One Week of Consistent Exercise

I am closing in on my first week of resistence and treadmill training. I know my exercise is nothing that will turn me into Hans n' Frans from SNL, but everyone has to have their own goals and start from somewhere. I just happen to be starting at the bottom of the fitness barrel.On a good note, I haven't been sore from my workouts, which probably means I'm not really working out. However, a good testing of the waters and balance are the two aims I am trying to achieve at this point. So the fact I'm not sore is probably a good thing. Next week, if all holds and I'm not in terrible nerve pain, I'll probably up my reps or sets. I want to keep the weight the same a I cautiously move forward.

The treadmill has gone well this week. I wear an athletic supporter to make sure there's as little jiggling taking place as possible. I am very methodical in my treadmill approach too. It takes me a good 7-8 minutes to work out of my self-imposed warm up period. I do not want to advance too quickly and suffer a set back. Set backs are not good for my outlook on life. So I may be resembling the tortoise in the famous race with the hare, but I don't really care.

My pain levels have increased slightly during this week of exercise. But it is still manageable, thank God. I believe this is a time in my life when God is teaching me patience, real patience. Not the kind where you get in a hurry behind a slow driver, but rather the kind where you have to be smart and slowly move forward with a game plan or suffer disasterous consequences. I have always been inpatient and wanting things yesterday. So this is a real change for me; a good change I think. Again - thank you God.

As far as describing my pain today, I have an inguinal pulling sensation on my right side. This usually comes with too much sitting. Despite the exercise implementation, I have been overall less active because the weather here has been kind of wet, cold and dreary. Our usual afternoon walks around the neighborhood have been on hold in the last week and I think that is part of my pain uptick. However, I'm sure the exercise isn't helping.

On a side note, I have not been stretching out. It seems that stretching does increase my pain drastically. So I am hoping that doing such light workouts at higher reps will provide some natural and gentle stretching, without me having to bend at the waist, hold for a minute or so, etc.

I am also doing some of those pelvic floor exercises - Kegal I think they're called. I'm not sure if they're helping, but I don't think they're hurting, so I'll continue with them. I have noticed a strengthening of my pelvic floor since I've been doing them. I suppose that's a good thing.

Well, here's hoping you have a blessed weekend. I have a men's bible study tomorrow morning. We're reading the book "Disciple" by Bill Clem. It's a great book and has provided me with a lot of insight. Highly recommend it to anyone who is interested. Then I believe I am meeting with my discipliship mentor. I really see God working in my life since we've moved to our new state. Not that he wasn't before, but perhaps I'm more open to him working in my life since we've moved. I don't think he's changed, but rather it's me.

Maybe some day I'll even be able to tell somebody why I love Jesus so much. I pray that happens because I think people can relate to my story. Anyway, I'll save that for another day. God bless and I pray you have learned something by reading this.

Plowing the Field

Day 3 of walking and eating right is going well. I'm having a lot of nerve pain though. I think that might be related to the stretching I've been doing after my walk. It seems like stretching makes the nerve pain worse. I may skip that step today. But, I'm going to keep walking even if I continue to have pain. That's a hard thing for me to say and I guess, my resolve on this matter will be tested at some point.

Besides having post vasectomy pain syndrome, I also have cardiomyopathy - or at least I did. My heart seems to have rebounded nicely, according to my cardiologist. But with my extreme inactivity related to my PVPS, I've noticed that I get short of breath with very little activity. This makes me think that I've got to get my heart back in shape. Especially, if we want to be the outdoors family - hiking, camping, fishing, etc.

I spoke to my wife last night about what I've been going through: regarding my pain. I try not to bum her out too much with this kind of update, but it's important for her to know what I'm going through. So we usually have an update session once every month. She was very supportive of my intention to walk and become active again. She feels, as do I, that the nerve pain may be a barrier to my activity for a while, but it may get better over time. The more I walk, perhaps the less pain I'll have. The theory is the pain fibers will be freed up with the walking motion instead of being entrapped from all my sitting around.

