Smoking after surgery?

[Taterweight]

Have you ever considered the E-cigarettes? I was able to completely quit and use strictly that until I weaned myself off the nicotine in a few months. It's been 2 yrs since I've had a cigarette and a year and a half since using the e-cig. Now they're all the rage...go figure.

 

[southernlady]

This thread makes me SO glad I just never started smoking...

 

[Elizabeth N.]

I smoked right up until my surgery and had my first cigarette the minute I got home from the hospital. I did finally quit about 5 years ago (6 years after surgery). Obviously smoking is bad for you and you should try to quit because it can impede healing.

I quit using Chantix. It worked for me because I was ready to quit smoking.

Nicotine is among the bitterest of addictive substances :-(. Miserable, miserable stuff. I'm awfully glad I never started it.

 

[Larra]

Mark Twain said that it was easy to quit smoking. He did it many times.

the current surgeon general just came out with a document about even more ill effects from smoking than were previously realized. These included, among lots of others, liver damage, pancreatic damage, and increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Smoking affects every organ system in the body, not just the lungs and heart, which we all know about already.

Sure, people who smoke have various kinds of surgery and survive. But their risks are higher. Why not use that as motivation to quit? I don't know how you feel about smoking, but I can guarantee you won't regret quiting.

 

[bearmom]

It took near suffocation from an asthma attack for me to quit, and I'd tried so many times before that.

The one thing that kept me from EVER having "just one more" is that I knew I was incapable, and that I could NEVER quit on my own. If I caved and had that "just one more / last smoke" I'd smoke till my last days. I knew that as sure and I know the sun rises.

 

[Larra]

Smoking and asthma are a particularly bad combination. You might have smoked til your last days, but that might not have taken very long.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Did anyone start or continued smoking after surgery? Did something bad happen?

Yes...many have. (I'm not in that group, btw.) And, yes, some of those people HAVE had bad things happen.

If you're having WLS just to look better--and you're only 31--then resuming smoking will make you poorer*, older looking, uglier and sicker...but it will take a while. (If you were older, it would happen sooner.). But if you're having WLS to get healthier, it might not be a good idea.


*Based on my OLD habits, I'd be spending well over $300/mo on cigarettes. Not even counting what you won't spend on doctors and tooth whitening, $300/mo x 12 months x 36 years (until you're my age) = $133,200.

 

[Charris]

This thread makes me SO glad I just never started smoking...

DITTO.

 

[Barb1]

If you really feel the need to smoke then I suggest the E-cigaretts with zero nicotine. They make different flavors of the vapors. ( blueberry, coffee, strawberry, menthol, regular tobacco flavor, peppermint, just about any flavor). It costs about 60.00 to get the starter kit. Then you buy the different vapor juices as you need them. A small bottle runs 10. to 20 dollars but should last at least two or more weeks. I quite for the third and last time in August 2010 using Chantex in order to have my revision. It has always been hard for me because for me because the nicotine wasn't the biggest habit I had. I like the hand to mouth action and the long draw of the smoke. Now if I get the urge which is rarely I do the electronic zero nicotine e-cig. My DH of 45 years just quite in the last few months doing this. He started with the nicotine vapors and gradually worked down to zero nicotine about 3 months ago. He still does the zero type. I am positive it will be something he will always uses it. It really helps if you're a social smoker.
Barb

 

[brooklyngirl]

:YEAHTHAT1:

 

[Charris]

If you really feel the need to smoke then I suggest the E-cigaretts with zero nicotine. They make different flavors of the vapors. ( blueberry, coffee, strawberry, menthol, regular tobacco flavor, peppermint, just about any flavor). It costs about 60.00 to get the starter kit. Then you buy the different vapor juices as you need them. A small bottle runs 10. to 20 dollars but should last at least two or more weeks. I quite for the third and last time in August 2010 using Chantex in order to have my revision. It has always been hard for me because for me because the nicotine wasn't the biggest habit I had. I like the hand to mouth action and the long draw of the smoke. Now if I get the urge which is rarely I do the electronic zero nicotine e-cig. My DH of 45 years just quite in the last few months doing this. He started with the nicotine vapors and gradually worked down to zero nicotine about 3 months ago. He still does the zero type. I am positive it will be something he will always uses it. It really helps if you're a social smoker.
Barb

