Biker’s experience: I survived!

Below is the start of my vasectomy story for you to put up on your site under personal stories. I’ve found others’ stories really helpful, so I’ll do my part. As you see, I’m going in tomorrow (Sept 22) so I’ll get back to you with the results.

September 21, 2005

I’m going in tomorrow for my vasectomy. I’d been thinking about doing this for a while. My wife and I have two kids, 11 and 14, and are now sure we don’t want any more. We’re both 46, and while I really love my kids, even in hypothetical scenarios I can’t see having another one, dealing with the sleepless baby years, the restless toddler years, and then having teenagers when I’m in my 60s. Plus birth control has become a real hassle (not that it ever wasn’t) – we use a diaphragm and the spermicide not only numbs but also irritates. So my wife was thrilled with my decision. I started doing research. The personal stories on this site have been really helpful.

I live in a small city in the northeast US, and there’s only one urology practice that does vasectomies, so my primary care physician referred me to them. I called to ask if they did NSV, the receptionist went and asked someone and came back and said yes. So I made an appointment.

My wife and I went in for the consultation, and the doctor was very nice. But when I asked about NSV he said he used to do them but there was tearing of the skin often, so now he uses a scalpel but uses the tools that are used in NSV. Well, I wasn’t thrilled that they’d misled me, but the alternative is to drive an hour to someone else. Since I know others who’ve had vasectomies done by this guy, and they all have positive experiences, I decided to go with it. My wife left, the doctor did his examination (including prostate – ouch!) and I guess everything checked out okay because he said to go ahead and schedule the vasectomy.

The procedure itself is being done tomorrow late afternoon in his office. He uses local anesthesia, no sedative; I’d asked him about valium but he said it is only necessary if someone is extremely nervous, so he doesn’t recommend it.

I am getting somewhat nervous, though I know it’ll go well. My wife and I loaded up last night on frozen peas, and I bought some jockey shorts a size too small. I’m taking off from work on Friday and plan to stay iced Thursday night and all day Friday, watching DVD’s, surfing the web on my laptop, just hanging out.

I knew I was going to tell my kids but wasn’t sure how they’d react. We’re very open with them about sexuality and those kinds of issues. When I told my 14-year old daughter, she didn’t react negatively or even squirm when I explained what a vasectomy was – talking about testicles, sperm, and vas. And she was actually thrilled that I was having one because her biggest fear is that we’ll have another kid (she’s the oldest). My son also had a pretty minimal reaction.

I usually bike every day to work, up some pretty steep hills so it’s a good workout. I am not thrilled that I won’t be biking for a couple of weeks. I also have recently started running a few miles a night with my daughter, which will also be put on hold for a little while.

My fears: the irrational one that this is irreversible and I’m giving up any chance of having kids again, even though rationally I know for sure I don’t want another one. Not sure where that’s coming from. A little bit of fear about discomfort during the procedure, though as my wife has pointed out, it’s nothing compared to labor. And then afterward, the icing, potential for infection, having to go to work on Monday, hoping that all will be well by then. We’ll see. I’ll check back in after I’m snipped.

September 23

I survived! I have to say that your site has been the most helpful to me in preparing for this. It went well, as you’ll read below. I again want to thank you for taking the time and effort to keep the site up and running. I really appreciate it.

The morning after: My vasectomy is done, and so far I’m feeling fine. The reality of what was going to take place didn’t really sink in until yesterday morning after I shaved. By the way, I found that sitting in the bathtub, using shaving cream and a new double-blade cartridge razor worked great, was very easy and did the job so well that the doctor didn’t have to do any additional shaving.

But once I was shaved the reality sank in. I actually did start to get nervous. My wife had cuddled me in the morning, but my vasectomy was scheduled for 6:30 pm. It was a long day. I biked up to work, biked home at the end of the day.