The stretching is a key piece for me, because I love to stretch out. Oddly, it is my favorite part of exercise. I may try to perform the stretches that I know don't cause any pain at first. Then slowly add gentle stretches which incorporate my core/abdominal/lower back/groin muscle groups.

As far as my pain goes, I had a lot last night. I woke up a couple of times. This morning has been okay. The occassional nerve like groin pain and slight feeling of discomfort where my scrotum attaches to my body. I pray today will be a good day for me and all others who suffer from this dreaded syndrome.

Staying Positive

It's hard to stay positive when you're in pain. I don't know how people do it. The guy from my church who helped me out so much was a living example of that. He was very positive despite having pain that would cripple most people, including me. I think how weak minded or weak spirited I am to crumble when I get the little bit of pain that I do experience. But I was never taught how to keep a positive attitude when life throws you a curve ball. Thankfully, my friend from my old church helped me quite a bit.

But we've moved and I don't have that quick resource anymore. No more bull sessions on the sofa when I could pour out my feelings and frustrations. There is something to be said for having an outlet, someone to talk to who can help you over the rough patches.

I finally broke down and took some tylenol this morning. I have had constant pain for the last couple of days and I remember my friend telling me you need to break the cycle of pain. The nerves won't do it by themselves. So, I took some tylenol. We'll see if it helps.

I went for a long walk yesterday (50 minutes). Strange, but I had some chest pain while I was walking along with my usual scrotal pain. I'll have to keep an eye on this chest pain stuff. Today, I walked for 30 minutes and stretched out afterwards. I'm going to try to slim down a bit, see if that doesn't help also. Right now, I've got the 40 year old ponch above my beltline. People still think I'm skinny, but I do have some belly fat to lose. If I slim down, that may help with how much tugging takes place below the belt line. I don't know. If nothing else, the walking and diet should help my heart.

I'm good at starting things, but not finishing them. I hope I can keep this going. I think it will be a real coup if I could.

My pain today feels like my scrotum is being ripped off from my groin. Doesn't that sound like fun? Ripped might be too harsh of a description though. It's more like I feel the weight of gravity on my scrotum, like it is being pulled away from my body and the skin is being stretched about as tight as it can. But upon visual inspection, my scrotum looks "normal". The pain does make it difficult to keep a positive outlook though. With every pain, I feel like something bad is happening, rather than just realizing the nerves are being irritated as per normal. Anyway, I hope walking, stretching, hot baths and the tylenol will help break this bad cycle I've been in lately.

Another Hike

Despite the inguinal nerve pain, life goes on. Today we're going hiking about an hour and a half away from home. That means time in the car and then the hike. Not sure how things will turn out. I will probably take some tylenol and/or ibuprofen before we head out.

I slept ok, but did a lot of stretching this morning before I got up. If I remember correctly, whenever I do a lot of stretching in the bed prior to getting out, I tend to have a lot of pain during the day. So I'm not sure what kind of day today will be. I'm hoping that since I've blogged about what I expect to happen, the opposite will occur. I know, I know. I can't explain this reasoning. That's just where you go when you have chronic pain issues. I'm not proud of it.

I just pray the pain doesn't keep me from enjoying my family and what the Lord has created. Have to cherish each day - you know what I mean??

Just Marking Time

Today is about the same as yesterday. I've noticed that tylenol gives me about a 48 hour window of improvement. The same is true with an E.J., on my right side anyway. However, my right side is bucking that previous trend. I'm still having this right inguinal ache. I'm starting to wonder if it is related to my reversal or my inguinal hernia repair I had when I was 23 years old. Of course, it would be coincidental for that to start hurting at the same time of my reversal nerve pain.

So here I sit, doing about the same. I may call my uro up in about a week and see if I can get a 4 mg sample of the rapaflo. I really didn't like the way 8 mgs made me feel, cardiovascular wise. The decrease in pelvic pain was good, but the rest, not so much. But maybe a 4 mg dose will have less side effects and still give me the pain relief I had with 8 mgs.

