Travel for work after surgery

[CheerfulLoser 72]

Hi! I’m planning to have a RNY, but I travel for work a good amount. How long after surgery did (or would) you feel comfortable with traveling for work? Are we talking months?

[AZhiker 2,252]

Do you mean long distance travel or just driving back and forth to the office? I was back to nursing 2 weeks after surgery, but made sure not to exceed my lifting restriction. I was driving my stick shift just fine. As long as you are not on narcotic pain meds you should be able to drive within a couple of weeks. Long distance, though, would be a more of a worry, because of blood clot risk. I wore compression stockings every day, started walking the day of surgery, and was up to 10,000 steps a day 2-3 weeks post op, and I STILL got a blood clot in my leg!

Eating was not a problem right away, as it is mostly broths and Protein Shakes at first. However, several months down the road, I cannot take "real" food to work because i can't eat it with my half hour lunch break. So I take a Protein Shake or Soup - something easy to slide down.

[CheerfulLoser 72]

Thanks! This is international travel, so 12-14 hrs on a plane one way. I could haul around shakes, but hadn’t thought about clotting issues...

[AZhiker 2,252]

Follow your doctor's advice on this. My father couldn't travel long distances after hernia surgery for 8 weeks, due to risk of clots. It would be a good idea to wear compression stockings and take a stretch band along so you could do leg exercises on the flights. Is the place you travel to somewhere you could get help and good diagnostics should a situation come up? Some surgeons put their patients on Lovenox injections for a couple of weeks post op. Does yours?

[elcee 3,341]

My Dr was happy for me to do that type of travel after 3 months. I just got back from a round the world trip Australia - LA-London- Hong Kong - Australia and I had no issues. I just ate the plane food, didn’t need shakes or anything like that. I get my Protein from real food sources but I do carry a nut bar in my handbag for just in case.

[GradyCat 3,693]

I took a cruise 2 months post-op with no trouble, but you'll be flying so access to food is a little harder. I'd still say 2 months might be the right amount of time.

[CheerfulLoser 72]

Thank you all! I’m getting the sense that I’ll need to wait until November to do surgery...

i have plenty of headwork I need to do, so I guess I’ll keep on with that while I wait... and wait.... and wait.