Steve’s story: Vasectomy under general anesthetic experience and advice.

This story (or article, or diary, or whatever you want to call it) chronicles my experiences with a vasectomy performed under a general. There are many debates with respect to whether or not a general is easier. For me, I believe a general may have been the right choice.

Background

I’m a 24 going on 25-year-old male, married, with 2 children (1 biological, 1 from my wife’s previous relationship, but still mine in my mind). My wonderful wife cannot use the pill, as she suffers from serious side-effects (severe headaches which have resulted in hospitalization). Our birth control method of choice had to date been an IUD. While highly effective as a method of birth control, there are some unpleasant side-effects from these as well (increased cramping during her period, for example). Additionally, the IUD would cause some discomfort for both of us during ‘harder’ sex (she would get cramping, and I could feel the damned thing poking me).

One additional point of information that is relevant, I have never had a medical procedure of any kind performed on me, other than having a shattered boneset. I still have my tonsils, appendix, and every other sort of ‘unnecessary’ bit of flesh I was born with. While I consider myself lucky in this regard, this did provide me with reason to pause on several occasions, as there was the fear of the unknown.

Oh, and before I forget, I live in Ontario, Canada.

Decision

Shortly after the birth of my daughter (our second child), I decided that I didn’t want any more children, but was not 100% sure. For this reason, my wife decided to get another IUD, while we thought about things. Well, time flew, like it always does, and it was soon 3 years after she was born. My wife getting anxious to get on with her life and feeling less desire to have another child. I myself was finally starting to hit my stride in my professional career and realized I would not have the time to have another child and give them the attention they would require. So in February of 2001, I decided that I would get a vasectomy. My wife offered to have her tubes tied, but after researching both, I found vasectomy to be more palatable, especially given my wife’s age (27). A visit to the family doctor results in a referral to a urologist (who will remain nameless simply because I haven’t asked his permission to name him). Unfortunately, the consultation wasn’t until the 23rd of April.

The worst part for me was waiting for everything. I had countless sleepless nights, considering everything that might happen, or COULD go wrong. Slowly time slipped by. The consultation was moved to the 16th of April, and I took that day off work (it was to be the first day of a new job).

Consultation

Monday rolled around, and I awoke with a feeling of dread. I wasn’t looking forward to the consultation. You see I’ve never liked doctors of any sort. My father has experienced roughly 6 heart-attacks and cancer, and therefore most of my dealings with doctors and hospitals lead to unpleasant thoughts. Additionally, there was an element of stage fright (totally illogical, but go figure).

The consultation was scheduled for 11:00 am, and I dutifully showed up with my wife at roughly ten to 11. This is when the first thing went wrong. I ended up waiting nearly 2 hours to actually see the doctor. My stress level was soaring. When I finally saw the doctor I asked the usual questions (my list of questions is attached to the end of this document). The doctor was rather brief with me, probably due to his workload, probably due to the fact that the intern who gave me a quiz figured out that I knew just about everything there was to know about vasectomies, their risks, procedures, etc.

One thing that made me uneasy was that the doctor didn’t like to allow the wives to be present. (At this point I was still going to have a local). This did not make me happy. I was present at the birth of our child and would have wanted my wife there for moral support. This news came just seconds before the news that nearly sent me through the roof; the doctor was booking the procedures into September! “September,” I thought to myself, “I can’t go that long thinking about this.”

I promptly proceeded to express my strong dismay at the proposed date. It was at that time that the Dr. suggested that I may want to consider having the procedure performed under a general, as it may be easier to get time in the O.R. However, there were no guarantees as to when that would be. I agreed to book me for the 13th of September and see if we could get something sooner under a general. I just wanted the damned thing over and done with.

I returned home in a rotten mood, as a result of what I thought was a total waste of a day where everything that could go wrong did. I located another Dr. in the area that could perform the procedure sooner, and found one that would be happy to consult with me the following Monday, and perform the procedure that Friday. I booked time with him and carried out the rest of the week.

