I just had the “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” experience of a vasectomy

I went in for my vasectomy on Thursday, took all the necessary pre-surgery steps of shaving the area, anxiety pill, antibiotic, etc. Got to the clinic and everything was going smoothly, the dr that was performing my surgery had actually done another one on me just months prior (removed a fatty mass that was growing in my neck), we even joked about him having a punch card where you get a free surgery after the 5th visit.

When I was being prepped for surgery I noticed there was, what I thought at the time, two nurses present, later discovered that the second was actually a new (I’m not sure the accurate term so I’ll just say) medical student in training. So my normal dr started the procedure on my right side everything was super easy and the most I felt was a pinch from the needle used to numb the area. The medical student was watching very intently the entire time.

Then it came to the left side and I hear him tell her “ok, got all that” and she replies back “yes, you made it look so effortless”. At this point I’m just laying back in the chair relaxed with my eyes closed waiting for the procedure to finish. Then I feel a really strong pinch in my left side and pop my eyes open to see her squeezing around my left ball. I guess the intent was for her to watch and then perform the surgery on the left side, I hadn’t consented to this, so I laid there weighing my options and eventually decided not to say anything because “everyone is new to something and needs to learn eventually.” I am regretting that decision a bit currently, the left side took about 4 shots of numbing and more digging around to find the bad then the right, I even heard at one point “nope that’s the wrong tube…” It was a lot longer of a procedure and I felt a lot more pinching and pain, which I made sure to vocalize.

So here I am like 4 days later, my right testicle has been healed since Friday night with no pain at all, but my left is still very bruised and in pain, icing it does help. I also felt a slight lump on that side earlier today which is probably a hematoma. I’ll probably be going to the clinic later today for a follow up exam to make sure everything is ok with the left. Just really wishing I had spoken up to opt out of anyone but my scheduled dr performing the full surgery.

Edit: wow this blew up more then I expected. I posted it in the morning when the kids were still asleep and haven’t had much time to reply to everyone after they woke up. I did send a follow up note to my primary care dr (same building as the surgeon) just waiting to hear a response back. There’s still a good size black/bruised spot on the left so my main concern right now is addressing that and making sure it’s nothing to worry about long term. I’ll address the actual procedure part after we get this squared away.