When the time came, my wife loaded up a cooler with ice and a couple of bags of frozen peas, and I got together a bag with a few pairs of jockey shorts. I wore a pair of very baggy shorts over my underwear and a t-shirt. My wife drove me to the office and waited in the waiting room. She said she’d come in and watch if I wanted, but I didn’t think that was necessary…

I was shown into the room and told me to take off just my shorts and underwear, I could leave on my t-shirt and socks. I lay on the table and waited. Then the doctor came in, approved of my shaving job, and started swabbing my scrotum with something. I did not watch any part of the procedure. I’d seen photos of vasectomies, the entire process, and I knew that I did not want to see what was happening. So I looked up at the ceiling the entire time.

The doctor started on the left side. He gave me the first shot of lidocaine, telling me it would prick. It did, but it was not bad. Then he did something, maybe with the scalpel, and asked if I felt anything. I said I felt something kind of sharp, though not painful, so he gave me another shot. He fiddled about a bit more and asked if I felt anything, I did feel some kind of pain-ish feeling in my testicles, again nothing very strong, but something, so he gave me the third shot. After that, I was numb and really didn’t feel anything else on that side. But I was still very anxious. I did deep breathing and clenched my hands (and toes) in anticipation of some kind of pain. During the procedure I didn’t ask the doctor what he was doing, how far he had gone, whether it was almost over because I was afraid he’d say, I haven’t started yet. I heard clipping and snipping sounds and when I smelled the cauterizing smell, I figured it must be almost over, but I didn’t ask. Finally, he said it was over, and I have to say the pain was really minimal.

He then moved on to the right side. There was a bit more discomfort at the beginning there, after the first shot I felt a pain-ish pressure in my testicles, stronger than the first time, so he gave me a second shot; I still felt something, so he gave me a third shot. That did the trick. I was still tense though and did the breathing and toe and hand flexing. But again I felt nothing, I had no idea what he was doing, how far along he was.

Then it was over. He showed me the little bits he’d removed – longer than I’d expected, maybe one inch – cleaned up and then put a huge wad of gauze over my scrotum. He helped me pull on my jockey shorts. He said I should not bike or run for at least a week, and after that, I could do it if it felt okay. No sex for 3-4 days. I asked him about the sperm sample; he said that the number of ejaculations is what counts. He said six would probably do the job, but that by the 12th I’d be pretty certain to be all clear, and then should come in with a sample for analysis.

I then walked gingerly out to my wife in the waiting room. She was pleasantly surprised that I could walk, she thought I might need a wheelchair or something! We got into the car, I immediately stuck a pack of frozen peas down my shorts, and we went home. I removed most of the gauze, leaving just a few pieces since there was very little bleeding.

Last night I sat and watch TV with my son and wife. I wore two pairs of too-small jockey shorts, putting the package of frozen peas in between them over my scrotum. That works really well, the outer pair of shorts securing the peas so I don’t have to hold onto them, and I can even walk around the house.

The icing hasn’t bothered me at all. Partly it was probably the lidocaine, but even after it wore off, the coldness doesn’t hurt, it numbs. I kept the ice on all evening and went to bed with it secured between the shorts and a cooler filled with ice and frozen peas next to my bed. I changed the peas a couple of times during the night. When I rolled on my side I stuck a big pillow between my knees to keep my legs apart.

I have to say that the ice is actually great, I’ve felt no pain or discomfort yet, 14 hours after the event. But I’ve also never seen my scrotum get so small! I got a good look at the scars this morning. They are tiny and I had to look really hard to find them. My doctor made incredibly small incisions. On the left side, I can barely see it, on the right side it is maybe 3-4 millimeters.

I’m staying home from work today, watching DVD’s, using my laptop to surf the internet. I’m going to keep the icing going all day, rotating the peas as they thaw out. I’m finding that the one-pound bags are a really good size. And I got them on sale, $1.50 a bag, so I bought six of them, which turns out to be the right number, given thawing rates.

October 2, 2005 update

Day 10:

One great thing I discovered this week was the forums! Wish I’d found it before my vasectomy if you haven’t checked it out do so!

