I'm considering options and while getting it done locally is definitely my preference for a number of reasons if I can arrange it, I know many people here travelled, some significant distances, to have their surgery. How long after your surgery did you wait to travel home? Did you drive, fly, etc? Did you experience any problems? Did you do anything special to make yourself more comfortable while travelling? One option I'm considering is Dr. Arnkoff. I live in the midwest, about a 4 hour drive from Detroit, the vast majority on interstate highways so minimal hills, sharp turns, starting and stopping, etc. This is a very doable drive for me under normal circumstances. Would attempting it a few days post-op be unbearable to the point that I'd be better off flying, which has its own hassles?

I was driven home after my orchiectomy, but the following day returned to the urologist for a check on my own. An hour each way. Then I stopped for breakfast and went into my office. I had no pain and only mild discomfort occasionally. As long as you don’t get too aggressive a four hour drive with hourly stops to move around should not be an issue. I was actually pretty surprised at how painless and easy the recovery was. A tight jock strap and some padding helps a lot.

I drove 240 km (about 150 mi) the day following castration. No issues except that I think I'd not eaten enough - felt a bit light-headed. Downed a chocolate bar, and all was fine.

I flew to Detroit from Utah, wasn't bad going out with a plane change in Denver then onto Detroit. Only about four hours total.

Coming home was another story. Had to check out of the motel by Noon, flight was supposed to leave at 4PM local time. I didn't dare take any of the pain pills as I was afraid I might be booted off the airplane which they'll do if say you are drunk. Plane was late getting into Detroit, didn't leave until 5:30PM. Stop in Denver was only supposed to be about 1/2 hour. Turned out there was not a crew for the airplane so we sat in the terminal for two hours while they rounded up a crew to fly it to Utah. Landed in Utah at 11:30PM in a damn snow storm and the 20 mile drive home was NOT good. After Midnight before I got home, took a pain pill and saw the end of the worst day of my life.

I wished to hell I'd waited another day instead of leaving the next day after the procedure. Last I heard, that is what Dr. A was recommending, that you stay another day incase any problems show up.

I know some guys have reported that they had very few problems. Dr. A's nurse who is his daughter-in-law was off on Maternity leave so he had to do things himself. The suture job was really ugly, the swelling was bad, had to leave the Penrose drains in for three days. Took a couple of weeks for the swelling to go down and it was a month before the incision site quit weeping.

At the time, there really wasn't any other USA Surgeon where you could get it done. I later found out here, that Dr. A is something of a hack regarding his Surgical skills

When I got my Total Penectomy done, I had much less pain, swelling and the incisions healed up very nicely. There were no stitches as the Surgeon glued the incisions together because he's had Plastic Surgery training as well as being a reconstructive Urologist.

So there's no guarantee how much grief you'll have with it, but I'd stay the extra day.