SMOKING

HI EVERYONE!

THIS IS MY FIRST TIME POSTING SO BEAR WITH ME

IM 21 YEARS OLD AND FINALLY GOT APPROVED FOR MY GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY!!! I DONT HAVE A SCHEDULED SURGERY DATE YET, BUT I KNOW IT WILL BE BEFORE THE END OF JULY. IM SO EXCITED BUT THE MAIN PROBLEM THAT I AM HAVING RIGHT NOW IS TRYING TO QUIT SMOKING! WERE ANY OF YOU GUYS SMOKERS BEFORE THE WLS? I DONT MEAN TO DO THIS LAST MINUTE BUT I WANT TO KNOW HOW LONG BEFORE THE SURGERY SHOULD I QUIT SMOKING? I KNOW ITS A BAD HABIT AND I SHOULD QUIT ANYWAYS BUT I JUST WANT TO ENJOY MY LAST COUPLE OF CIGS BEFORE I WONT BE ABLE TO HAVE ONE AGAIN.  CAN ANYONE GIVE ME SOME INFO AS TO HOW LONG BEFORE THE SURGERY I SHOULD QUIT.

THANKS!

IMO:
Quit as soon as possible. Don't buy any more cigs. If you have a lot left then keep a pack or two and give the rest away to friends, or destroy them. Whatever it takes. You want to be as healthy as humanly possible when you go in for surgery. Give your lungs and everything else as much time to heal as possible. By the time you go into surgery, you want everything to be  completely flushed out of your system.

I truly believe smoking does much more damage than being obese.... and it is waay addictive so it will be very hard to stop, but if you do stop it will be one of the best decisions you'll make in your life and you'll never ever regret it once you see the results. :)

Good luck with your journey towards a healthier you!

I agree. Quit now so your lungs are in good shape for the surgery. I quit 4 years ago and still have trouble with trying to start again but the less you smoke the better you will do in surgery.
Set a date (like tomarrow) and dont pick up the pack. Your going to be quitting doing a lot of things soon so you might as well group in smoking with quitting sugar too. You might be a little grumpy but you will thank yourself.

I just quit 2 weeks and 3 days ago. Me and my husband both did. we used a Rx called Chantix, it works wonders. You have to see you PCP to get it and some insurance don't cover it , its like $130 without insurance but you can go to the website and get coupons help some, there are even coupons to go along with insurance. Hope this helps.

I just saw my surgeon today and he was like "you have to quit now!" My surgery is on the 14 of July . Im trying to quit today. But if you knew where I worked you would understand my struggles lol! Yeah, im gonna try this week. I heard patches really help. Im with you sister.

I tried quitting months before my surgery, but I just kept going back. It was hard working with a bunch of smokers and being used to going outside with them. I got down to about 2 smokes a day and eventually stopped smoking altogether one week before surgery. I am 3 weeks post-op and have not craved a cigarette since.

Surgery is on Monday for me, I will be cigarette free 5 months on July 1st. I got a prescription from my PCP for Chantaix as well my insurance covered it, so all I had to pay was the copay, I used that for a few weeks, untill It gave really bad stomach aches, and made me like I was going to vomit. UGH. So I stopped the Chantiax and contiuned on my own. As of now, the smell makes me cringe. I cant stand the smell, it gaves me such a headache. All doctors are different, Mine recommended 4-6 weeks before surgery to be free of smoking.

I smoke the day of my sugery and and still smoking 6 months post op and I hate that I cant quit it. Take it from me quit before your surgery I didnt have any problems but I could have plus I am still on my stomach pills to prevent me from getting ulcers in my pouch, Good luck and wish you the best of luck

it took me the whole month before surgery but then i finally quit till about a month after surgery. and then the stress of work , moving cross country and the whole emotional aspect of the wls got to me and i broke down.

i dont smoke every day, more like every other day, and it scares the crap out of me we can get ulcers. but it saves me from being a super b*tch.

if you could just quit and never go back that would be awesome, i highly highly suggest quitting a few weeks before your surgery and if you go back a month or so later you do. its a habit, i completely undrstand. but you dont want to screw up your anesethia or anything. ive heard of surgeons doing breathing tests the day of surgery and if you fail that you smoked you do not go in.
atleast try to save yourself from that part of it all.

good luck <3

Wow. I'm suprised there are so many ex-smokers on here. My surgeon said that he absolutly will not operate on someone or schedule a surgery date until the person has been smoke free for a couple months.  He said "why eliminate the 2nd risk factor for morbidity, if people are going to smoke which is the 1st risk factor for morbidity?" Made sense.

Congrats to everyone that has quit smoking!! I can't even imagine going through nicotine withdraw and food withdraw at the same time!!