They have ones that are cheaper also. My kids got one out, of, the mall for 19.99 plus $7 for the flavor. I thank God I never started. When I was 16 all my friends started smoking so I too was going to smoke. I bought a pack of cigarettes after 2 weeks I kept forgetting to smoke. Lol so I thought to myself this is crazy so never even opened the pack. I was so happy when they outlawed it in public. I would come home from the club and could smell it in my hair.

 

[MyNewLife]

Funny I should read this right now. Today is my quit day. I hadn't smoked for years prior to my surgery in Dec 2011 and then I got a new job about 6 months ago with weekends off. I played with friends who smoked and I played with them. Didn't take much and I was HOOKED again. I've been taking Chantix for a little over two weeks and have cut WAAAAY back.

As to the bad things that happen, other than the obvious (cancer, stinky clothes and hair, budget strains, societal ostracism to name a few). I have not needed a PPI since about 8 mos after my surgery, I've got GERD from he** all of a sudden since I started back. Worse than I've ever had it. I've been sleeping almost upright, eating Tums, Gaviscon, Mylanta. Flatulence -- OMG, I didn't know our bodies could create the copious amounts of methane that has been exiting my body. My theory is that when I smoke, I swallow more air, I've always swallowed air but this has gotten ridiculous. To those that pray, I'll take extra support through the next few days...so far so good!

 

[JackieOnLine]

I am worried that maybe you already started again? I hope not. you know smoking shortens your life but - as my Mom used to say - you have to die of something.

but it's the quality of life you should worry about.

I work in long term care and see a lot of people who die very slowly of COPD. it's horrible - they are on 4 liters of O2 , getting breathing treatments and have to lean forward and use the whole of their shoulders to inhale and still they feel like they are not getting enough air.

like being suffocated but it can last for years. what a terrible way to live.

lots of other reasons not to smoke but that is the most important one, IMO.

 

[MyNewLife]

Nope. I've been snowed in today and I doused all my nicotine in water this AM I can get out now but it's cold out there LOL

 

[Ladytaz]

In the last 5 years I have lost many friends. Friends I have had for years, when we were young and invincible and nothing could touch us. I've lost count. There was Sharon, she was my best friend, then Jim, Pete was another hard one, Cheryl, Judy who I've known for over 20 years, Mary, Rose Ann, my daughter's father and I am sure there are some I am forgetting. Just today I went to a memorial for my cousin who recently passed away. Everyone one of them died before their time and everyone of them smoked. I have not been to one funeral of a person that did not smoke in years. Some died from lung cancer, a painful, miserable death. Most died from things like pneumonia, COPD, bronchitis, and other lung issues. Many, like my cousin, started with a common sickness like the flu but rapidly went downhill and developed breathing problems. Several were in the hospital a long time before they passed. Cheryl lay in her hospital bed knowing that death was near but others were vented and not awake for a long time. Just a few weeks ago another friend, Joe, was given the diagnosis of terminal cancer, about a year left. I went to visit him in the rehab facility after he had surgery and we sat outside in the cold so he could smoke.
I always thought that smoking harmed others but not me or people I knew. But as I get older I've watched it get closer. It is very real now. Even though I have quit I know that I still have a greater risk of problems just because I did smoke for years. My cousin quit a few years ago but it was too late. The damage was done. My boyfriends father quit over 10 years ago but he has COPD so bad he is on oxygen 24/7. He recently caught a cold and wound up in ICU with pneumonia. He was lucky and managed to recover.
Sadly, I didn't even quit for my health. I quit because I can't afford $300 a month on something I don't live in or drive. Now I am glad I did and I feel a lot better but it took the cost to force the issue for me. Whatever reason it takes, please try and quit. You will never be sorry that you quit but you may always regret that you smoked.