Saddle post-prostate biopsy?

[djnotts]

Prostate biopsy (targetted transperineal version) yesterday afternoon. Procedure far from pleasant but only moderately painful! No pain as such overnight, indeed right now FEELS as if could get straight out for my daily 10-25 miles.
The nurse practitioner who did the procedure happened to be a cyclist. When I asked about getting back on a saddle he said about a week, which is what I had planned.
Internet skimming suggests a noseless or split saddle safest. (A full seat recumbent probably best, immediate and longer term, but expensive and difficult to source during current travel restrictions.)
Any experience/suggestions welcome.
Thanks.

[saudidave]

I had exactly the same procedure last December. I found it excruciatingly painful when they did it but OK after I left the theatre and I was back on the bike 8 days later.

I ride a Brooks B17, my sit bones are perfectly placed on the rear wider part and because B17's are rock hard you don't sink in and there is no pressure on the perineum at all. I am aided by a Thudbuster ST that does it's job admirably & is well worth the £150 I paid for it.

I'm having a robotic prostatectomy a week tomorrow, following the confirmation of multi focal cancers and whilst I'll be a tad longer returning to the saddle, probably 5/6 weeks all being well, I have no intention to change the seat at this stage.

[thirdcrank]

No experience and I hope I never have any but good luck with this, both for your quick return to cycling and in the longer term with your results etc

[djnotts]

Thanks both.
Saudidave, I am surprised by total lack of any discomfort or even any external signs that it happened after less than 24 hours!
I have 2 localised, quite large, sites, which have not grown nor spread since first located by MRI a year ago. At that point I refused a biopsy. I have had one now to try and get a handle on degree of aggressiveness and thus on life expectancy. I am not inclined to undergo any treatment whatever the results.
I get what you say about Brooks, but I have never liked them. I ride reasonably firm saddles e.g. Selle Italia SLR XP, all on the narrow side but then I am very skinny!
One junior doctor that I saw a year ago dismissed surgery as a possibility - must find out why - age? Other health issues?
Boredom already setting in! And yes I know that's a small beer worry!

[DevonDamo]

Prostate biopsy (targetted transperineal version) yesterday afternoon. Procedure far from pleasant but only moderately painful! No pain as such overnight, indeed right now FEELS as if could get straight out for my daily 10-25 miles.
The nurse practitioner who did the procedure happened to be a cyclist. When I asked about getting back on a saddle he said about a week, which is what I had planned.
Internet skimming suggests a noseless or split saddle safest. (A full seat recumbent probably best, immediate and longer term, but expensive and difficult to source during current travel restrictions.)
Any experience/suggestions welcome.
Thanks.

Noseless saddles will 100% achieve the objective - i.e. zero pressure on anything other than your sit-bones. I've been using one for 10 years, including 100+ miles per day touring, and had absolutely no problems. (I have started using a normal saddle again on my mountain bike, but that's because I'm teaching myself to wheelie and it's more difficult to do the steering with your hips thing on a noseless.) I don't understand why, but noseless saddles are one of those areas where people who've never used them feel absolutely compelled to tell you why they're not a good idea - I guess this is because they don't like the look of them so are determined to formulate theoretical objections to them, which don't actually stack up in practice. (And there is one character on here who always pops up with warnings that these things put your private parts in danger. I don't want to go into the biological details, but suffice it to say, I can't imagine how it could be even remotely possible for such a thing to happen, but in previous discussions we basically established that he was a 'Buster Gonad' character who refuses to wear underwear...)

If you want to go down this route, then I'd recommend you try the following one, as it's a cheapo copy of a much more expensive one, but I own both versions and this one is good enough:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Noseless-Bicycle-Saddle-Bicycle-Cycling-Bike-Seat-Saddle-Cover-Soft-Cushion/233735844334?hash=item366bbdf1ee:g:ET8AAOSwr~ZfBKah

The only thing you might have to do is find a way of adjusting the saddle so its pointed more 'nose down' than normal - otherwise you can get jabbed in the back of the thighs by the front prongs of the saddle. (I have a seatpost which has a single slot which is used to adjust the saddle angle, and I just had to lengthen this slot forwards with a metal file to get the saddle to angle down lower than normal.)

[Jdsk]

One junior doctor that I saw a year ago dismissed surgery as a possibility - must find out why - age? Other health issues?

There's a whole series of difficult decisions that have to be made and the options and evidence change pretty quickly.

There's a well-informed discussion about this in another recent thread.

The key steps are to find the right specialist and make those decisions together with a high degree of common understanding.

Jonathan

[djnotts]

Thank you! Already had this one in my "Watch List"!
Cheap enough to give it a go - off to hit buy button.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Noseless ... Swr~ZfBKah

[djnotts]

One junior doctor that I saw a year ago dismissed surgery as a possibility - must find out why - age? Other health issues?

There's a whole series of difficult decisions that have to be made and the options and evidence change pretty quickly.

There's a well-informed discussion about this in another recent thread.

The key steps are to find the right specialist and make those decisions together with a high degree of common understanding.

Jonathan

Thanks - indeed there is much to research and ponder.
My "independent living" expectancy is at best a couple of years and that impacts significantly on my thinking.

