Paul’s experience: Problems afterward with a hematoma

8 December

Last Friday my number finally came up and I went under the knife. A couple of days later one side swelled up, which I figured was just normal.

However, I had to take a trip to the emergency doctors this morning as the swollen side had reached football like proportions. It was causing me that internal sort of pain during the night I sure you all know and love (something which had previously been reserved for when I stood up). Also, the stitches had started to bleed pretty constantly (probably due to immense internal pressure!).

The doctor put me on antibiotics and said he’d send me back to the hospital on Monday (he hinted they might want to open me up again to remove the clotting! Which, if I’m honest, scared me a lot…)

15 December

I went back to the hospital on Monday, by which time I was in a lot of pain. I was admitted and told that they’d do an ultrasound that evening, and take it from there. At around 7 pm I got a visit from a nurse, who said they wouldn’t be able to do the ultrasound that day, so I’d have to wait till the morning.

About an hour later, a head poked around the curtain. It was the surgeon who performed the original operation (conventional scalpel, BTW). He had a feel around (whilst tutting, and muttering things like “oh dear, oh dear” & “so, so unlucky”). Eventually, he announced it was a hematoma, and he wanted it out that night! He asked me when I last ate (around 6 pm), and said he’d get on to the anesthetist and try and schedule surgery for midnight.

From my bed, I could hear his side of the telephone conversation, from which it was clear the anesthetist was not keen to do it that night. When he returned, he confirmed this, but said “he’d work on her” and asked me not to eat anything just in case.

By about 11 pm I’d still not heard anything, so decided to go to sleep. As I was dozing off, I heard a woman’s voice, on the same phone around the corner. She was clearly having a slightly heated discussion about something. When she’d completed the call, I could hear her talking to someone else in the ward. Just as I was starting to doze off again, I heard her say “..then he said his testicle was at risk, so I had to agree!”.

Needless to say, I got out of bed and hobbled around the nurse’s station. It turns out she was the anesthetist and, surprise, surprise all systems now went for midnight. I said to her we’d wait unless she was 100% confident, but she said she was, and the only reason for her apprehension was that there are not as many people around at that time of night, in case things go wrong.

She also said there were 100 other surgeons who could have done it in the morning, but he only wanted to do it that night because he was booked all day Tuesday and so he wouldn’t have been able to do it himself…

Needless to say, at least on a subconscious level, I wasn’t overjoyed about the whole situation (especially having to have a general anesthetic after all the negative spin I’d been fed to get me to have the vasectomy under local in the 1st place…)

Anyway, to cut a long story longish, when I came around I felt really, really weak (like I’d been hit by a truck). Turns out when they tried to bring me around, my whole body had gone stiff as a board. So, they immediately put me back under to consider their options. Then they gave me a drug (haven’t looked into this stuff yet), which they apparently give to patients in for serious operations, which paralyzes the muscles. Then they tried again. The same thing happened, but to a lesser extent, then my whole body shook (minor convulsion, I guess), and I came around. How scary is that!?

Anyway, a side effect of this drug is that you feel really weak for a couple of days (every muscle was comprehensively screwed).

As well as removing the hematoma, they also put a drain in, which came out on Wednesday before I was discharged.

As for my (now not so) privates, I’m still really swollen on one side. However, I can sit comfortably at least, and no more shooting pains up my side towards my abdomen (although still tender to the touch). The surgeon says to take it really easy for a while and I’ll be looking at around 6 weeks before I can even think about getting back to sports. Also said I’m looking at up to 6 months for the swelling to go completely (don’t care as long as it feels OK before that!)

21 December

Here’s a quick progress report.

Some of the main stitches have come undone, leaving an open wound of about 20x10mm. Looks pretty gruesome, but no pain thankfully (if it hurt anything as it looked I’d be in real trouble!). The nurse who changed the dressing on Tuesday took a swab. When I went in this morning to get the dressings changed again, she phoned the lab who informed her that it was, in fact, infected. So, she called the GP, who put me on a course of Augmentin 500mg.

Well, at least Christmas doesn’t look as grim as I first thought because at least you can drink on the stuff. On a brighter note, there’s no internal pain (which would worry me) and I’m sure, over (probably lots of) time, the swelling will go down (still a pretty big hard lump in there, but it’s much smaller than it was)…

Since I sent the original story, I’ve received a private email from another guy, who’s in pretty much the same boat I was in, just before I was referred to hospital to have the hematoma evacuated (he was due to visit his GP because of an increase in pain/swelling the day I got his mail)…That was a few days ago now, and I’ve not heard anything since. Poor guy.

If you’re reading this, then keep your chin up as things do improve (OK, so I’m not quite out the woods yet, but I’m confident I’m on the mend).

Final thoughts

Now, vasectomy politics (a whole new branch of politics I never previously knew existed…)

It is true that it’s highly unlikely that your average guy off the street (ie. me) would have any idea of the possible complications on the way into their pre-snip consult. It is also true, they’d most likely be none the wiser afterward. This is an extremely valid point, which can be made in around a paragraph or two. In fact, I’d say this is the main problem with the ‘vasectomy industry’ which should ideally be tackled in the surgery during consultations (after all, not every guy with too many kids has access to the internet).

Your site contains personal stories, for better or worse, which I applaud. Hopefully, the weighting of negative/positive stories in some way reflects the statistics. However, I think you should put more emphasis on urging your visitors to read these, especially the bad ones (when I had a brief look before the snip, I know I didn’t). Just so people know what to expect if things do go wrong (no matter how statistically unlikely). Also, the overall tone is perhaps a little too “pro” for comfort.

Folks, all these “have one”, “don’t have one”, “have one”, “don’t have one” threads are no help to anyone.

Submitted by Paul