It can be done!

 

In a previous post I mentioned how this was the second time I’ve been referred for bariatric surgery.  The first time was back in 2017.  My doctor have me the choice of 2 different places to go. One was local, and the way she described it to me was the doctor did the surgery, but there wasn’t much follow up or support after surgery. The second place was Vanderbilt in Nashville, which had a whole support program and extensive follow up to help you succeed after surgery.  I chose Vanderbilt, and went for the initial appointment.  At that time I was still struggling with my sleep apnea, and had a very hard time staying awake during the hours long seminar, but that wasn’t what deterred me from proceeding with their program.  The one rule that I could not abide by at that time was that you had to stop smoking, and I was not ready or able to do it at that time.  There was no way around it, they test you before surgery, and if you fail, then you don’t get surgery.  So I just never went back.

A year later, on my 45th birthday I quit smoking.  I remember my Nana telling me how she had quit smoking when she was 45 and that stuck with me.  So the week of my 45th b-day I had my last cigarette, but I wasn’t done with nicotine just yet.  I switched to vaping, and still got my nic-fix.  At that time I wasn’t even concerned about surgery, it was the farthest thing from my mind, I just wanted off of the cigarettes.  

Over the next 2 years I gradually came to HATE cigarettes, the way they smell makes me sick.  I became the person who I hated when I smoked, the former smoker who was just completely grossed out by cigarettes now.  I try to keep it to myself as much as possible, but every once in a while, usually when I’m in a crappy mood, I’ll make a comment if someone walks by me who smells like cigarettes.  The worst is the woman I work with.  She will smoke, then go into the bathroom and it will stink like smoke for an hour after she’s been in there.  I’d like to formally apologize to anyone & everyone who ever had to be around me after I had a cigarette, I truly had no idea just how nasty it smelled.

Anyways, I squirreled, back to my original point.  So I quit the cigarettes, but was still getting the nicotine, which is still a no-no if your thinking of having this surgery.  This time around I knew how important it was that I have this surgery, and in order for that to happen I had to be nicotine free.  So I started to decrease my nicotine with each bottle of e-juice I got, and I worked my way down to zero by the week before Thanksgiving 2020.  I was a bit snippy and easily agitated (that’s putting it nicely) the first week or two at zero nicotine, but I made it through without hurting anyone, Yay me!  So now I can pass that dreaded nicotine test.  It may have taken me 2 years, but I did it.  Proof that with the right motivation you can accomplish anything you put your mind to.