I'm surprised that this newer operation requires 3-days in the hospital. I had the older, more invasive surgery and I was out in about 30 hours. At the time ('98) I was not into biking, but I did have to lay off weight training for something like a month. However, in three months I was canoe tripping in Canada and portaging 120 lb loads for up to a mile and had paddling days covering up to 27 miles in zero current.

I probably started regular cycling about 2 years later and have never noticed any after-affects from the operation.

Interestingly, this new operation has the lowest rate of post-operation satisfaction. Here is an excerpt of an article.

Al

Regrets After Prostate Surgery

One in five men who undergoes prostate surgery to treat cancer later regrets the decision, a new study shows. And surprisingly, regret is highest among men who opt for robotic prostatectomy, a minimally invasive surgery that is growing in popularity as a treatment.

The research, published in the medical journal European Urology, is the latest to suggest that technological advances in prostate surgery haven’t necessarily translated to better results for the men on which it is performed. It also adds to growing concerns that men are being misled about the real risks and benefits of robotic surgical procedures used to treat prostate cancer.

Duke University researchers surveyed 400 men with early prostate cancer who had undergone either a traditional “open” surgical procedure or newer robotic surgery to remove the prostate. Overall, the vast majority of men were satisfied. However, 19 percent regretted their treatment choice. Notably, men who had undergone robotic surgery were four times more likely to regret their choice than men who had undergone the open procedure.

Researchers say the higher level of regret among robotic patients suggests that they had higher expectations for their recovery, possibly because the robotic procedure is widely touted as a more innovative surgery than traditional prostatectomy. Even among men who had the same scores on erectile function and other measures of post-surgery recovery, the robotic patients still reported a higher level of dissatisfaction and regret than other men.

Part of the problem may be that doctors who perform robotic prostatectomies commonly cite potency rates as high as 95 percent and above among their patients, giving patients an unrealistic view of life after surgery.