"In this edition of Anesthesiology, Turan et al. ,3 from the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, conducted an analysis of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Database of more than 600,000 patients. The results of this important work found that smokers had a higher mortality and increased rates of all cardiorespiratory and septic complications."
[anesthesiology.pubs.asahq.org]

Smoking reduces your chances of recovering from anaesthesia. Many smokers "die" and have to be resuscitated post operation according to the post op recovery ward manager I knew many years ago.

Mel, you can withstand only so much. It's too bad you started smoking again in my opinion, but you know what is best for you and will make the best decisions available to you. You are still the person I send internet hugs to and think of often in my day. So what is worse, the weight gain or stress or increased depression or cigarettes?
I don't know what is up with the docs now-a-days. Putting off surgery until the problem is compounded or beyond correcting. It seems we are caught up in the cost vs. gain of society issue. Are we worth fixing? Does the death panel decide who gets operated on and who is screwed? I hope we are not to that point yet but the imagination does run wild.
I'm saddened by your prognosis, I'll still give you hugs, I'll still think of you during my day. Nothing has changed.

@sassygirl3869 @ardentatheist @kimba @kojaksmom @sacatwalker I had surgery October 9th. Prior to surgery, my doctor said he wouldn't do the bone surgery (which had been the only topic of discussion for nearly a year) because I was still a smoker. He did, indeed, tell me to quit smoking in August but didn't give me a reason why. It would take longer for the bone to heal if I were a smoker. So, he said we'd do the bone surgery later. Went under the knife, blah, blah, blah. Come back for post-op follow-up. He reneges on the deal. I am a medical anomaly. He won't admit this but I think he's afraid I'll ruin his record since this type of damage, and required surgery, haven't been done before.

With other recent health issues getting progressively worse, gaining thirty pounds since I quit smoking and depression and stress, I needed my cigarettes.

Seven months of being a non-smoker was fun while it lasted.

Good on you and good luck.

I gave up cigs in like 85, no regrets.

Never smoked tobacco-only wacky tobaccy