Da Vinci vs Open Surgery rehab?

I've only had open surgery, but since nobody else has had both procedures either I'll take a crack at this.

For open surgery:

1. I think my catheter was in for 10 days, but as I recall it had something to do with the surgeon's availability. Some guys have a shorter time with the catheter, but I don't think this is affected by the type of surgery. By the way, a few docs don't use a catheter at all, but use a temporary drain. I've heard really good things about this approach.

2. Incontinence is all over the map. Some guys are dry in a few weeks; an unlucky few never are. Time-frame is highly variable. Again, I don't think this is affected by the type of surgery.

3. Similar to incontinence; all over the map. I think a lot depends on how good your function was before surgery. Surgery sure won't improve it, but with proper rehab most can get most of their function back. Time frame is highly variable.

4. I think you can start real easy in a week or two.

5. I'd say 8 weeks, but this has a lot to do with age, general physical condition, etc.

Sorry I couldn't give you a cut and dry answer, but a lot of this stuff really does depend. It depends on your condition going in, the difficulty of the surgery and the skill of the surgeon.

Most aspects of recovery aren't affected by the type of surgery that much. Return to exercise and generally feeling better might be a week or two longer with open surgery, but that's about it. Everything else depends on your condition, attitude and surgeon.

If you're trying to decide which way to go, I suggest you find the best surgeon you can and let him do it his way. Get a good doc and you'll be fine.

Good luck, and let us know what happens.

Jonathan

Four weeks recovery .. But incontinece comes back quicker than ED which can take up to two yrs.

I can't compare but I had open due to Gleason 9 . My cath was out in 13 days, I played golf in 21 days and was dry after 13 weeks. I understand DaVinci takes hundreds to be adept , but once adept the recovery is quicker. I had no complications since I had mine at a center of excellence Johns Hopkins to which I traveled. In either case choose a surgeon who has done many hundreds of surgeries.
Bob

My recovery was quick and remarkable. 2-3 days of discomfort followed by immediate and full physical recovery.

I wanted robotic over open surgery for many reasons including the advertised recovery processes.

That said, it's more critical to choose the one that provides you with the best professional available rather than picking solely based on type of surgery. It's the experience of the surgeon which is the most critical aspect of the equation all other things being equal.

no, also because I don't have this condition. Maybe someone here can advise further. I've never heard of this, however even after 3 years of reading threads here. Another solution is to ask a few surgeons who perform robotic surgeries this directly.

I've not heard of a connection between glaucoma and surgery options, but I don't suffer from it, so it did not come up.

DaVinci surgery - Spent 4 nights in the hospital, had a lot of problems with nausea and balance. Was day 4 before I could walk the hall without having a nurse on standby with a wheelchair.

I was on limited activity, no driving, 5 pound lift limit for the first 4 weeks out. Got my driving pass at just over a month (but when I drove 20 miles to a friend's for dinner, I wasn't sure I could get back home again), kept the 5 pound limit for two more, then upped to 10 pounds. Was cleared for normal exercise at 5 months out.

Never did get dry, am still on 1-3 pads a day at over 4 years out.

ED, they took all nerves due to the extent. Trimix works.

BTW,

I went into surgery (daVinci) at 2:30 pm and was discharged the next morning at 10 am after I eat a big breakfast. Only problem I had wasn't from the surgery but from the carbon dioxide used to inflate your abdomen, even though they try to deflate your after surgery I had some gas migrate up to the shoulder which caused considerable pain the first two nights.

As for the catheter removal, it was a non-event. I thought it would hurt, but really the second it took to remove it felt strange, but was painless.

I was restricted from driving the 10 days I had the catheter, and the first month I was restricted to 10 pounds. After one month the urologist said I can do anything except ride a bicycle until after 2 months. Walking was never a problem, even the day after surgery. Getting up or down out of chair or anything else using your abdominal muscles were painful, but after a week it wasn't a problem.

As for exercise, the doctor said let your body be the judge.

I had Da Vinci robotic surgery two years ago, discharged the following day with pain meds and Viagra (100 mg)prescriptions for ED and cath was out after 10 days. The first week was painful for me in terms of getting up and bowel movement. I was back playing table tennis three times a week in a month and bowling in six weeks. Concerning incontinence, I was one of the unlucky that never recovered from incontinence after the surgery but I am fully dry now since I have an artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) installed seven weeks ago.

I had robotic surgery in 2007 and had the catheter out in 10 days. I was one of the very very lucky ones in that I was getting rock solid erections the day the catheter was removed and by the one year mark, I was waking up every mourning with an solid erection. To this day, still no problems with erections. 

Continence wise, I used 5 to 7 pads for three months and now, 7 years post op. I still have to wear a mini pad to catch the occasional stress leaks.  It is a little frustrating, but I can live with it. 

The thing that frustrates me more then anything is that I now ejeculate urine when I have an orgasm. I ejeculate urine with such force that I can hit the cieling with a good orgasm. Matter of fact, I ejeculate urine with more force now without my prostate then I ejeculated seman when I had my prostate.  This can put a real damper on your sex life. Not too many women like having urine ejeculated into them. 

Hello:
My uro is most experienced with open, and his partner does robotic, so I went with the open. In retrospect, I probably would go with the robotic due to the length of my recovery. I was in the hospital 4 days, and sick as hell for the first 2 days. I was on narcotics for pain for about a week. I had the catheter about 14 days.
I was able to resume bicycle riding after about 4.5 weeks, which made me feel better.
I was off work for 5 weeks, but I could have gone back after 4 weeks.
Urinary function was slow to recover, and after 2 years plus I still leak a lot.
ED has been a nightmare. It is just now at the 2-year point where I get good response to the pills and actually get some reasonable response naturally with no pills. Up until about 22 months post-surgery, it was injections only.