3 week post op and I'm really craving a cigarette

[steel86man]

Is it bad to start smoking this soon after surgery? I quit about 3 weeks before surgery and it's been the hardest thing ever.

[Cindy]

I found it very easy to quit when they told me I had throat cancer. Maybe that could motivate you?

[BeverlyAnn]

If you've gone three weeks, you're past the worst part.  Try to keep going.  I'll be honest, I quit in 2007 and there are occasions still when I wake up in the middle of the night wanting a cigarette for a few seconds but it passes quickly.  It's hard but it can be done.

[Semira]

This is definitely a fantastic opportunity to kick the habit for good and should be worthy of strong consideration. If you are strong enough to go through the rigors of transition then you are strong enough to beat smoking.

[sigsi]

I don't smoke, but I'd stick with the latest date of your estimated recovery time. I'd rather be extra safe right after surgery then live with any damages I might have caused. Just hold out as long as you can and if in doubt, ask your surgeon. Good luck.

[Tossu-sama]

I'm echoing that if you've been without for three weeks already, you're off to a good start. It's just about willpower now.

I quit smoking like two weeks before I had my top surgery and I know how awful it is to quit. I had couple days when I was so desperate for a smoke that I was ready to lick a fricking ashtray... I was using my fiancée's e-cig and it REALLY helped since I had a bad habit-based addiction, the nicotine itself wasn't that bad. Maybe e-cig would help you as well?

I also wanted to show to the people who say no one can quit smoking the first time they try. I quit August 1 in 2013 and been without ever since. How's that for not being able to quit the first time.

[RaptorChops]

I know exactly how you felt. I quit before my surgery and then I was able to kind of quit after. Once in awhile I would have one at work or if I drank. I was actually able to use a vaporizer and that helped me quit tremendously. It's not healthy but it's a better option then getting tar in to your lungs. Not much data on it causing problems but sucking anything into your lungs is going to cause problems. Unfortunately anything we do or eat causes cancer at this point :p.

[steel86man]

I'm echoing that if you've been without for three weeks already, you're off to a good start. It's just about willpower now.

I quit smoking like two weeks before I had my top surgery and I know how awful it is to quit. I had couple days when I was so desperate for a smoke that I was ready to lick a fricking ashtray... I was using my fiancée's e-cig and it REALLY helped since I had a bad habit-based addiction, the nicotine itself wasn't that bad. Maybe e-cig would help you as well?

I also wanted to show to the people who say no one can quit smoking the first time they try. I quit August 1 in 2013 and been without ever since. How's that for not being able to quit the first time.

I do have an e-cig and a mod. I just sorts freaked after I saw some article granted it was on Facebook ha. I think I'll probably do that and/or white knuckle it. I had quit before, cold turkey, and I wish I never lit up again it just made it ten times harder to quit the second and third time.

[steel86man]

I know exactly how you felt. I quit before my surgery and then I was able to kind of quit after. Once in awhile I would have one at work or if I drank. I was actually able to use a vaporizer and that helped me quit tremendously. It's not healthy but it's a better option then getting tar in to your lungs. Not much data on it causing problems but sucking anything into your lungs is going to cause problems. Unfortunately anything we do or eat causes cancer at this point :p.

I used the vaporizer to quit, idk what I would have done without it. Sure it was pricey but not having surgery would have been devastating. And I for sure agree, I know people who won't eat a little charred chicken because they're scared they'll get cancer. I say, meh live it up, kind of lol.

[Mal]

I quit cold turkey about 8 years ago, and there's still times I crave a cigarette. After you've gone awhile without smoking, it's all about staying motivated to not start again, and distracting yourself when the craving gets real bad.

[Ayden]

I just quit myself. I'm one of those people who just smokes out of habit. I didn't have any withdrawals or coughing or anything. I just wanted one when I was having my morning coffee.

Vaps are nice if you have the oral fixation like I do. They even come in nicotine free solutions.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

[RaptorChops]

I get my Vapor needs from Vapor-fi. Good company and I always get my stuff quick. They have some great e-juices and you can even mix up your own flavors. Rainbow custard is delicious

[roseyfox]

I smoke 1 cigarette once a week to a month, just for the buzz. Same thing with drinking alcohol i don't recommend it in the very least. But for me i don't have any addictive genes so i am able to use thing moderately. I hole you can quit, because it not worth the risk.

[steel86man]

I quit cold turkey about 8 years ago, and there's still times I crave a cigarette. After you've gone awhile without smoking, it's all about staying motivated to not start again, and distracting yourself when the craving gets real bad.

Wow! Congrats! That's a long time to have kicked the habit. I've been trying to distract myself with little things here and there.

