No you don't have to go in person for a consultation. You can skype and have labs, psych eval and nutritional consultation locally.
He will want to see you the day before surgery to do a quick examination, discuss the procedure and any questions, give you and A & D injection if needed (having D at a high level promotes healing and recovery), get any labs, ekg and chest x-ray if you haven't had one at home within a few weeks. Then you will register at the hospital for next day's admission.
As far as length of stay he really like you to plan 10-14 days but if you are doing well he will release you earlier.
I have had 3 surgeries with him:
- My revision to extend absorbing intestinal path due to malnutrition from my Virgin DS
- Verntral Hernia repair with Mesh
- Lysis of adhesion surgery where half of my colon was going to be removed due to redundant colon and issues it was causing but when he got in he saw that my gut cavity was full of scar tissues/adhesions. One completely wrapped my colon and was causing it to flip and twist, so he cleaned all that up and decided to be conservative and leave my sigmoid and left side colon.
We typically stay at a Hotel in Burbank as it is a couple blocks from a great downtown area with great restaurants, a mall and two movie theaters. Hotels are very expensive there and the brand new Springhill Suites where we like to stay is $180sh if you can book ahead of time and $225 and up if there is availability and not far from date. The last time we did and Airbnb place for much cheaper. It is about a $3-5K trip for food, travel and lodging for us.
It is worth every penny because he is the most incredible person you have ever met. As far as follow up there is no need to see him once your return home and you can call or email him. I bet since 2015 we have emailed back and forth 400 times. He answers very quickly and it is him, not his staff although I talk to Kristina and Silva on occasion too. I have typically gone home after a week, but that was with a good and smooth recovery...so it varies.