How long after surgery should I wait to fly home?

I am having robotic surgery for PC in 6 weeks. If all goes well, I should spend 2 nights in the hospital. My tentative plan is to spend three additional days in a nearby hotel before flying home. The flight is around 2 or 2.5 hours, and then arriving at a huge airport, followed by a 1 hour car ride home. I will have someone with me the whole time.

My question is: how many days after leaving the hospital should I stay in a nearby hotel before traveling home?

Thanks.

Three days should be fine...

Bill points out an important issue, blood clots while flying. Your mode of transport should be discussed with your surgeon regarding blood thinners etc. I am of the belief that surgery is not complete until catheter removal. If not a financial burden I would enjoy the hotel stay until after catheter removal, but that's me.

Cheers, Doug

I have robotic surgery scheduled for March 2 (it's a 4.5 hour drive) at MD Anderson (Houston) and I'm planning on staying at the Rotary House (on campus) for eight days before travel home. I thought it would be good to stay at least a week post-surgery in case there were complications and so I can tolerate travel better.

Logic1 – Welcome to Healing Well. Sorry you have reason to be here, but glad you found us. Obviously check with your surgeon, but I agree with the others that you should stay until the catheter is removed. I traveled for surgery and stayed a couple of days after the catheter removal, just in case. We stayed in a suite style hotel with a kitchen and it worked out very well. As a bonus there was a recliner in the room, which I found most comfortable to be in for the first few days, because it was much easier getting in and out of the recliner than the bed. Maybe you could arrange to rent one for your stay.

Consider flying home first class if you can swing it, or upgrade to a “comfort plus” seat. The seats in coach, as you know, don’t recline much and are not very comfortable. Sitting more or less upright for long periods of time may still be uncomfortable on the way home. Get an aisle seat so it will be easier to get up to walk a few times over the course of the flight. I had a 3 hour direct flight + a one hour drive home and I did fine.

Also, on the return trip home, don't be a hero. Arrange for a wheelchair at the airports. I remember thinking to myself that it would have been a loooong way to walk.

And as others said, check with your local urologist about his willingness to do any postop follow up visits. You should have this conversation with him beforehand. Mine was perfectly ok with this, but I’ve heard that others refuse.

Best of luck to you as you go on this journey. Hoping for a successful and uneventful surgery and quick “trifecta” recovery. -- Tigerfan

I had my surgery in Houston on Thursday, discharged Friday to a hotel for 3 nights and flew home (8 hour flight) on Monday. At the airports, I used wheelchair assistance at all times and I flew first class. It was pretty uncomfortable, however, and in retrospect I should have stayed in Houston at least another couple of nights given the length of my flight. I was back to part time work a week after surgery and everything was pretty clear sailing from there on. Of course, if you can afford the time, good to stay until catheter removed.

So I had open surgery at Johns Hopkins, stayed in hospital two nights, then hotel one night after discharge to be sure no problems, and flew home next day. My wife stayed with me. I had Two flights, 2 1/2 hours and one hour and then a one hour ride home. Delta Airlines was great at transporting me through security and around terminals in wheel chair. No problems whatsoever. Cath removed by local Uro after 13 days. All of this is standard procedure at Johns Hopkins which performs 80% of its surgery on non local patients from around the world.
IMHO no need to stay near hospital any longer.

This is a valuable thread for me, as I'm a 2 hr car trip from the hospital. Not quite the same extent as a long plane ride and airport insanity goes, but it's still a question worth asking.

Halbert, I think a 2 hour car ride and some common sense would be quite doable.

Cheers, Doug