Discouraged:(

So I used to be a heavy smoker and I quit and went to a vape. Well I've been on this journey since July 6th with going to all my appts and stuff and they never once told me I had to quit vaping because I only vape at 3 mg nicotine. Well i decided 2 weeks ago that I wanted to quit vaping to better my health so I went to a 0 mg nicotine liquid until i can just put the vape down. Well today my surgeons nurse emailed me saying she "just noticed" that i vape and i have to be nicotine free for 6 weeks before they will schedule me for surgery. I'm so disappointed because this is another setback........anyone else been through this, going through this, or have a late march-april sleeve date?

Nicotine slows down your body's healing process. While I can understand being discouraged, this is absolutely a reasonable requirement on your doctor's part. WLS is major surgery and there's lots of healing to do!

That's a good point. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of long term complications (specifically ulcers).

I'm curious to know if there is data suggesting vaping is dangerous for WLS patients. I know there's evidence that smoking cigarettes can lead to ulcers (among all the bad things cigarettes do to everyone), but was curious if that was due to the nicotine, or the thousands of other chemicals in a cigarette. I wonder if they ban vaping out of an abundance of caution, or if there is actually data linking it specifically to WLS.

I know this doesn't answer your question, sorry about that, just curious if you or anyone else knew if vaping had been directly linked to WLS complications.

Now I'm curious too lol.

Well it could be a lot worse, you could have no stopped at all. Just think you're 2 weeks ahead.

Liz

I personally didn't have this issue as I never smoked, but from what I understood, no nicotine was a pretty universal rule. My insurance company, not surgeons office, require no nicotine what-so-ever for 6 MONTHS prior to surgery, so it looks like you might be getting off easy.

First off, congratulations on quitting smoking. I watched my mother struggle with quitting for close to 20 years, and by the time she was able to quit for good, the damage done to her lungs was too advanced. I've seen how hard it is to quit-so major kudos to you.

Second-Yes, it may be a small delay, but the surgery is still happening. Like one of the other posters said-it could have been 6 months as opposed to 6 weeks.

I know it may seem like a setback, but it's really for the best as nicotine can inhibit our healing from a major surgery.

Thank you! My dad got diagnosed with lung cancer a year ago and I'm only 27 and have only been smoking for 4 years so i wanted to quit before too much damage was done. Its the constant hand to mouth motion thats so difficult to get past which is why so many people gain weight when they quit smoking, they just eat instead. I know this will just be a small setback that i wont even remember in 2 months.

Think of how incredibley healthy you will be as a non-smoking post WLS individual. It's tough when we get surprised but at least you're on track still. Finding out the day of the surgery would have been worse!