Posting from my aunt's spare room at 8am local time, which is about 2am in my head.
My dad had a coronary bypass five weeks ago. His surgeon and cardiac rehab team cleared him to fly and we came out for my cousin's wedding, eleven hours plus a connection. On the plane he was good, he walked when I nagged, wore the stockings, drank the water.
We landed at 6am yesterday, got here about 9, and he went to bed and slept until nearly 11pm. Then he was wide awake all night, now he wants to go back to bed. He is not ill as far as I can tell, just shattered and grumpy.
Is the sleeping a problem in itself? I keep thinking about all the clot stuff on this site and wondering if I should be dragging him out of bed every two hours like on the plane. He will not thank me for it.
Not medical, but I did exactly what your dad did after my last long-haul and it took me four days to get back on local time. The day sleep is what kept resetting me. One short nap, then out into daylight, was what finally fixed it.
Bribery works. My wife got me up after a long flight by promising a coffee at a cafe ten minutes' walk away. Twenty minutes of walking I would never have done otherwise.
#4October 30, 2026, 9:30 am Priya, you have spotted the right thing. The jet lag itself is not the issue; it usually settles within a few days. The issue is what jet lag makes people do, which is lie still for half a day, and in the weeks after major surgery that stillness is the bit to avoid. Surgery raises clot risk for up to 8 to 12 weeks and a long flight adds to it, so the first day or two after landing deserve the same habits as the plane: short walks, water within reach, and the stockings on if his team advised them for the trip.
I did exactly what your dad did after my first post-op flight. Landed at six, slept until three, woke with a tight calf and a day of panic. It was nothing, but it was avoidable. I have just written up what I do now in jet lag after surgery, including the medicine timing question, which is the other thing to check. If he is on tablets with fixed times, and after a bypass he almost certainly is, his pharmacist or the rehab team can tell you how to move them to local time. Please do not guess that one.
And the usual line, because it matters more after heart surgery than most: breathlessness, chest pain, or swelling and pain in one calf need medical attention straight away, and anything about his heart medicines is for his cardiac team, not for us.
Thank you all. Coffee bribe deployed. Day three he had one hour's nap after lunch and two walks round the block, and last night he slept through until 6am local time. Rang his rehab nurse about the tablets, she moved the evening ones by an hour a day and said not to touch the rest. Wedding is tomorrow and he has informed me he intends to dance. One song.
