Had the snip

Well, I’ve had the snip, which apparently is surprising to most of the folks who know us.

Both Tanya and I are pretty darn clucky. We want more kids. But there’s this huge issue we can’t get past – Tanya’s health is just not going to get any better any time soon. Her arthritis is looking like it is staying, and her meds to maintain a moderate level of activity are simply incompatible with a pregnancy. We were very lucky with Mackenzie that she wasn’t deformed or brain damaged or dependant. We can’t knowingly do that again to another child as it’s not our life we would be affecting.

After a couple of close calls recently, where there were two terrible choices – either Tanya going back to Australia with baby girl for nine months of bed rest at her parents and 10-15 hurls a day with the associated forced weight loss, or aborting, which both Tanya and I are against. We had to make a tough decision.

So here I am.

It’s not as bad a pain as I thought it would be, but it certainly wasn’t without it’s scary moments.

I’m not good with needles, and I’m sort of glad I was put under as I don’t think I could have coped with the normal process, which involves a needle to the each site to numb the skin, and then a big needle full of local to each of the testes so you can go home in some comfort before the real pain sets in. I don’t care if you’re brave or not, that’s just one big needle I could not face.

The biggest problem so far is getting up. You can’t lift more than 15 lbs, which is about 7 kg. Baby girl currently weighs about 10 or so kg, so basically I can’t lift her. I can’t easily lift me either. So getting up and down is a painful experience.

I’m resting comfortably. After 24 hours, the pain is manageable, and most likely I’ll be completely okay by Monday or Tuesday.