Disclaimer: My husband and I created this post to be a public service for the world. However, you know the topic of this post, so if you feel it might offend you, feel free to move along. Otherwise, read at your own risk.
1. Pay no attention to the hobbling, saddle-sore gentleman leaving the office as you arrive. Do not look down and notice that he has thoroughly wet himself.
2. On a related note, the Urologist’s office will smell strongly of urine. I presume that’s why it starts with a U and an R.
3. The morning of, your wife may be quite preoccupied at the conundrum of what one wears to her husband’s vasectomy – it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event, after all. You, however, should wear very loose, stretchy clothing. And take along extra underwear.
4. Speaking of underwear, although boxers might still make a fine second layer, tighty-whities are a necessary post-surgical evil, as excessive range of motion must be avoided. If the idea of tighty-whities makes you feel ten years old, buy a pack of dark, solid colors. Tighty-mauvies and tighty-navies aren’t quite so imposing on your coolness factor.
5. You will be awake, lucid, and possibly anxious during your procedure. Prepare to have a focal point in the attempt to separate your mind from what is going on. Find your Happy Place. If you’re not sure how to do this, ask your wife for help – she’s had to visit the OB-GYN at least once a year for half her life.
6. There will be nurses prepping you for your procedure. Female nurses – and more than one. They will laugh frequently and heartily at their own rapid conversation. They are not laughing at you. Certainly not laughing at you. Definitely not. Surely not. Ok, probably not. They do this thirty times a day.
7. Thoroughly reading and following the pre-op preparation instructions will serve you well – otherwise, that giggling group of nurses will have to do touch-up work – and nobody wants that.
8. Speaking of paperwork, it will THRILL your wife that you have to bring an authorization form with her signature in order for you to seek medical care of this nature. She might even march around the house singing about suffrage at the top of her lungs.
(Cast off the shackles of yesterday…)
(Shoulder to shoulder into the fray…)
(Our daughter’s daughters will adore us…)
(And they’ll sing in grateful chorus…)
(Well done, Sister Suffragette!!)
9. A vasectomy is ten thousand times more fun when live-tweeted in harmony with your wife. Your mind will be distracted by the attempts to share carefully yet entertainingly, and many followers will appreciate your candor and willingness to divulge such hard-to-come-by information.
10. Other followers will need to be prompted to unfollow or mute you for 48 hours.
(Facebook, however, is not the place for vasectomy humor. For obvious reasons.)
11. You may get up to three different sets of post-op instructions – one from the paperwork, one from the doctor, and one from the nurse.
(“Pick up your pain medicine on the way home and take as needed.”)
(“You probably won’t even need prescription pain medicine – just take Advil. That’s all I did.”)
(“Take your medicine, boy!! He may be the doctor, but I’m the nurse. I KNOW what you need. Don’t you be listenin’ to him!”)
Go with the most conservative approach. After all, you’re a man. You’re not used to pain down there.
12. Have at least four bags of frozen peas prepared at home for immediate implementation, and seal each well in a Ziploc freezer bag – because peas thaw. They smell like peas. They contain a certain percentage of juice… just use the bags.
13. Pre-plan how specific you want to be with your children regarding your surgery. Six-year-olds can ask some impressively nutty questions that may hit well below the belt if you’re not properly prepared to combat effectively. And speaking of combat, don’t forget to protect yourself from your toddler’s standard headbutt greeting.
14. Take note that the severing of your vas deferens may drastically change your taste in television. You may find yourself watching the Velocity Network all weekend, dreaming of a manlier era full of muscle cars and important junk in need of repair.
15. Pre-op instructions restrict several things, including athletic activity and horseback riding for two weeks following the procedure. That is a large range. Jogging two weeks later is okay. Horseback riding? For the love of all that is tender, please refrain from horseback riding until…just never do that again.
16. Clarify with your wife beforehand if you feel that you will need to sense her sympathy during your recovery, because she will require some time to practice faking. Especially if she’s had C-Sections with multiple complications.
(It’s a tiny snip. You’ll live.)
(Also. SHE GREW HUMANS FOR YOU.)
And finally,
17. When you’re fully recovered, please throw out your own peas. They are not salvageable, even when simmered nicely with a little ham and onion. Your wife doesn’t want to touch them, and nobody wants them left in the freezer for so long that everyone forgets their tainted past.
My husband got the snip in January as a pre-wedding present. We were in Korea, and he was the practice’s first Anglo patient. What’s a professional surgeon to do when presented with an unusual situation? Call in his colleagues. They all had a look at his junk and several took turns shaving him. After the surgery, one doctor poked his head into the lobby long enough to shout at me that I couldn’t have sex with him for a week, and to make sure he had a follow-up after 50 ejaculations. Sadly, that was not the most personal “conversation” I had with a Korean doctor calling across a waiting room to me.
This is so brilliant. He gets every possible bravery award for that one. As do you.
