Would you drive back from the surgery?

I live in Seattle and am thinking about getting a laparoscopic DS from Aceves in Mexico.  (Although I have not exhausted all attempts at insurance coverage yet.)

 

My husband and I have always wanted to car tour the South West and visit family and go to Area 51, Los Vegas, Hoover Damn, Grand Canyon and even into New Mexico's Roswell and white sands.  We would do all the tourist stuff on the way down. 

But the way back is three days ~8 hours driving each day in a comfortable SUV.  Would I be up for 4 days after surgery?  A week?  Two weeks?   Can you think of anything that might make this easier to do? 

 

Thanks in advance!

Maybe after 2 weeks.  Be safe.

--gina

The surgery prep is 2-3 days of cleaning out your colon. Go-litely, mega miralax, magcitrate etc. I would not want to be on the road when attempting that. But if you can arrange it to enjoy your ride down and then do the prep (Near a toilet) that would be awesome. So long as you can sleep in the car- I could have done a long car ride 2 days after surgery.(just on tylenol by then). Good journey to you! 

I didn't have to do a bowel prep prior to surgery and I did drive back (as a passenger) for 2 hours on day 3 and that was with pain pills and boy was it ever time I got back when we got home.  That being said, I would have been fine travelling a week later.  The trickiest part, to my mind, is the feeding, drinking and pooping schedule - imagine travelling with an infant who is in pain.  Mind you, you will need to travel back from surgery at some point too...

 

Good luck

 

To be honest, I would not attempt the drive back so soon after surgery.. You aren't going to feel all that great and you will just want a bed or a lounger.... I don't think the car will do it for you.

 

good luck

 

Kathy

At 2 weeks post, probably. But you need a backup plan. What if you didn't want to drive back... H could drive back and you could fly, timing your arrival the day after he got back.

Thanks everybody!

 

As I read your helpful replies I couldn't help thinking that even flying back is something to think about.  It's about a three hour non stop (or six hour with one stop) flight plus the drives to and from the air port.  So it looks like I'm in for one day of travel hell even if I fly.

 

Perhaps the best answer is to head to the beach for a week and then attempt it! 

Every one is different so good to have backup plans. Thinking back to my ride home 3 days post-op it was only uncomfortable
when we hit chuck holes. Had I read a little better pre-op I would have taken a pillow to keep some pressure on my stomach.

I would be less concerned about the driving as I would be rest stops and just the mechanics of getting in and out of the SUV. For me
there was always some midpoint between standing and sitting where I would get a flash of pain. I would have been much more receptive to long drives 2 weeks out. I'm just not sure how much touring you will be able to do just by car. Don't most of those require more walking after you get there?

If I do this I would get all the tourist and touring done on the way south to the surgery.  I would probably do the pre-op prep in Palm Springs and then take the final ~2.5 hour drive to the surgery as late as possible. 

 

After surgery, it doesn't matter if I fly or drive back, I think it might be wise to hang out near the surgeon.  So that would be probably ~3 days in the hospital post surgery and then 3 days in a nearby hotel.

 

So six days post surgery would be the earliest I would think of hitting the road. 

 

I just noticed that Los Vegas is about 5 hour drive (not counting crossing the boarder) from Mexicali. 

 

So, on the seventh day (or so) I would drive to Vegas. 

1) Hotel doctors make post op house calls. 

2) Happy Husband who deserves some fun whilst I nap and am miserable.

3) Cheap air fair and lots of choices of flights in case I don't want to be in the car. 

 

I'm still hoping to have this done locally.  Stupid new *&(!#/$ insurance company won't send us our new insurance cards and the surgeon can't give us a definitive answer until they do. 

 

I SURE WOULDN'T RECOMMEND IT. TOO MANY THINGS CAN GO WRONG

I am in the process of my husband driving us back to seattle from laguna Ca following laposcopic surgery. We left exactly 1 week after a teensy weensy surgery, compared to the switch surgery that I had. I am pretty much miserable and chomping down codene. I am having a hard time getting down my protein and my bowels are not in good enough rhythm for such a trip. There are some pretty desolate areas from there to seattle. Plus, my husband and I are afraid that this surgery might not have fixed the problem, so he made a map of every hospital that does laprocospic surgery between here and there. We were still worried because in addition to the desolate areas, hardly anybody between laguna and seattle know anything about the switch.