I’d also add one detail, my vasectomy is a close-ended with titanium clips. I asked my doctor if the clips would set off alarms at the airport and he assured me that they won’t. In his words, “There’d be a lot of strip searches if they did”…

So far things are going very well. I’ve had no real pain, just some aches, discomfort, and swelling. The first weekend I really took it easy, icing with bags of frozen peas. I stopped icing after the first 24 hours, after that wearing two pairs of tight shorts. I went to work Monday, took a couple of ibuprofen. I did have to be careful when I walked, my balls were still very sensitive. I left work a bit early on Monday. When I got home I lay down and fell fast asleep for a couple of hours.

Over the rest of the week, things gradually improved. At first, my scrotum was swollen and it and my balls were very sensitive, but that decreased day by day. By today, day ten, the swelling is pretty minimal, and things look almost totally normal.

I did have a dark bruise appear on the left side, almost black, circular, near the base of my penis, about an inch or so in diameter. I didn’t hurt though, and since I’ve read that bruising is to be expected I was not really concerned about it. By today it’s almost totally gone.

The incisions turn out to be more around 1 cm or so; the icing had contracted the skin so I thought they looked smaller. They have been no problem, the first day there was a bit of blood on the gauze but after that no blood, no oozing or anything like that.

One challenge was sleeping at night. For the first week or so I wore the tight shorts to bed every night, using a pillow to prop my legs apart when I was on my side. Four nights ago I decided to sleep without shorts, just letting my balls hang freely, and it worked okay, especially with the pillow keeping my legs apart. The first night without shorts was a bit uncomfortable and I had to be very careful when I moved. But by the third night, it was very comfortable, I still am using the pillow and adjusting my balls when I roll onto my side or back, but overall it’s been fine.

One thing of concern is that while my right nut was down to pretty much a normal side and feels pretty normal, the left side seems to have a big swollen hard lump in there with it, around where the clip is. It doesn’t really hurt, you can’t tell from the outside, so there’s no external swelling, but it is sensitive. My doctor said it’s nothing to worry about, that I should just continue to take it easy.

The first night I don’t remember any erections – probably because of the pack of frozen peas stuck in my shorts – but after that, they are back to normal and don’t cause any pain or discomfort in my balls or scrotum. On day three, in the middle of the morning, I noticed a sensation of something oozing out of my dick; I checked and it was “precum”, quite a bit. Now, this usually only happens to me when I’m already very horny and hard and in the midst of the action. This time though it was out of the blue, I wasn’t hard or horny or even doing anything at all sexual. I felt a very light tingling sensation in the tip of my dick, and the oozing of more precum than I get in usual situations.

My doc told me ejaculation was okay from day 3-4, so on day three I carefully tested, making sure to not jostle the boys. I have to admit I was kind of apprehensive and nervous so it took a bit longer than usual. But everything worked fine, nothing fell off, and in fact, the orgasm was incredibly intense. I jerked off two more times, on days four and six, and all three times were absolutely amazing, more intense than anything I’d ever experienced.

Then last night, on day 9, I felt comfortable enough to try to have sex with my wife. At first, I was a bit worried that the banging around and movement would hurt the sensitive areas, and I cupped my hands around my balls to kind of protect them. That didn’t work so well. So then I let go, my wife gently touched them all over, which felt nice and made me realize they wouldn’t hurt. So then we had sex. And the orgasm was even more amazing than when I had jerked off. Very intense, very long, welling up from my dick spreading in waves to my whole body. I couldn’t help making a lot of noise – since the kids were in bed just down the hall, I had to put my hand and then a pillow over my mouth. Afterward, I was shaking, twitching, and had a kind of all-body afterglow. My wife was quite impressed.

After ejaculation, I feel maybe a bit of soreness in my balls but nothing long-lasting or serious. I did get a good amount of precum in these sessions. I still don’t feel like I want to ride my bike or go running yet, or even walk a half-mile. But each day I feel noticeably better, and I’m hoping to be able to bike by next weekend. We’re having some beautiful biking weather!