[steel86man]

I just quit myself. I'm one of those people who just smokes out of habit. I didn't have any withdrawals or coughing or anything. I just wanted one when I was having my morning coffee.

Vaps are nice if you have the oral fixation like I do. They even come in nicotine free solutions.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Yeah, I'd say I have a bad case of the oral fixation as part of my "addiction".

[steel86man]

I get my Vapor needs from Vapor-fi. Good company and I always get my stuff quick. They have some great e-juices and you can even mix up your own flavors. Rainbow custard is delicious

Mmm rainbow custard does sound amazing! I'll have to check them out. Right now I've got some old stuff that is called shiruken but tastes like banana nut bread. I can't remember the company who makes it, I got it from a local distributor.

[steel86man]

I smoke 1 cigarette once a week to a month, just for the buzz. Same thing with drinking alcohol i don't recommend it in the very least. But for me i don't have any addictive genes so i am able to use thing moderately. I hole you can quit, because it not worth the risk.

I could do that for alcohol but not with cigarettes. I have quite the addictive personality for those I guess. But alcohol is whatever, it doesn't even taste very good to me so I hardly drink much. Although I hate the taste of cigarettes too so, idk. I'm not complaining, I've seen how alcoholism affects people and I'm glad I don't have to deal with it.

[lionheart]

Vaping is a good alternative to smoking, but from what I understand the main issue is with the nicotine, which reduces blood flow and thus can lead to complications. If you're going to vape, I would use a liquid that doesn't contain nicotine, although I doubt that'll help you a whole lot. Like other people have said, I think your best bet is to just avoid it altogether, after all, you've made it this far.

[steel86man]

Vaping is a good alternative to smoking, but from what I understand the main issue is with the nicotine, which reduces blood flow and thus can lead to complications. If you're going to vape, I would use a liquid that doesn't contain nicotine, although I doubt that'll help you a whole lot. Like other people have said, I think your best bet is to just avoid it altogether, after all, you've made it this far.

That was my concern. Unfortunately, I broke down and have done the nicotine vaping but it's not too much and I think I'll probably go back to zero nic right away because I really don't want to impact my healing process.

[alex82]

Is it bad to start smoking this soon after surgery? I quit about 3 weeks before surgery and it's been the hardest thing ever.

How old are you?

Of course it's not great, but it might not have done any harm. I had major neck surgery (non smoking related) a few years ago, and while I wasn't one of the ones who took their drip outside to the shelters in the rain - I was too busy enjoying the morphine and the oxygen mask - I smoked the day I was discharged. And it did nothing in the way of hampered healing. My scar is barely noticeable. I was not advised to stop for a designated time period beforehand, and frankly if I had been, I'd have been even less relaxed.

Having smoked right up to 8am on the morning of, op scheduled for 9am - it didn't make me bleed more profusely or any of that - on the ward, other people's drainage bags were filling up and being changed constantly - I had the same one for two days before it was removed because there simply wasn't anything more coming out. I guess it could've resulted in respiratory distress under GA but, it didn't.

Now with electrolysis - I heal within the day and don't find it sore having it done. I thought I'd give up smoking again about a month ago - my next electro appointment hurt like hell and has left the first scar I've ever had on my face, and only the third on my entire body - the surgery scar, and a knee scar from childhood.

I spoke to the doctor and while his advice was definitely not 'keep smoking' he said honestly, your body is evidently used to nicotine and has factored it in, so it doesn't impact on your healing, you're young, you have good lung capacity, healthy blood pressure - so if it's helping for now, go ahead - moderately - because that scar etc, your body is now free from any other influences and with no other work to do, so it's over-responding to a trauma that it has been ignoring up to now.

That's not to say it won't impact on health generally if I don't stop, I understand that fully. I do intend to give up - all of my family are long lived (into the 90's and 100's) - even years ago - it was one of the most striking family tree characteristics I came across. All except the smokers - that's a litany of lung cancer and stroke, generally between 65 and 80. So I definitely do have a genetic weakness to nicotine, and a genetic lucky break if I give it up.

My grandfather helped nurse his own father through terminal lung cancer, and it made him give up. He lived to a healthy 94 - and just occasionally, he'd enjoy an expensive cigar on holiday, because let's be honest, smoking simply is pleasurable sometimes and can really set the mood. He said watching his father die of that involved sitting night after night, with a bucket, watching bits of disintegrating lung and lining retched up and splattering into the bucket, while the ability to even breathe slowly evaporated into nothing.

I'm not advocating smoking, but I think you should relax. Stress is the worst thing for any recovery. Be kind to yourself. If that includes a vape when you feel the urge just now, at this very stressful juncture, well so what? Denying yourself and getting your adrenaline going because of fear and worry is worse.