Plastic Surgery Away From Home

It's pretty much a given that when I have plastic surgery, it won't be near to home. The nearest places to even have plastic surgery are a minimum of 3 hours away and none of those locations are really notable when it comes to specializing in large weight loss.

It's likely that I'll pick a surgeon that is a 9-10 hour drive away (but I do have a friend who lives close to there). I can fly there direct on a small plane if need be.

If you traveled to have your surgery, how did you handle it? Did you stay in a hotel long term for your follow ups? Did you fly back and forth? I'm likely having a TT or LBL and a breast lift (and maybe upper body lift?). At this point, I, of course, don't know if it will be one surgery or two. How long did you stay? How did it work for you?

Hopefully NYMom will chime in since she did the NYC to DC trip for her surgeries :)

Yes, I hope so! I'm also planning on NY to DC, but um...I live 7 hours north of the city

Which might actually be a quicker drive since you can more easily avoid the I-95 corridor ;)

Yeah, I actually haven't ever had to get on I-95 to get into DC! We come down 81 to 83 and then on some version of the beltway or another. I can't imagine trying to stay in NYC (where I don't know anyone!) after surgery. That seems stressful, but maybe because I'm literally in the DC/Baltimore area 4-6 times per year and I feel familiar with it.

I've never been to NYC except for flight layovers! Sad. The kids have requested to go, so at some point, we'll drive to White Plains and take the train down into the city with them.

I avoid it (I-95) when I head up to see my brother in NY too. Blah! When I went to NYC at the end of May, I went to the Trenton NJ transit station and took the commuter train in. Much better than driving in. :)

But, hey, even to get to surgery at 5:30am, I ended up staying in a nearby hotel because commuting from SoMD would have required I leave at 3:30 or something equally stupid just in case there was traffic. Staying at a hotel 15 min away was a much better option for my stress levels.

The drive to the surgeon's office for followups has been fine, though. I just need to make sure I schedule things midday so I can get there in between rush hours.

It's actually only an 8 hour drive (according to google maps) from you to the hospital that Dr. Michaels uses. FWIW.

Yeah, I feel like that's doable. I think the game plan would be for Jon and the girls to come down with me for the first week and then for him and the kids to go home and me to stay with a friend. But, I have no idea on time frames on how long I'd need to stay.

Right, I totally get that. For me, plastics recovery was the GREAT UNKNOWN. I felt super prepared for everything, but knew that I couldn't prepare for how much pain I'd feel and how recovery would go. Which was... challenging for me. Since I'm a planner. My therapist teases me and says my life motto is "plan for serendipity."

So what I can tell you from my own process is this:

June 4 - stayed in hotel near hospital
June 5 - surgery/overnight in hospital
June 6 - home
June 7-10 - totally out of it (in terms of brain)
June 11-12 - less totally out of it, able to function by myself more
June 13 - first follow up with surgeon, there's no way I could have driven myself and I don't remember much of it.
June 14-15 - still dopey, but getting better, more self-sufficient
June 16 - first day home alone, but Lance says he would have felt comfortable going into work on the 15th as well.
June 17-26 - started leaving the house to see movies in comfy theater seats, I didn't drive during this period because even though I was off the meds from the surgeon I had a persistent (and very painful in the abdomen cough!) that I was medicating with Tylenol with codeine, so I opted not to drive. Due to the combination of surgeries it would have been hard to turn to check blindspots. But I was more self-sufficient each day.
June 27 - first day I drove. Art says he couldn't tell that the person driving him was impaired in any way. Woo!

I don't really feel like my brain was working normally until about the 22nd. (I remember this because it was halfway through the first week of my class, oops.)

July 6 - second follow up, no problems driving myself.
August 3 - third follow up.

So.. I would certainly plan on staying local until that first follow up which, in theory, is when your drains will be removed. It'll be 8-10 days post-op. And from there I think it'd be a matter of comfort. 8 hours in a car is a long time to be in a car. If you could swing it, staying until the second follow up, which is about a month after surgery, would be even better, but I doubt that would be actually necessary. Even if you fly it would be a long day of travel/sitting due to getting to/from airports and the flight itself.

And that's all the information based on my timeline that I can really give you. With all the surgeries you listed, Dr. Michaels would likely go for two surgeries. (But you can't know for sure until you ask.)

Ha! We were just talking today about what a planner and control freak I am. I'm trying to prepare myself to eat more calories for maintenance and my brain is NOT happy with the idea. Right now I am holding onto control with an iron fist and I have to loosen that a little, and Jon can not figure out what my problem with that is.

I can fly from Baltimore to right by my house on a 12-seater plane. The flights are CHEAP, but tend to fill up fast. That's my plan for my consult at least. It's an hour and 10-minute flight.

The timeline is super helpful. At my current job, I could easily take a month and go down there if I needed. I'm sure it would suck for Jon and the kids, but they'd live!