About TripKinetics

I am Tom Fairhurst, and I started this site because I have made the flight home after an operation twice, and only got it right the second time.

Two flights, one lesson

The first was after a lower back operation abroad. I flew home when my ticket said to, roughly a week and a half later, sat still for hours because moving hurt, and had no idea that a recent operation plus a long flight is one of the classic setups for a blood clot. Every ache in my leg felt like a warning. Nothing came of it, but the worry was real, and all of it came from simply not knowing what to check.

The second flight, a couple of years on, followed a knee operation, and I planned it like part of the recovery. I asked the surgeon when I was actually clear to fly. I kept moving, took the aisle seat, and told the insurer about the operation before I left. It was uneventful, which is exactly what travelling after surgery ought to be.

TripKinetics exists to close the gap between those two experiences, so that the second version is what people get by default rather than by luck.

What the site covers

Every guide here is about travelling, and flying in particular, while a body is still healing. In practice that means:

• when it is reasonably safe to fly after different kinds of surgery, and why the timings differ
• the risk of blood clots (deep vein thrombosis) on long journeys, and the practical steps that lower it
• getting medical clearance, and what a fit to fly letter is for
• travel insurance when you have a recent operation or an ongoing condition to declare
• staying mobile in transit: seat choice, moving on schedule, hydration, compression stockings, and the rest of the unglamorous detail that matters.

I am not a doctor, and I am not selling a clinic, an airline or a holiday. What I can offer is the sequence, laid out plainly, that I wish someone had put in front of me before that first flight.

Checked by a doctor

Because getting this wrong has real consequences, I do not publish on my own say so. Dr Helena Boyd, a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine, reviews the medical content of every article: the timings, the clot risk figures, and the fitness to fly guidance, all measured against current advice from bodies such as the CAA, the NHS and the WHO. Her job is to keep me honest with the evidence and to flag anywhere a general rule is being pushed further than it should be. The lived experience, and the early mistakes, are mine; the medical accuracy is hers to sign off.

One point sits underneath everything on this site: the figures here are a starting point for a conversation, never a personal clearance. The surgeon who performed your operation is the one who knows your case. Full detail on how all of this works is on the Editorial Policy page, and the limits on the information are set out in the Medical Disclaimer.