I will be traveling from Anchorage to Las Vegas for my surgery, how long would you expect me to stay out of state? How long would you stay "close" to your facility? Can u make a mini vacation from this?

I traveled from Montana to Las Vegas for surgery (we probably have the same surgeon - Dr. Umbach?)

I decided to error on the side of caution - I used my timeshare condo and booked for just over a week. I arrived on Tuesday night and stayed thru the following Friday. That was probably overkill, but I didn't know what to expect. (There were people in my group that were operated on Thursday and flew home on Monday after the final consult with the doctor.)

I used the time to heal - I walked when I was able. I worked when I was able (I telecommute). I slept when my body told me I needed to rest. I was able to go from pacing from one side of the condo to the other to doing laps around the parking lot, to eventually walking for about 45 minutes in the neighborhood. For me, staying away from home was great - I didn't necessarily want my son to see me in pain and recovering and it allowed me to take care of myself and not getting distracted with the day-to-day life.

We took a drive to Hoover Dam a few days after surgery - while riding in a car can hurt if you hit a big bump, I just traveled with a pillow pressed to my tummy to avoid some movement.

Yes, Dr. Umbach hmmmmmm....I just don't want to come back too soon. I was thinking about a week, I also have a son that wants to take care of me. Thanks for the info!

Ahhh! I live in Anchorage too! And I will also be going and seeing Dr. Umbach

I had a great experience with Dr. Umbach and his staff. Best of luck to you guys!

I live in Las Vegas and Dr Umbach was my surgeon. He is WONDERFUL!! I know that there were a couple of women in my pre op class that were out of state patients. They had surgery the day before me and were there for their post op IV therapy on the same day as me (1 day post op for me 2 day post op for them) after that they went to the airport to go back home. I think for your situation, if you have someone here to stay with, you should do it. It will make you feel better and you will have someone to look after you. If you're like me flights always make me feel icky afterwards- staying put for a week or so would be great after surgery. I know I felt awesome about 3-4 days out of surgery. It was that first day (day of) that I felt really icky (that gas pain in my collar bone!!) By day 3 it was about gone.

Let me just say that Dr Umbach is so AWESOME!! He and his staff have made this the best experience EVER!! You are so luck to have him as your surgeon. And why not make it a mini vacation to Vegas while you're here!!

2 weeks. I also went out of state and my doctor recommended getting to the 2 week post up appt before letting me go home