[saudidave]

Prostate biopsy (targetted transperineal version) yesterday afternoon. Procedure far from pleasant but only moderately painful! No pain as such overnight, indeed right now FEELS as if could get straight out for my daily 10-25 miles.
The nurse practitioner who did the procedure happened to be a cyclist. When I asked about getting back on a saddle he said about a week, which is what I had planned.
Internet skimming suggests a noseless or split saddle safest. (A full seat recumbent probably best, immediate and longer term, but expensive and difficult to source during current travel restrictions.)
Any experience/suggestions welcome.
Thanks.

Noseless saddles will 100% achieve the objective - i.e. zero pressure on anything other than your sit-bones. I've been using one for 10 years, including 100+ miles per day touring, and had absolutely no problems. (I have started using a normal saddle again on my mountain bike, but that's because I'm teaching myself to wheelie and it's more difficult to do the steering with your hips thing on a noseless.) I don't understand why, but noseless saddles are one of those areas where people who've never used them feel absolutely compelled to tell you why they're not a good idea - I guess this is because they don't like the look of them so are determined to formulate theoretical objections to them, which don't actually stack up in practice. (And there is one character on here who always pops up with warnings that these things put your private parts in danger. I don't want to go into the biological details, but suffice it to say, I can't imagine how it could be even remotely possible for such a thing to happen, but in previous discussions we basically established that he was a 'Buster Gonad' character who refuses to wear underwear...)

If you want to go down this route, then I'd recommend you try the following one, as it's a cheapo copy of a much more expensive one, but I own both versions and this one is good enough:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Noseless-Bicycle-Saddle-Bicycle-Cycling-Bike-Seat-Saddle-Cover-Soft-Cushion/233735844334?hash=item366bbdf1ee:g:ET8AAOSwr~ZfBKah

The only thing you might have to do is find a way of adjusting the saddle so its pointed more 'nose down' than normal - otherwise you can get jabbed in the back of the thighs by the front prongs of the saddle. (I have a seatpost which has a single slot which is used to adjust the saddle angle, and I just had to lengthen this slot forwards with a metal file to get the saddle to angle down lower than normal.)

I'm struggling to understand how a big soft saddle that envelops your entire bum cheeks doesn't cut off the blood supply to the entire area and render it numb after a short period of time

[saudidave]

One junior doctor that I saw a year ago dismissed surgery as a possibility - must find out why - age? Other health issues?

There's a whole series of difficult decisions that have to be made and the options and evidence change pretty quickly.

There's a well-informed discussion about this in another recent thread.

The key steps are to find the right specialist and make those decisions together with a high degree of common understanding.

Jonathan

Thanks - indeed there is much to research and ponder.
My "independent living" expectancy is at best a couple of years and that impacts significantly on my thinking.

Would it be too much to ask , on an open forum of this nature, why your independent living is jeopardised and you are refusing treatment? I fully understand if you don't wish to answer that.

[DevonDamo]

I'm struggling to understand how a big soft saddle that envelops your entire bum cheeks doesn't cut off the blood supply to the entire area and render it numb after a short period of time

I'm not surprised. I, too, could imagine a saddle like the one you describe doing the same.

[djnotts]

Extreme COPD. By dint of exercising almost every day (cycling mostly, walk if weather too awful) I have "bought" c.5 years already, but inevitable and accelerating decline continues.
Despite lung age in mid-90s I managed 6500 miles pedaling last year, but I can't delay it much longer!
I have no wish to simply sit hooked up to oxygen tank. Quality over longevity for me.

[saudidave]

I'm struggling to understand how a big soft saddle that envelops your entire bum cheeks doesn't cut off the blood supply to the entire area and render it numb after a short period of time

I'm not surprised. I, too, could imagine a saddle like the one you describe doing the same.

The logic of a B17 is that the contact area of your bum on the seat is tiny, just where the sit bones are, thus blood flows through the rest of it and it doesn't go numb. That's why virtually every long distance touring bike you see has a B17 or a similarly styled firm seat with hardly any padding. That padded one will completely envelope it and stop the blood flow, quickly numbing it. Sweaty too!

[djnotts]

Normally I would agree about firm, but not Brooks! In this instance I am simply trying to be able to do a few miles with no pressure on perineum area. 20 quid worth a try!

[DevonDamo]

The logic of a B17 is that the contact area of your bum on the seat is tiny, just where the sit bones are, thus blood flows through the rest of it and it doesn't go numb. That's why virtually every long distance touring bike you see has a B17 or a similarly styled firm seat with hardly any padding. That padded one will completely envelope it and stop the blood flow, quickly numbing it. Sweaty too!

You have absolutely confirmed what I wrote in my first post:

...I don't understand why, but noseless saddles are one of those areas where people who've never used them feel absolutely compelled to tell you why they're not a good idea - I guess this is because they don't like the look of them so are determined to formulate theoretical objections to them, which don't actually stack up in practice.

Your homework is to go away and find the physical dimensions of the saddle which we're discussing and come back and report your results. If you can't find them, you can simply ask me - which is what you probably ought to have done in the first place...