HI, I was sleeved on January 12th and I am a NON smoker. However, I have a friend interested in the sleeve whose been asking me a lot of questions and I could not answer her smoking question, because it never came up with my Dr.

I told me friend I'd post her questions here on the board to see if we can get some answers.

Her question are:

Why do you need to stop smoking after surgery? She realizes quitting/cutting down before surgery is less risky for the actual surgery itself, but she wants to know how come after the surgery? Will it hurt the stomach?

Any advice on this subject will be appreciated.

Thanks!

Smoking slows down the healing process, and is the leading cause for ulcers post-stomach surgery.

When we smoke, the blood vessels constrict, increases chances for blood clots, and impedes healing of our internal incisions and staple line.

That all being said, I've quit and returned to smoking 3 times since having my sleeve surgery. It is NOT something that I am proud of, nor do I advocate anyone else doing.

I'm back on the "weaning off" method, and working towards my quit date.

Smoking slows down the healing process, and is the leading cause for ulcers post-stomach surgery.

When we smoke, the blood vessels constrict, increases chances for blood clots, and impedes healing of our internal incisions and staple line.

That all being said, I've quit and returned to smoking 3 times since having my sleeve surgery. It is NOT something that I am proud of, nor do I advocate anyone else doing.

I'm back on the "weaning off" method, and working towards my quit date.

Thanks Tiffykins!

I'm so glad you posted.... you give such good advice and are always so honest. I respect you and your commitment to your goal!

I am a smoker(trying to be nonsmoker) who was sleeved. I quit for 6 wks before my surgery, then started about 2 weeks after. I started wearing the patch this weekend. I noticed this weekend, that my indigestion got 10 x worse whenever I smoked. So, as an experiment I stopped smoking on Saturday and started wearing the patch. I still have indigestion, but it's not nearly as bad. I know smoke effects your esphougas and stomach, I'm not sure but somehow only being one month out of surgery and still healing it's doing a number on me. I'd rather not smoke and feel good, than get my fix and feel like crap drinking Maalox all day long. It's not worth it.

Hello... there is the issue of healing like stated b4...smoking consticts the blood vesseld cutting of a healthy supply of blood to the area of exrtaction and incision...especially those with diabetes...second there is the actual inflamation in the lung tissue from the smoking its self..this puts you at greater risk for pulmonary emergencies including pnuemo embolism and pnuemonia...as well as increased risks with the anesthisia...hope this helps

I also heard it's harder to get you off the breathing machines when you're coming out of surgery. I think that was what made me quit pre-surgery. I've been smoking again for a few weeks now but we're going to be quitting again soon. I just had a hard time there handling the no smoking AND barely eating.

For yall that have quit again post surgery, how do you handle the mouth craving? You know wanting to snack & stuff post op?

Its kinda funny that I found this thread when I logged on this morning, as I was just about to start a thread that had going back to smoking as one of the main subjects.

I took my nicotine patch off on the 22nd of last month, started the 5 day pre op liquid diet on the 23rd of last month, surgery on 3/1, and no caffeine since 3/1. Basically I quit everything fun within a few days of each other, and none of it bothered me, until the past couple days. I am recently moved on to mushies, so that helps a little, but I keep having thoughts like, I bet I could puree a bag of oreo's and some milk! Oh wait what am I thinking? no way I'm going there! Well maybe if I have a cigarette it will help.

Two days ago I was going through some older clothes seeing what fit, and I found a pack of Marlboro's in a old jacket pocket, it had two cigarettes in it, they have to be at least 4 years old. I looked at the pack for a couple minutes, then put it on the desk, and thought to myself, I wont smoke them, but I cant throw them away, I'll keep them for a true emergency. Well we all know that within 3 to 5 minutes there was a true emergency in my house, the emergency was that there were two cigarettes in the house, and nobody had smoked them yet. I smoked those two cigarettes in stages over the next two days, oh how I missed my old friend Mr Marlboro! So now I find myself with the dilemma of, do I go buy a pack, or do I stick it out? Will not buying a pack lead to pureeing a dozen doughnuts with a cup coffee? I was so happy to be done with smoking especially since cigarettes are over 10.00 per pack in NY.

OMFG I'm losing my mind over this!