For anyone that is thinking about the above I just came home from having mine taken out in San Antonio using the di Vinci robot and to put it bluntly, it was a piece of cake. I was walking down the ward hall about 5 hrs. after the op and went home the following day at 2pm. No real pain, even driving 3 hrs. back to Corpus Christi.

I have a catheter which will come out in 5 days. It is no problem, in fact in a way it is good to have. No more getting up at night (one of the other problems with an inflamed prostate), 3 hrs in the car with no pit stops, no pain pissing after the ops.

I am 63, 6 ft., 175 lbs., and in very good health and have no doubt that if I was so inclined I could probably go back to work next week. I am not inclined in the least and will milk this baby for all the days off I can get, but my feeling is that I could certainly go to work if I needed to.

The recovery period for the old fashioned open prostatectomy (gut and gill) is about a month from what I understand. In my researching about this operation I talked to many men that have had the open type op done and most said that they still didn't have their full strength back even after 6 months.

Guys, I would highly recommend that if you are over 40 get your PSA checked annually. I wouldn't choose to have this op done just to pass the time, but, from what I understand, it sure beats the hell out of prostate cancer.