Driving Post-Op

[Matthew2045 11]

Question: How long where you restricted from driving after surgery?

[Orchids&Dragons 9,047]

Until my 1 week followup with my surgeon.

[Matthew2045 11]

11 minutes ago, Orchids&Dragons said:

Until my 1 week followup with my surgeon.

Thank you!

[GreenTealael 25,534]

I remember driving about 5 days after surgery out of necessity (It was a very short distance about 5 -10mins) I did not enjoy it. I drove an SUV & had a tough time getting in and out. I guess it depends on a number of factors but definitely ask your Team and go with your gut.

[Stitches78 65]

My doctor said after I stopped taking pain killers...however, I drove about 5 days after. The bad part was getting in and out of the car since my car is kind of low to the ground.

[GradyCat 3,697]

I didn't have any driving restrictions, but then again I never took any pain pills. I had no trouble.

[S@ssen@ch 745]

I didn't have any driving restrictions and drove 2 days after the surgery. please note: I was not on any narcotic pain medications. You should not drive while taking narcotic pain medications.

[NYJenn 1,463]

Just had to be off of my pain pills which I only took for one day

[jelos98 6]

My surgeon's instructions were "When you've been off the Hydrocodone for a couple of days, and you're not in pain". I only took the Hydrocodone long for 2-3 days, and then switched to just straight up Tylenol as needed.

Basically: 1. Don't drive high. 2. Don't drive if you can't do things you need to (e.g. blind spot checks) without pain or delays.

[notmyname 593]

My doctor said that he didn't want me driving until my 2 week appointment, but that legally I couldn't drive until the narcotics were out of my system for 24 hours.

That said, my abdomen was pretty sore for a few weeks . Sure, I could have driven. But if anything out of the ordinary occurred and I needed to quickly stop or accelerate, I'm not sure I could have. So much of your leg movement comes from your core. So, I really didn't feel safe driving for 2 weeks. And I extended it to 3 because I could work from home that third week.