SMOKING.

I am due to have surgery on July 11th. My question is, will I have to quit smoking, and if so, how soon?

YES! You MUST quit! Your Surgeon should have told you to quit 2 months ago. You should be 3 months without smoking before you are administered any kind of anesthesia! Jalonda 371/240/160?

Tabitha, My surgeon will not even perform surgery on a smoker. One of the blood tests he orders during pretesting is to check for nicotine.He has actually cancelled surgeries at the last minute due to that. Do yourself a favor, and quit ASAP! I know how hard it is, being an ex-smoker myself. I still crave a cig every day...but I'm sure you don't want any complications with your surgery. I wish you all the best on your upcoming surgery! Gail

The smoking this is sooooo touchy.....but...YES you HAVE to quit smoking !!! Honestly, you should have already My Dr said right in group session that if you smoke, you wont have WLS. He tests for it too the morning of your surgery, and he HAS sent people home for not quitting. You would hate to have come all this way only to be told , Im sorry, you are smoking, see you when you have quit. Trust me, I KNOW 1st hand how hard it is to stop, BUT, it must be done !!! I wish you luck, and really, the HARDEST is the 1st week, you get past that, you do FINEEEEE I had my surgery on July 23rd, quit COLD TURKEY on May 15th !! ANYWAYSSSSS....Good Luck Tab !! You'll do it, you didnt come this far for nothing Brenny

I'd highly question changing doctors if he did not insist on your not smoking. Chosing a careful cautious doctor with plenty of presurgery testing and advise is the most important part of the process. Doctors who don't are the ones that are increasing the negative statistics. Please, you don't want to be one of those statistics.

Tabitha, I find it very odd that Dr. Michalski did not already tell discuss the smoking issue with you. I know of him and know that he is a very thorough and conscientious surgeon. Are you sure he didn't discuss this with you or question whether you were a smoker in your earlier consultations? And as everyone has already said, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you give up the cigarettes. This is a matter of your health on the line and you want to give yourself every chance to come over to the losing side with as much in your favor as possible. Good luck.