Smoking before surgery?

[Swarley]

Hi Guys,

Had an email through from Karidis' team with all the info for my surgery, but in terms of pre-op preparation, all I could find was this bit in the confirmation letter:

In preparation for your surgery you MUST refrain from having anything to eat or drink for at least 6 hours prior to your admission time. I would also like to request that you stop taking any medications which may thin your blood such as:  aspirin, Nurofen, voltarol, cod liver or evening primrose oil, garlic tablets and vitamin E at least 2 weeks prior to surgery.  However, if you are on regular blood pressure tablets then please continue taking these up to the day of surgery.

In the post-op instructions, it says:
"Continue to avoid smoking and alcohol for the first week after surgery.  Also do not allow anyone to smoke in your presence, either."

Thinking back, during the consultation, Dr. Karidis did ask if I smoke (I said yes, between 10 - 20 a day) but that was it.
Was anyone else a smoker before surgery and did they tell you to quit? (if so, how far ahead of the surgery did they tell you to stop)?

[chopper]

I smoked the day before surgery and I smoked the day of surgery a few hours later and have smoked every day since.

No doubt it's far from ideal and definitely not the thing to do. But as we both know, cold turkey isn't much fun. Just cut right down from 10 to 1 or 2 a day if you can.

[Swarley]

Thanks Chopper! Reassuring to know.

[vegasgo]

I gave up for a day before surgery, then started up the day after surgery. Did cut back a fair bit, hasn't done any harm. I guess it can affect the anesthesia, but we're still talking a million to one shot of complications arrising. Also to do with scar healing etc - the scars are so small, it really isn't a problem. We're not talking open heart surgery here!

[thetodd]

With some breast reductions (women unless its a severe male case) they completely cut out the nipple and resposition it!

If you were to smoke after this there is a chance that the blood flow could be restricted and the nipples would basically fall off ... so unless you've got a really bad case i wouldn't worry to much. It will may slow down recovery but not much you can do apart from jacking it in

If you want to give up smoking, have a look at getting hypnotised a few of my mates have had it done and havent touched a fag in years (or had the urge to)

[Swarley]

Thanks guys.
I want to quit anyway (and could really use the extra cash to payoff the surgery), so I think I'll take TheTodd's advice and go see a hypnotherapist.