Hey all. So I don’t know a lot about this but I have surgery in a week and two days and I’m assuming by not smoking between now and then I should be fine but wanted to see if any other smokers out there with chiari have had the surgery and what were the outcomes?
Hi. I'm a smoker (no surgery) but my brother is an anesthesiologist. I asked him how important it is to quit and why?
He said it has to do with oxygen and proper body chemistry levels that are created in the lungs. He said smokers have lower ability to (I'm trying to remember his words) metabolize oxygen flow to body/brain.
He said stop before surgery as far ahead of the surgery as you can.
Ps, I stopped when i was too sick to even get UP to smoke during my BAD chiari month. It's not as hard when you think of wanting to get better.
Thank you for your reply! Quitting actually isn’t hard I’m very sporadic and sometimes I don’t smoke for weeks but before I found out I was having surgery and so soon i was smoking regularly and I started thinking about it and wanted to know. So if Im a week away from surgery and don’t smoke anything everything should be fine right? They won’t stop the surgery or refuse to operate?
Oh ok well that makes me feel better. I don’t even know why but I’ve been stressing out about it and if the anesthesiologist would be weird working on a smoker
Hello, I had my surgery on the second of August and I have not smoked since. My surgery went well and I am doing great. I am praying for you and wish you well on your surgery. I am farely new at this myself.
My surgeon said nothing about not smoking, only let me know the campus was smoke free. I smoked the morning of surgery and after surgery. I have quit for 20 months before, but I am not ready to even try and quit again yet. Good luck with your surgery!
Wonder - my symptoms sometimes flare up but not usually. I’m nausea all the time so I can’t really say when it gets worse or not.
SomethingWitty- I’m glad you could shed some light. It’s nice hearing stories of other smokers that pulled through the surgery just fine. Are you glad you did the surgery?
The "surgery" went fine, recovery was as to be expected, however I am not any better than I was before surgery, maybe even a little worse. As for am I glad I had the surgery? Right now.. no. I wish I would have waited instead of doing it because it has been a nightmare ever since. Some of that could also be due to the "chiari specialist" NS I had.. some have had great luck with him, not me, and I have had plenty of messages from others on here and off here that also did not have a good outcome from surgery and also had a horrible experience with the NS, and also from the center in general. Which I can't post his name on here so feel free to message me privately and I will tell you who did my surgery.
I understand everyone is different but I still get the migraines/headaches daily and the severe ones that put me in bed for days every 10-12 days like clock work. I still have the numb back, get the tingly and numb feeling in my fingers and legs, exhausted, everything from before surgery and then some. I am sure eventually I might not "regret" the surgery but right now I do especially since I have yet another infection.
I'd keep off cigarettes before and after surgery. My cousin is a nurse and says one reason they tell you to quit smoking is that it makes you heal slower and be more prone to infection! A week without cigarettes pre-op should be fine! Best of luck! :)
i switched to e-cigs (16mg) well before my surgery... had some the day of surgery... after, didn't even cross my mind to smoke until the ride home. 4 days of recovering I don't remember wanting to smoke that much but if I did, it was easier because you don't have to get out of bed to smoke with e-cigs :) I highly recommend this particular kit but you could always go to walgreens and something and pick up Blu which aren't that bad.