I stopped smoking in late September and the week of Thanksgiving I had a friend killed in a accident and I smoked for about 9 days my surgery date is 12/28/09 and I am not smoking now but am scared I will not be ok for surgery can any one help me out with this

I think this is something you should speak with your dr. about.

Quit smoking and do not drink alcohol at least 2 weeks prior to the surgery. Smoking and alcohol intake increase the risk of complications and may also slow recovery.

I meant to give up smoking a month before my surgery, but just couldn't do it. In fact I had a smoke on my way to the hospital a few hours before the actual operation to 'calm my nerves'. This did not cause any problems for me personally, but the longer you can give up the better.

Whilst smoking is undoubtedly bad, I would not worry too much especially if you have stopped for 2 weeks.

Your blood pressure will be lower after just one day of quitting, and after a few weeks your lungs will be more efficient and will have started cleaning themselves.

Quitting even a week before surgery has got to be better than not at all so don't beat yourself up over it. Just try to make sure you stay quit AFTER the operation too as smoking slows the healing process. Once you are banded you won't have to worry so much about weight gain after quitting either :thumbup:

Good luck with your band!

What about smokless tobacco? Is it the same 2 wks as before rule? thanks

I'm not sure what smokeless tobacco is .... is it a substitute like nicotine Patches? If so then you get the benefits of not damaging your lungs, but if it is like nicotine patches or gum, you are still letting nicotine in to your body.

Nicotine will increase blood pressure and heart rate ... Don't take my word for it though. I'm not a doctor I'm just going by the info I've read when I have tried quitting before.

I feel a bit bad about saying I smoked just hours before my surgery. Obviously this is a BAD thing to do, but I was lucky it didn't affect my op. My advice would be to quit as early as possible and to go cold turkey (hard I know) so there is none of that evil nicotine we all love and hate in your body.

and smoking post surgery can cause the band to erode, which is a great incentive (for me anyways) to stay smoke free.... forever!

I feel you pain though, I told my husband just this morning that this liquid diet would be SOOOOOO much easier if I could just smoke.

Also, smoking could cause your skin to lose elasticity. You don't want to cause more sagging if it can be avoided!

Smoking also contirbutes to slow recovery and could cause resp issues.

Most surgeons will not perform surgery if a patient is smoking.

My husband works for a wound clinic and said very often they get patients in for surg. sites that won't heal due to vascular constriction and 99% of them are smokers.

If your last smoke was 3 weeks ago I would expect you"ll be fine.

Keep up the good work, I know it's hard I quit 5 years ago.

No matter how many times you quit it"s better then smoking all the time.

Good Luck.