I've been planning on getting my top surgery this summer, and I'm really interested in Dr. Satterwhite. I live driving distance from San Fransisco, but it's not exactly something that can be done in a day trip. This isn't necessarily an issue, except my mom is concerned about seeing a doctor out of state. She thinks that if I have some kind of complication after the post-op and I see a different doctor about it, they might not be able to treat it properly because they won't know exactly how the doctor performed the surgery and why it went wrong. Doesn't really make sense to me, but this is what I interpreted.
How can I convince my mom that it won't be an issue? I personally think he's the best surgeon on this side of the country and since there's actually a chance for me to see him, I'd be really upset if it didn't happen.

i went for my surgery out of province. it was about a 6 hour drive. i didn't drive but i can help you with the other doctor thing. all your doctor needs to be able to do is look for infection and if you have your drains in still (if you get DI), then that too. my drains were taken out before but i had my doctor look at my incisions to make sure they were healing well. a nurse can even do it. the only thing my doctor was iffy about was my nipples because he never dealt with nipple grafts so he didn't know if they were healing the way they should. so we just got another doctor there who has dealt with grafts and it was fine. if you have issues, the surgeon usually tells you to call them or email them pics, etc. to see if something is wrong. it's rare that would be an issue though imo like serious problems where no one would know what to do.

I'm traveling, by plane, out of country for surgery. The surgeon said it was fine to have someone here remove the sutures and padding so I talked with my primary care physician who said that it would have to be a plastic surgeon who did so. I have an appointment with a surgeon here for eight days after surgery and sent him the video that the surgeon I'm using has made available for just that reason. In short, I agree with invisible... that - unless you don't have access to qualified medical care near home - you can get the necessary follow-up without traveling back to SF. Best wishes!

I flew from Osaka, Japan to Ft. Lauderdale Florida and had to transfer in New York and Atlanta on my way back to Osaka after I had surgery. Overall it was about a 21 hour trip back that I made by myself. That being said, I was in Lauderdale for one week and the doctor was able to check me over and change my dressings about 12 hours before I left. I would say that if you are looking at going to an out of state doctor and you are not planning on staying in the area for however long it takes for the doctor to see you at the post-op, then you may need to make some phone calls. If you are seeing the same doc for your post-op, I wouldn't worry about. Every doctor can fix a popped stitch or drain a surgical site. If they couldn't, they wouldn't be doctors. If you do have to see someone and they need to fix something or you do have complications they will contact your surgeon if they hit a road block.

All that being said, if your mom is just worried about you going to a doctor that's far away, there are plenty of guys here who did exactly what I did and flew half way around the world. The only 'complication' I had was that I was really, really exhausted after the trip and I slept for almost two days. The soreness was about the same before and after travelling. If I had had a complication, I would have felt comfortable with letting the doctors here take care of it, even though its an entirely different country. It's sort of like dental work; some dentists do things differently, but every dentist can tell was what done by looking an taking an x-ray.