<human>: Could you distill the essence of the text into 1-3 sentences?

Background Info:

I have a 6 year old neutered male cat who has developed cystitis in the last 4 years. The first 2 years, he would have an occasional UTI. I think he had maybe 3 total in those 2 years. When he was 4, we moved 12hrs away. The move was stressful for him and he had his first blockage. We rushed him to the emergency vet. Luckily, the pain meds allowed him to relax enough that he unblocked before they used a catheter. His second block was 4 months later. This was a full block. He was given a catheter and a 2 day stay in the hospital. From that point on, he had a cystitis inflammation about every other month. Always struvite crystals. Not always an infection. 
During this time, he was always on a wet food diet. Before he blocked, he was on wet foods like Fromm, Wellness, and Before Grain. After he blocked, we tried Science Diet CD. It didn't help. So we switched to Purina UR. It didn't help. I finally switched him back to the grain free foods he was eating before. He went 6 months without a problem (a long time for how he had been doing). Then he had another flare up. Took him to the vet and then he was fine for another 4 months.

Thursday, I returned from work to find, he was fully blocked again. Another trip to the emergency room. It went smoothly and he is back home and back to normal now.

Technically, he has had 3 blocks (3 strikes, you're out) although he cleared his first on his own. So now we are looking at the PU surgery. Despite pamphlets and vet info, I don't know anyone who has had this done. It is a very sensitive surgery with a long, difficult recovery time. Ideally, this would keep him from ever blocking again. But I would lie if I said I wasn't scared.

Has anyone been through a PU surgery with one of their animals? What was recovery like? Has your animal had any complications/side effects?
<bot>: My 6yr old cat has had 3 UT blockages. It is time to look into PU surgery. I am scared. What have your experiences been?