On Wednesday, my wife informed me that the first Dr.’s office had called and said they could do the procedure on Tuesday in the O.R. under a general. Luckily my new employer was very understanding, and I booked that appointment (and canceled my other consultation, better the devil that you know). The procedure was to be performed on Tuesday, with a pre-op visit on Monday.

Pre-op visit

God this was a total freaking waste of time. The only thing they told me, that I didn’t already know, was that I would have to remove my nipple ring (big deal). Pre-op is mandatory for a general, but also totally pointless for me. For those wondering, it was merely a ‘don’t eat after midnight, 8oz of fluids between midnight and the operation, maximum.’ No blood tests, etc. So I went to work, to try and get some stuff done before I would be missing time. Sleep Monday night just did not happen. I tossed and turned until 4 am. Monday night was also shaving night. ASK your doctor where you need to shave. I normally shave as does my wife, so for me, it was more maintenance than anything.

Arriving at the hospital

With my operation scheduled for 9 am, I had to be at the hospital by 7 am. Now my nerves were really getting out of control. I couldn’t believe I was doing this, but I walked into the hospital (I used to work on the attached university campus, so at least it was somewhat familiar). Walked up to the desk to check-in and luckily didn’t wait in the waiting room too long before a nurse came to call me to get changed. (It was roughly 7:15 am at that point). So into the changing room, I go. Strip down, put on the ugly blue gown. Luckily I had been advised to bring a housecoat along and tossed that over top.

Now I go into waiting room #2, which is more a prep room than anything. This was the WORST moment of the entire thing for me personally (with respect to nerves). It was time for them to start the IV. For those wondering, you need an IV for a general, but here’s the good news, it’s one needle rather than many (antibiotics, painkillers, anesthetic, all through the one tube).

Now here’s the thing. I hate needles. I mean I despise needles. Probably has something to do with some early childhood experience, I don’t know, and IV needles look painful, and they put them in your hand normally. Now, this sounds horrible, trust me I know, I was thinking “no fucking way!”

At this point, I had the nurse stop. I needed a minute, I was on the verge of losing it totally and going home. I looked at my wife and asked, “Do I really need to do this?” Both my wife and nurse replied that I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to. In hindsight, I’m very glad I got these answers from BOTH of them. Had either tried to convince me, I would have likely headed home and regretted it for many years.

So another few seconds of thought, and I said, “Okay, let’s just get it over with.” Grabbed hold of my wife’s hand with my left hand, and prepared for my right hand to be impaled by the IV. A quick warning from the nurse, “You’ll feel a nasty poke,” and it was over. Guess what, surprise, surprise, it hardly even hurt. I knew it wouldn’t hurt, but there was no way I could convince my 7 am emotions of that beforehand.

Then the IV was started, for those that haven’t had that, it’s a VERY weird feeling, I could feel the liquid coursing through my veins. It wasn’t painful, just weird and yet cool at the same time. At this point, it was like, “Okay, I’m going to do this.”

Now for some advice, if you are going in under a general, have it at the crack of dawn. You can space out while the IV runs, etc. Since I had a 2-hour wait ahead of me, being half asleep was a blessing.

At roughly 9 am I was escorted to the O.R. waiting room. I waited here for roughly 20 minutes, and felt a few nerves spring up again, but nothing I couldn’t control. No terrible dread this time. That was behind me. I had made up my mind, and that was that.

Roughly 9:30 am (and me getting frustrated by waiting that long) it was time to walk into the O.R. Yes we walk into the OR here for day surgery 😉

O.R.

Once the Dr. had escorted me to the O.R., I was asked to remove the housecoat, slippers, etc., and lay on the table. I still had the blue gown on but was asked to make sure it wasn’t pinned under my bottom. I lay back, and they started hooking up the miscellaneous monitors to me. This is standard practice, and somehow being hooked up to computers made the nerd feel immensely better.

