5 months post-op, and smoking again....

Ok I have to confess I was smoke free for 2 years, and I have been back at the habit for a month now. I have plans to try and quit again next week. Does anyone have any suggestions for quitting? What products can we use? Also my surgeons nurse told me that I could get a bleeding ulcer if I continue to smoke. Does anyone know if thats true? Also how long would I have to be smoking before that could happen? I know, this alone should have been enough to scare me to quit but it didn't. I guess I figured she was just trying to scare me into quitting, and needless to say it didn't work. Anyway, I am certainly not asking for any sympothy here, just some suggestions or support. Thanks for listening to me. Heather

Hi Heather, I congratulate you on being smoke-free for 2 years, I have only been for about 2 weeks but it's getting easier all the time. I am pre-op for lap-band surgery and can honestly say that I don't know if I would have quit if it wasn't for my surgeon telling me that she wouldn't touch me if I didn't, but now I try to tell myself that it's the smartest thing that I could do!!! Why go through such a life altering surgery to become healthy and add years to your life if I'm going to smoke them all away?? It took some real soul searching and that's when I knew that this was what I had to do. You can do it again, especially if you've only been started back for a month. More importantly with rny smokers have even more of a chance of bone density loss so that's something that you want to think about to. I have been using a nicotine patch to help me and maybe it's all in my head but I think that it really does help. And you have to take one day at a time...everyday I get up and tell myself that I'm not going to smoke today and then I find things to do to preoccupy my time to keep me from thinking about it. If it's any help to you there is a website called quitnet.com that has been wonderful for me. It has calculators on it to show how much money you have saved and how many days hours and minutes you've been smoke free!! I guess what I am wondering is what made you pick them back up again after 2 years?? I found that certain social situations are dangerous for me right now and as bad as I hate to I have to deal with these things first before I can be around my smoking friends again...it's not easy and I hope that you decide to lay them down again because 20 years from now you won't be sorry!!! Jen