The Residual Sugar

I held out for almost two months. That's pretty good. I just couldn't stand it any longer. I needed to ride my bike. I was told no riding any straddle type things (bicycles, motorcycles, horses, certain bar stools) for three months and I promised myself I would follow doctor's orders. But it's been tough. Gorgeous weather, boredom, sad looking bike in the barn, it all takes a toll on a guy.

I figured if I was going to void the warranty on my prostate surgery, I was at least going to be careful about it. Some research on some cycling blogs, particularly crazyguyonabike.com led me to try a Hobson saddle. This is one of a relatively few "alternative" saddle designs out there that popped up during the whole "BICYCLE SADDLES MAKE YOU STERILE" craze back in '02. It's basically two pads that support your butt and no horn to put pressure on nerves or the pelvic bone. I tried it on the bike on a stationary trainer for about half an hour last Saturday …

It's coming up on two months since my surgery. In some ways the time has flown by. In others it feels like I'm still in the hospital, except without the morphine which kind of sucks.

So much of the detail is already fading away. There are a few things I've learned I want to share for anyone who might be going through this before they slip away completely.

When you start the laxative routine the day before surgery, plan on staying close to your toilet for the next 8 hours or more. I'm sure it's different for different folks but it took maybe two hours for it to start working and I was expelling waste from 3pm until midnight and had two more trips to the bathroom Wednesday morning. There were probably snacks from the 70's I was getting rid of.

Drink a lot of liquids. The laxatives are dehydrating you like crazy, as do the antibiotics. I suspect that going into surgery hydrated helps everything afterward. Also, they don't give you coffee in the hospital. So if y…