My arms were strapped down to prevent me from thrashing about I suppose, but not tightly to the point where it felt like I was trapped. The anesthesiologist went right to work, first giving me something he said would relax me. Again I could feel the foreign substance coursing through my veins. There was a little sting or burning with whatever this stuff was, but again it was more of a curiosity than outright discomfort.

A couple of seconds later it was time for the anesthetic itself. Now, this burned. But only for a brief second. I remember remarking ‘wow, that smarts,’ and being reassured that it was normal. I just lay back waiting. A matter of seconds later the room started getting wobbly, kind of like I was looking through I wavy pool, and I knew I was on my way to ‘la-la land’. That’s the last thing I remember of the pre-procedure or the procedure itself. My next memory was a vague sensation of movement as I was being wheeled into the anesthetic recovery room.

Anesthetic Recovery

By the time I hit the anesthetic recovery room I was awake. Now, this was probably the most frustrating part for me, after the procedure. I just wanted to go home, but they have to keep you for a while to make sure you come out of the anesthetic ‘cleanly’, with no ill-effects. The nurses in this room were wonderful and dropped a shot of morphine into my IV for pain. I just lay back and relaxed. While there was some discomfort the knowledge that it was over and down with was a relief that I cannot begin to explain.

At this point I was feeling discomfort, but nothing I could pinpoint. Just a LOT of sensation in that area. I stayed in the anesthetic recovery area for about a half-hour, before being wheeled to general recovery where I would be reunited with my wife, whom I hadn’t seen since my walk to the OR, and was rather looking forward to seeing again.

General Recovery

When I hit general recovery, the nursing staff went to fetch my wife. A few minutes later and she was back. She told me the doctor had been to see her, said everything went well and gave her a prescription for Tylenol 3s. I instructed my wife to go get it filled at the hospital pharmacy since there was nothing else to do for the next hour.

Shortly after she returned, I began to feel increased discomfort. Partially a result of the morphine wearing off, and no doubt a result of my looking down at ‘the boys’ (for the first time) to see what was up. There was a LOT more blood than I had been expecting to see, and it was in an unusual area. Since this is as good a place as any, I will mention something that I haven’t seen documented on the websites. I had only ONE incision in the center of the scrotum. Not knowing this was possible I was a tad bit freaked when the bandage came off the next day in the shower. So if you wake up and there is only one incision, RELAX, it’s fine.

So I waited around and felt some increased pain. The nurse offered me some of the hospital’s stock of Tylenol 3s, but I declined. I was still a little woozy, but I wanted out of that place badly at this point. I’m a smoker who hadn’t had a cigarette in 6 hours, and I wanted one.

I just lay patiently and waited for the mandatory hour to pass. Finally, the nurse came by and said, “you can get dressed and leave now, I’ll get you a wheel chair.” Now I didn’t need a wheelchair, but they insisted… silly hospitals.

So I slipped on the tight boxers which had been purchased just for this occasion. Preceded to get into my jogging pants, and shirt, etc., and wait outside for my friend to pick my wife and me up from the hospital. While sitting outside I had my first cigarette. This was a bad bad idea. I almost vomited as a result of nausea. If you have a general lay off the cigarettes for at least a couple more hours than I did. My body was a drug factory at this point and didn’t need anymore.

Heading home

The rest of the day was uneventful. The was discomfort, but my discomfort was more a result of swelling. I never had that “kicked in the balls” sensation that is often described. The pain was more of a dull ache, (dull in the sensation, not the strength). The first day I was very sore and had 3-4 Tylenol 3’s.

I never had visibly severe swelling, and to date I’ve had very little bruising. However discomfort was the name of the game. Don’t get me wrong, I could have lived without medication, but I had it, so I figured why suffer unnecessarily.

Swelling was likely helped by application of icepacks, both in recovery at the hospital, and at home. I did this religiously the first day, and I think it helped.

