. My high school gym coach would be proud to hear those words.

All in all, not too bad!

Submitted by Dan