Sorry to hear of your ED issues due to this surgery. I’ve had to deal with that since my prostate cancer surgery 3 yrs ago. I got partial function back, but I’m still a far cry from my function before that, which was basically perfect, no issues at all. I did use vacuum pumps (which the Dr’s actually recommended) to help get the blood flowing into those chambers to prevent the tissue from deteriorating till the nerve function (almost always damaged during the surgery, even if ‘nerve-sparing’) recovers.
I found that some pumps work much better than others. The ones that use kind of a ‘pull lever’ work better than ones with a ‘bulb’ apparatus to produce the vacuum. Also, make sure that the elastic ‘sleeve’ that fits around the penis & attaches to the chamber is making a good seal. Use the correct lube & it’s often recommended to trim away some of the hair right around the base of the penis to ensure a better seal. So you need 1) a good seal & 2) a good pump mechanism, otherwise you may have leaks from either the seal or the pump & it won’t work properly. You can actually buy the elastic seals for these pumps separately (look online) - they’re pretty inexpensive, so if the one that comes w/ the pump doesn’t work well for you, try a few different designs & sizes to find one that works best for you…
I would absolutely NOT recommend trying to use a vacuum cleaner - that suction is WAY too strong & you could end up damaging those tissues & could then end up w/ permanent ED. Most likely your function will return after you heal, the nerves recover completely & the feeling returns. Be patient & don’t give up on the vac pump - you may just need a better one. I actually found one of the cheapest ones I have works the best, which surprised the heck outta me!