4.08.2011

Sittin' On Peas - Chapter Four: The First Full Day of Not Being Whole

I may have overdone it.

Didn’t feel any pain when I woke up this morning. That was a pleasant surprise. So with that, I did normal household stuff, even though it was suggested I stay off my feet for a couple of days. Which means carrying the two month old around, going to the store, bringing laundry from the bedroom to the washing machine, etc.

I don’t know if the lower abdominal discomfort I feel now (not pain, just enough to remind me I had surgery less than 36 hours ago) is due to the lack of support (I ditched the jock strap Thursday morning) or the increase of activity. I fear wake-up time Friday will be more challenging than wake-up time Thursday was.

One last thing. I didn’t plan this surgery to coincide with the Masters, that was a happy accident. Unfortunately, the gentlemen who run the tournament decided not to let the cameras on until 3pm; by that time I was doing other things (like thinking of swapping my gas smoker with a charcoal one). I’ll try to use (ahem) massive pain I am suffering to hunker down in the basement for a couple of hours tomorrow.

4.06.2011

Sittin' On Peas - Chapter Three: The Beginning of the Aftermath

Well, that’s done.

The procedure took less than 30 minutes. I’m home in no pain currently; I’m sure that will change when the local wears off.

I forgot to take the Valium (damn!), but I guess I didn’t need it. I got a prescription for Vicodin, so I can fall even further down the road to chemical dependency. I’ll try not to take any; hopefully Extra Strength Tylenol will be enough.

The only disconcerting part of the procedure was the smell of something burning. That something was me as the ends of the vas deferens were sealed. I didn’t feel anything and I couldn’t see the doctor applying the soldering iron to my most delicate area, but intellectually I knew what was up.

As for what happens to the semen, it gets broken down and absorbed in the body.

At one point, there was a change in shift for the assisting nurse. The change led to these comments:

Assisting Nurse: I assume if you had fantasies of two women administering to that area, it did not look like this.

Me: The costumes were different.

Included in the post procedure instructions was the fact that it will take approximately 20 ejaculations to flush out any semen remaining downstream of the vasectomy (samples at 6 and 8 weeks will also be taken to ensure I am no longer firing live rounds). So basically I have a doctor's note to jerk off. I don’t know what kind of countdown clock I’m going to use, but whatever it is, it will have to be something benign enough to avoid an explanation to the four year old daughter.

Sittin' On Peas - Chapter Two

Thought flowing through my mind a couple of hours before:
  • · I could have negotiated this with the wife better. We both knew The Peanut was going to be our last child, but I volunteered getting this done too quickly. I don’t know what I could have gotten in the negotiation (French Maid outfit? More golf? A banishment of ‘Toddlers & Tiaras’ from the household?), but something could have been acquired.
  • · Have to remember to ask where the sperm goes after the procedure.
  • · I was given a Valium to take before to relax me. It will be my first experience with the drug. It would be sad if a vasectomy was the gateway to a nasty Rush Limbaugh-like prescription drug addiction.

Packed and ready to go. See you on the flip side.

4.05.2011

Sittin' On Peas - Chapter One


Things I’ve learned preparing for the procedure:

  • · My wife has jokes.
  • · Target doesn’t sell jock straps.
  • · I won’t be in stirrups.
  • · The reason there is a fractional chance of regaining fertility is, instead of cutting out a section of the vas deferens (the tube that makes semen leaded instead of unleaded) and sealing the edges (forcing the sperm to make an Evil Kneveil like jump to freedom), there is just a snip and and seal with the end butted against each other.
  • · Sterilization is a word used regularly. I’m not terrible excited about that word. Makes me feel like I’m a victim of the Tuskegee Experiment.

Nine hours to go.

P.S. When you look for images on Google for jock strap, you see more scantily clad men with rippling abs than heterosexual men are prepared for.

Sittin' On Peas - Prologue

In under 18 hours, I will go in for a vasectomy.

Since I found out I would be a father for a second time, I knew 2 was the maximum number of children I would want to sire. Combine that with my distaste with wearing condoms for the remainder of my life (which is about 7% of the reason I got married) made the choice fairly clear.

I will be off my feet for a couple of days, it gives me a chance to write about the experience. Stay tuned…

1.11.2011

The Unequal Comparison Between Harsh Political Discourse and Violent Entertainment

Like a broken clock, Rush Limbaugh isn’t horribly, pig-headedly wrong every once in a while *:
Go out and try to tell these same people that one of their top grossing movies has influenced abject perversion or radical behavior and they will attack you left and right, saying, "That's entertainment. It stands alone. People know the difference." You go out and accuse them of engaging in work, their art, such as crucifixions in jars of urine or whatever other acts of perversion they engage in that they call "art" -- their movies, their music -- and you go try to tell them that their music is responsible for criminal behavior. Look at the reaction you get from that. You are considered to be a numskull, old-fashioned, out, and not with the times. They permanently, constantly insulate themselves from any influential behavior they might be responsible for and yet run off without any evidence whatsoever and admit they've got no evidence.


This was Limbaugh’s response to critiques of he and other conservatives’ coarse political discourse in the wake of the assassination attempt on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. In a nutshell, Limbaugh tells the left you can’t say Sarah Palin love of guns is causing nuts to shoot people, then say Michael Bay’s love of guns or Young Jeezy’s love of guns doesn’t cause nuts to shoot people. Limbaugh is correct there, but he misses two important points.

First, the threshold for our political leaders should be higher than our entertainment leaders. Sarah Palin, in particular, is considered a political leader. She doesn’t currently hold an office (this is where I remind everyone Palin quit her job), but she is considered at least the face of the modern Tea Party movement. There are things the average person can say that we don’t want our political leaders to say (Barack Obama calling Kanye West a jackass comes to mind, irrelevant of how true it is).



More important, the entertainment Limbaugh refers to isn’t real. The movies and music are realistic, but at some point a director says cut, or a music producer stops the recording and the artist goes back to a trailer and enjoys illicit drugs and casual sex a spot of herbal tea. It is the responsibility of society to ensure the less able members (the young, the mentally challenged) know this.

This hits home for me personally as a fan of hip-hop and a father. I happily listen to songs with lyrics calling for the murder of rivals, the regular sale and/or ingestion of illegal drugs and a repudiation of sexual fidelity. I am also a (gulp) 40 year old man and know this isn’t real. And it is my responsibility to make sure my children understand the entertainment they take in shouldn’t always be taken at face value.

If Pailn and Limbaugh want to admit their discourse is mere entertainment, I’d happily put them in the same category as ‘The Sopranos’, ‘True Grit’ and the latest Jay-Z album. I imagine they would both defend themselves and their comments as deadly serious.

If that is the case, I refer to my comic book geek past: ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’

* The link is to Andrew Sullivan's blog referring to Rush Limbaugh. Rush sin't getting any pageviews from me if I can help it.