Or maybe, I'll continue to improve and not need any of it by next week. Progress for me can really be measured in months, rather than days or weeks. If I look back to my recovery at post-op month number 1, 2, 3, 4 and now 5, I can say the pain has been less by each monthly anniversary. However, it's still annoying because I want to see immediate improvement. It's like comparing a second hand to an hour hand as they both sweep around a clockface. One is immediately noticeable, while the other isn't.

Left side feels okay today. I did some stretching last night along with very, and I mean VERY, light duty abdominal/leg exercises. Most people wouldn't even consider what I did as exercises. I learned my lesson from before though. I need to ease into things. So I'll do them again tonight and hopefully repeat them for a few weeks before I even think about advancing in them. I'll keep you posted.

The Vasectomy Pain is Back - Sort of

Yesterday was a busy day around the house. I was feeling great though, and I didn't have any pain at all. I painted, I installed a new ceiling light, I drove a few errands in the car, I actually felt normal. That is probably the best day I've had since my vasectomy reversal surgery back in December.

Today I woke up feeling okay. "Wow", I thought. All that work yesterday and I'm waking up feeling just as good. However, I did stretch out pretty hard this morning in bed before I got up. I stretched my legs and arms like I haven't done in quite a while. Then I felt a slight sensation in my groin. Nothing that was painful or even that noticeable, to be honest with you. Just something that reminded me that I probably shouldn't be stretching that aggressively because something bad might happen.

I got dressed, drove us all to church, sat down and then "Wham". A pain came out of nowhere on my left groin side. Then "wham" again and a couple more times. Then we drove home (my wife drove this time) and I made a sandwich. Then my right side started hurting. I was having nerve pain again. In fact, as I type this, the nerve pain is hitting me on the right side.

I took the Rapaflo last night, just like I have the last several nights. But now, the pain is back. However, I think the pain on my left is still related to that pesky spermatocele. Today just happens to be only 54 degrees. When it's cold outside, my scrotum pulls up to my body and pushes that spermatocele into stuff that shouldn't be getting pressed upon. What about the right sided nerve pain? I think that is simply from me over doing it yesterday.

So today, I'm taking it easy. I'm going to help my son with his biography of John Wycliffe for school. Make sure he's ready for his spelling and history test at school tomorrow, and then I'm turning in early. We have almost everything done at our house. Just some packing away stuff for storage, add a touch up of paint here and there, etc. The big projects seem to be done. I have a couple of neighborhood kids taking care of the landscaping, mowing, edging, etc., so hopefully, I can continue to heal up in my pelvic area.

Oh, and not that this has anything to do with vasectomy side effects, but I was asked to teach next week's Sunday School for the 7-10 years olds. That's the first time our church has asked me to do anything like that. I hope I don't let them or the children down. It's quite an honor that I take seriously. Well, that's about it. Until next time, don't get a vasectomy.

Stretching Seems to Help a Lot

I've done some neighborhood walking, nothing too brisk. I've also done some stretching and those two things seem to help with the testicular pain. That doesn't mean that sitting and driving won't make the pain come back, because it almost always does. But I will keep walking and stretching in hopes of keeping the pain at bay.

I also ejaculated last night and surprisingly, the little annoying ache I had on my right side went away. It seems that my body is overly sensitive in the scrotum and little changes make big differences in my pain levels. I've also noticed the further out from my vasectomy, the less swelling I have on my right side. I have a little "knot" when my reversal was, but the swelling around that knot has almost all but disappeared. I think this is good news. Especially given how my right side has not been hurting as much, as a general rule, as it did in my first two months post-op.

My left side still gets that racking sensation but again, I think it's due to the spermatocele I have on that left side. I've also noticed that my computer chair isn't very comfortable. Not a lot of cushion, so I may have to fix that.

Well, I'll be curious about how today goes. Hopefully, I can have a run of several good days in a row, Lord willing.