That was great! Jen’s comment is awesome, too! Haha
Hahahaha! I especially liked #16. Thanks for helping me always start my day off with a laugh. I always take a break at work to read your posts (although I make sure that the title isn’t visible to anybody walking by, especially today).
Thanks! And yes, I suppose that title should have come with a warning all on its own.
I really wish I hadn’t thrown away they brochure they gave us. The one from 1970 with a smiling wife holding the car door open for her husband. We’ve gone back and forth too many times regarding that smirk – I mean smile, and what it really meant.
Oh that is precious. We didn’t get a brochure! I will have to complain when we return our specimen.
Y’all are hilarious! You know us girls don’t feel sorry for you one minute, and I love that you can laugh at yourself and make it fun! Anything for a laugh, right?!
Exactly! I’m glad he enjoyed it and didn’t play the “poor pitiful me” card too many times.
Bahahahahaha….I.Still.Rolling.On.The.Floor….Bahahahaa….it actually reminded me of my cousin. His oldest was around Ali’s age when he had his snipped….the peas were used….and one day she out of the blue asks….as she sees the peas in the freezer….because no one had told her that her father was having a procedure….please tell me these are not for dinner!!! Her mother asked her why couldn’t they have them for dinner….(just playing along mind you) and her daughter proclaims….”cause daddy’s been walking around the house for three days with them stuffed down his pants and I don’t wanna eat them!”
That’s fantastic! I LOVE this story. I’m not positive that Ali realized that peas were being used, but I haven’t followed up to make sure he threw them out yet.
I just emailed this to my husband and he didn’t seem to appreciate the help. Too bad, cause I loved it.
Maybe the impending visit has zapped his sense of humour a little.
Oh well, a girl can try, right? Maybe it’ll be funnier afterward. Like, WAY afterward.
HA! This was hilarious. And now I’m dying to know about Ali’s “impressively nutty” (I see what you did there) questions.
I should have written them all down. It could have been a post in and of itself.
Hahaha
(of course…not laughing AT him….)
Too funny. Unfortunately my husband refuses to read it. I am trying to bring him around slowly. LIke I am startign 5 or 10 years in advance…
Ha! Just remind him of it when you’re nine months pregnant and miserable, then again when you’re screaming in labor. He’ll agree to anything then.
My husband got his done a year ago, and he just threw out his tighty whities. Too Funny. I wish you wrote this before he got his done.
I am curious what is to become of the tighty-mauvies. It seems a shame to throw out brand new underwear, but it’s certainly never going to see the light of day again. Or rather…the dark of day.
Oh my goodness this is hilarious! Love the tighty-navies. :) There is no way T would ever let me post something about his “area” getting worked on. Hahaha :) Chris has a great sense of humor! I’m pretty sure there’s no way my husband will EVER have this done…mostly because we know three different couples who had kids AFTER their V-Day, just to warn you. :)
You’re worrying my husband. Supposedly the four-step procedure his doctor used was foolproof. Hopefully your friends went to a second-rate vasectomist!
“Tainted”! I held it together til then… Oh, I am wicked…
I was both relieved and disappointed that no one had pointed that out. I guess I can’t play innocent on that one anymore…
2 things:
1. No vasectomy post is complete without mentioning smelling yourself burning.
2. You guys get bonus points for working Winifred Banks into the vasectomy post
1. He mentioned that in the tweets, but yes, there’s that.
2. Thank you!! I’m sure Vasectomy Paperwork was what she was singing about.
OMG, I laughed SO HARD. I can’t even rermember the last time I laughed so hard at a blog post. Probably never. I want SOSOSOSO bad to post this to Facebook, but like you said… FB is not the place….
Ha – thanks so much! Yes, it’s for a very particular crowd… :-)
hah. my husband had a vasectomy in february. he purposely didn’t read anything beforehand because he would have made himself sick. he seriously gets queasy at the sight of blood. i don’t know if his recovery was worse or what, but his balls looked like sad plums for almost a week.
oh! did you get to sit through your husband’s snip? i was so surprised when they called me back and let me watch…and smell…the procedure.
No! I totally would have if they’d have let me!
Okay, I want to be in there. Rachel, this is happening NEXT week and I am panicking. Yeah, you read that right. Me. Not my husband. Me. Panicking. Deanna, where did y’all go that you got to go back? Give me names! I want in! Somebody make me feel better about this! Waaaaaaahhh!
BTW, this whole post did help me take a deep breath. WHY am I freaking….?
I’m sure you were a perfect sad plum nurse. :-)
The first name of the doctor who did my husband’s vasectomy was Dick.
You can’t make that up!
Also, vasectomies pretty much bring out the 14 year old boy in me :)
There’s a doctor here in town named Richard Fix. I’m always disappointed that he’s a lung doctor.
Hilarious, Rachel! Especially the peas. My hubby had a vasectomy then had it reversed later. Both were a laugh a minute for me. Not so
Much for him.