Hey, Bud. I don't know if your surgeon will schedule your surgery after this appointment.
I have never heard of a surgeon asking for a second appointment, so I have no idea. We have already talked about this guy, though. You know my concerns.
I was right about GQ? What does GQ mean?
The surgeon may not use drains. If they do, yes they pull them at 7 days post op. Most surgeons expect people to stay in the area for a week. However, if you are only two hours away, maybe you can just stay one night and then go home the day after. Then just travel back for the post op appt. I strongly recommend you stay at least one night.
You can see if you can get this surgeon to let your PCP pull your drains, but I can't imagine a surgeon being ok with not having any post op appointments.
They use dissolvable sutures.
Some people have a lot of pain, some don't. I do not have a high pain tolerance (when looking at other surgeries), yet I only took pain meds for the first few days (don't remember how many days, exactly), and then went to Tylenol. I assume your surgeon will prescribe you pain meds.