Out of town surgery - drains still not finished. Where/how do I get them removed?

Hello,Thank you for your question. Your Plastic Surgeon may be able to speak with your primary care doctor about removing the drain to ensure that they are comfortable with your situation first. As well, your Plastic Surgeon may be able to refer you to another Plastic Surgeon in your area. If you go to an urgent care centre or ER there should certainly be someone available to take care of drain removal, but I would recommend that you discuss the first two options with your Plastic Surgeon first.All the best

Hello, if you are far from your surgeon and your family MD is not comfortable removing the drains, perhaps you could try a walk-in clinic or urgent care centre?  You could always call first and see what they say.

Thank you for your question.Travel for plastic surgery is very common, and my practice is always very honored by patients that travel long distances to have their care here.  While we like to perform all of the follow-up at our office, we understand that at some point patients have to travel home, and patients must continue to be cared for.  More often than not, primary care doctors are able to do minor things like remove drains, but as you are finding out, sometimes that is not the case.The first thing I would recommend is have your surgeon's office contact your primary care doctor to talk about drain removal.  Often this conversation is enough to ease the mind of a primary care doctor.If not, I then I would ask your surgeon for recommendations for a colleague in the DC area who may continue to take care of you.If your surgeon doesn't have recommendations, then check out the ASPS website for a listing of surgeons in your area (plasticsurgery.org), or you may be able to find one on RealSelf.  Best of luck!