My flight is one day before the date my surgeon gave me, does a day matter?

Keyhole surgery on my gallbladder last Tuesday. The surgeon said five days before flying. My flight home is on day four.

Changing it is about 240 in fees, which I would rather not spend if a single day is genuinely neither here nor there. But I also do not want to be the idiot who saved 240 and spent the flight regretting it. Has anyone gone a day early and been fine, or is that exactly the kind of thinking that gets people into trouble?

I went a day early after keyhole surgery and I was fine, and I still would not tell you to do it, because "I was fine" is one person and not a rule.

The thing that tipped it for me was that I rang the ward and asked rather than deciding on my own. They said yes for me. Ten minutes on the phone versus 240 quid and a week of wondering seems like a good trade.

Ring your surgeon's secretary today. That is the whole answer, and I say it as someone who did the opposite.

I flew four days after a back operation because I wanted to be in my own bed, without asking anyone, and spent the last hour of the flight with a hot aching calf and a rising panic. It turned out to be an early clot scare. What I regret is not the day, it is that I made a medical decision on the basis of a hotel checkout time.

For what it is worth, the general guide after keyhole abdominal surgery is about four to five days, so you are not miles outside anything. But that published range is a floor for a typical uncomplicated recovery, not a clearance for you specifically, and your surgeon has already given you a number that takes your case into account. They may well say day four is fine. They may also say something about your particular recovery that changes the sum. The waits by procedure are collected in how long to wait before flying after surgery if you want the context before you call.

Fair. Ringing them now. I think I wanted someone to tell me it was fine so I did not have to ask.

One thing nobody has said. Check what your insurer thinks before you move the date either way.

Mine had a line about travelling against medical advice, and if I had flown early and something had happened, I suspect "my surgeon said five days and I went on four" would have been the end of that conversation. The 240 is annoying. A refused claim abroad is a different order of annoying.

Update. Secretary spoke to him and he said day four was fine for me, no gas complications, wound healing well, but to take it easy at the airport and not lift my case. So I kept the flight and I have his answer in writing in an email, which I would not have had otherwise.

Nigel, I did check the insurer too and they were satisfied once the surgeon had confirmed it. Glad I asked rather than guessed.

Good result, and the email is the bit people skip. A verbal yes over the phone is worth nothing if anyone later asks what you were told.