One thing that ice wouldn’t help was the incredible headache I had. This is often called a ‘hangover’ and is from the anesthetic. This stuff works fast, but like alcohol will leave you hurting the next day. My headache was likely made worse by the stress factor, but it should be noted.

Sleeping

Something I think is often overlooked is sleeping afterward. I’m not someone who can sleep on my back, I have to sleep on my side. So here’s some common-sense advice. Make sure you have a big fluffy oversized pillow. Put that between your knees. Now you can sleep on your side. Sleep is important to healing, so get some.

Day 2

First thought: “Oh my god, I did it!”. Second thought: “Owww.” Third thought: “This headache again”.

Day 2 was spent on the couch spread eagle, some ice, some pills, and just relaxing, allowing my body to heal and adjust. The shower on the morning of day 2 was a little traumatic as I got my first look at the incision. I almost fainted. Luckily my wife was in the shower with me to help me (my mobility was obviously restricted). I hadn’t spoken with the doctor yet myself, so I didn’t know anything about the procedure beyond what my wife reported, and she wasn’t present, so…

After the shower, I placed a call to the doctor. I felt much better after talking with him. It seems things went well, according to him, he explained the incision, and confirmed he did an open-ended as I requested. Having settled the unknowns of the procedure I felt remarkably better mentally. It was done and had been done as I wanted (open-ended).

I consumed most of the tylenol 3’s on day 2 to ease my nerves and calm that headache.

Towards the end of day 2, I was feeling a little frisky, and I also wanted to make sure everything worked right. So my wife and I retired to the bedroom, for a little gentle manual stimulation. Much to my relief, everything worked right, there was no discomfort from the ejaculation, no blood, no nothing. The discharge seemed normal if a little thin. However, I was told I had nice large tubes, so I think it’s possible that I might have had a slightly higher sperm content than the normal 3-4%. I’ll monitor this and let you know if things change at all.

There was some slight discomfort during, as the erection leads to a tightening of the skin, which increased pressure, but it was not bad enough to stop me 😉

The rest of the day was uneventful, and the trusty pillow accompanied me to bed again.

Day 3

Remember way back when I mentioned the new job. Well, I had stuff to do. I joined in a rather senior position and was not about to let the company down. So that day I headed to the office. I put in a solid 6-7 hours. There was discomfort there, and I left my pills at home, but luckily one of my co-workers graciously gave me some Advil. This was sufficient for pain management. I spent the day walking like a cowboy but managed to get something accomplished.

On the headache side of things, I didn’t have one this day. So I was grateful for that. I’ve had headaches off and on since, but I think it’s just maybe my body adjusting to numerous things. Or it might just be work, who knows. They have been manageable after the first couple of days.

Normally I walk home from work, but today I took a cab. I didn’t want to push things too far. I was back at work on Thursday and had the procedure done on Tuesday, so in hindsight, I guess I have had a pretty good run.

Apart from work Day 3, was notable because it was the first real game-day test of the equipment. Yep, real live stimulation in that area, and not manually. Gentle, but effective, again no pain, and a much happier me. Everything worked, and I have barely missed a beat. “This may be been a good idea after all,” I remember thinking to myself.

Day 4

Uneventful, other than I walked home from work that night. BAD idea. Should have taken a cab. Some pain and discomfort that night. I include this only as a warning to not over-do it when recovering.

Day 5

Worse than day 4, probably as a result of my walk home (it was probably 2-3 miles (3.2-4.8km), at most. Just spent the day on the couch, relaxed, watched the baseball game. That night I was starting to feel better again. Still some weird sensations in that area, but nothing that couldn’t be handled.

Day 6

I’m writing this. Now my concern is whether I have to wait the month to turn in a sample, or whether the 15 ejaculations is the magical number. Make sure you ask your doctor if you are lucky enough to have a fairly active sex life, as I do.

Conclusion

If I had known all that I know now, I would have had this done a long time ago. I hope some of you will find this document helpful and informative. If you feel I have left something out, please feel free to let me know.

Submitted by Steve