Hi All,

I have been watching this board since January. Here is my story. I was not happy to see the ongoing pain.
I noticed there was not much on this for those of us with vasectomies. I had one in 1994. 38 now, in good health.
The vasectomy really has not been a problem, had some post pain due to strain but quickly recovered.
Classic symtoms for me, built a new house and garage this past summer, heavy lifting, wood cutting etc. While digging to bury my power cables I had a pulling/burning in what I would call the lower knot on the left side. Chalked it up to hard work and the vasectomy. After taking it easy all felt good, but in November, still working hard pain was more frequent and hurt more.
By January the knot in the vas on the testicle side felt like a red hot fire button. Shooting pain from the sack to my abdomen. So I spent many hours on the couch and needless to say the pain made sitting, driving or anything else difficult. Soon my back began to hurt, sciatic type pain, I had this before from a back injury. An MRI showed nothing. Probably because I favored that side so much. Definatly a swollen epididymus. Then I get a pain in my left thigh mainly when pressure is put on like when lifting. I was kinda freaked out. So off to the Dr. not my regular, but another GP. 7 days Cipro, That first exam left me in pain for the day and night.
Next to see my regular Dr. GP also, no idea he says, does not know why this would still be there, Cipro 14 more days. Good for me, I made an appt with the Urologist beforehand. Cipro seemed to help, had a week in-between regimens. The 1st Urologist had 35 years experience. An exam and a prostate check done, he says no prostate trouble, he seemed very casual about it, "Yea, you have some local swelling, since your vas is not connected, it should not be an infection. He put me on Celebrex (anti-inflammatory) and said that if I want in two weeks he could do a epididecomy and that would solve my problem. I was not excited about that, all that I have read though seems to point to decent results for those of us post vas. I have to admit, after the exam I felt better, on his advice I started heat/massage therapy. I have seemed to gotten better, each week is about half of the last as far as pain goes. So before I started the Celebrex, I decided to wait and see, I had some setbacks but not huge, but I still need to be completely rid of the inflammation. By the way for me this is only in the epididymus, and does NOT seem to be in the testicle. So I wanted a second opinion before I did any kind of surgery. I also started the Celebrex, for me it has made a very big improvement, I almost cancelled my second opinion today.
I went anyway, I found this guy through my insurance docfinder, his credentials had "surgeon" in them. Who better to ask I thought. He too has 30 years experience. He did the exam, heard my story and then gave me a 20 minute vasectomy/anatomy lesson. He seemed thurough and knowledgable, said he has seen alot of this in his career. Our town is about pop. 100,000
His explanation was acceptable. He said the vas being tied off builds up pressure and the body sees sperm as foreign. The epididymus is a tiny tube coiled up in there, he thinks I probably "blew out" a little area like a mini inner tube blowout, thus the body would attack the sperm and inflammation would be the result. The body may heal from this. Also micro-cysts are very common he claims. He has seen this pass and be gone and also be bothersome to the point of the person electing the epididectomy.
Also he claims the body will react to the vasectomy and eventually stop sperm production (he thought soon for me as I am at 10 years.) I am in a wait and see mode. Thigh pain he said was due to a large nerve complex in the area that will radiate pain and sensations to the leg/thigh. He said the surgery is effective and has done many. The main thing is again leakage of sperm from the testicle)He has had 3 leakers in his career. I must admit I feel 95% better and did not feel like both Urologists especially the second, were just guessing, The second guy had it rough as I studied alot and also this forum helped me for todays vist. Any other vasectony related problems out there? My brother in law had the exact same thing happen and never went in, about a year later it was gone and has not returned.
I will post anything new here. Hang in there all. Now that I have put most of you to sleep with my rambling, I will end it here.

MC