I clearly have an active patient population. Many people travel to come have surgery. For others, work or vacation, my patients like to get out of town a lot. So when can you travel after plastic surgery?
The answer: it depends.
- There are large differences between surgeries. A one hour upper eyelid blepharoplasty surgery under local anesthesia is far different than a five hour tummy tuck and liposuction surgery under general anesthesia.
- Where are you going? There are differences between a one hour flight to LA versus a 15 hour flight to Europe.
- Do you plan on being active? Is your trip for work, where you will be in meetings all day or are you doing a zipline -scuba diving – tennis playing adventure?
- Who is going with you? Are you carrying a lot of bags (and / or children, car seats, etc)? Do you have someone who will lift and carry your bags?
Things to think about:
When you have a surgery it is a stress to your body. You are usually up and running full speed faster if you give your body time to heal. Those who try to do too much too early often suffer the consequences- increased bruising and swelling. This will prolong your recovery.
Most estimate you are at an increased risk for a blood clot in your leg for 3 weeks after surgery. Blood clots in your leg, when dislodged, can land in your lung causing a pulmonary embolus, which can be deadly. Long car rides or plane flights are risks for DVT formation even without surgery. Not moving and cramped positioning can lead to blood stasis which leads to blood clots.
To minimize this risk (and in general these are just good ideas), you should get up and move around. So on a long car trip get out of the car every 1-2 hours. On the plane get out of your seat and walk around. Compression hose can help keep blood from pooling in the legs. Do leg pumps to keep the blood moving.
If you plan to travel, discuss it with your doctor. For any surgery, particularly elective surgery, you need to be safe.