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"Nicotine is a short-acting drug that is eliminated from the body relatively quickly (i.e., within a day or so). However, the effects of acute nicotine withdrawal can be felt for as much as two weeks or more. In addition, the byproducts of nicotine can be detected in the blood for up to a month after you stop smoking. This is only of concern if you are in a situation where someone else might want to test you for the presence of nicotine or nicotine byproducts in your system."
I have to drop a urineanylsis to show that thereis no nicotine in my system. I have been tod that it takes 14 days. I have aalso been told that by using 02 I could cut the time down by several days. I am running the 02 at 4lts per minute at least 8 to 12 hours per day. Can you maybe tell me what is true and what is not. The first surgery I am havng is cervical spine from C4 through C7. Later I will be having surgery in the lumbar spine area. The pain I am having is horrific and I want to do this soon hoping that it will elliviate the pain some. Thanks for your help.
Kosmickreeper
I feel for your pain--on top of it all, you have to quit smoking! Poor you--my own problems seem not so bad right now. I hope that you find some relief for your suffering.
the reason to stop smoking before surgery and more important is spinal surgery is becouse the nicotine is a vaso-constrictor and the blood vessals of the intravertible disk it will block the blood flow to them and that decreases the healing time. also the carbon monoxide binds with the hemagloben better than O2 does which decrease your O2 states agian slows down the healing time
chris
it was posted above=)
For the back surgery I would risk it if I were you. You don't want to rish the fusion not working properly.
when it first happened i was 29 yrs old and doctors recommended neck surgery. for many reasons i declined and decided on epiderals and pain management through narcotics (addictive opioids). after more than a year of addition to these "doctor" prescribed remedies i sought out alternative options. i found through one of our business networking groups a gentleman that worked for Pete Egoschue. the egoschue method is a series of stretches that realign the spinal column, the skull and the tail bone. im so glad that i did. no surgery, no pain :) after the first visit (expensive and not covered by insurance) i began feeling better. the stretches are painful and must be done at least twice a day, but, it works.
if i may make a recommendation to you, please research this method and try it before you have your spine fused together. once thats done youll never be the same and even the stretches wont help.
i like you, am also a smoker and as a smoker i am suseptable to addivtive substances. with the pain youre going through ill bet youre hooked on pain killers as well. for your own sake, try alternatives. the surgery often is ineffetive and many times only makes the neck worse. it wont help your addition to medicine and it wont stop the pain.
i feel i must apologize but its true.