Smoking increases your chances of complications after surgery. You are more likely to suffer from infections, pneumonia, heart attacks, and strokes after surgery if you are a regular smoker. Learn more about why you should quit before surgery here. 

If you can't quite quit entirely, then try to quit for at least some weeks before surgery. Ideally, you want to quit smoking 8 weeks before the day of the surgery. But quitting for any period of time is better than continuing to smoke.

Remember, you can't smoke in the hospital anyways, so it's best to try and get used to not doing it. You don't have to quit forever - though, those who do quit for surgery tend to quit forever. 

If you smoke to cope with stress, and of course being scheduled for surgery can be stressful, then this may seem like a catch-22. However, there are resources that can help you. Take a look at some of the links below:

• Free Resources For Quitting Smoking
• How To Handle Withdrawal Symptoms And Triggers When You Decide To Quit Smoking
• The longest running cessation program

Vaping

While some studies suggest vaping may be better than smoking, it is ideally best to stop altogether. 

If your blood sugars are over 250 on the day of the surgery, your surgery may be cancelled. Why? Because having lots of sugar in your blood means having lots of food for bacteria in your body. This increases the risk of infection.

So don't "cheat" in the days leading up to your surgery.  Minimize your sugar intake, and on the night before your surgery avoid all sweets.

If your blood sugar is higher than 140 in the week before surgery, call your family doctor. Blood sugar must be well controlled before surgery. 

Cutting back on alcohol in the week(s) leading up to surgery, even if you are "just" a social drinker can help your surgical journey go smoothly.

Social Drinking

Daily use of alcohol is often a “trigger” to relax. During your hospitalization, you will need alternatives to drinking in order to relax. Now is the time to practice relaxing; see the Stress and Anxiety tab to learn more on how to do this.

Heavy Drinking

If you drink heavily, stopping suddenly can lead to alcohol withdrawal. Tell your surgeon if you have ever had signs or symptoms of withdrawal. A medication to prevent withdrawal during your hospitalization may be started.

Mild withdrawal symptoms may appear as early as 6 hours after the last drink. Symptoms may include:

• Shaky hands
• Anxiety
• Headaches
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Sweating
• Poor sleep

12-24 hours after the last drink, some people hallucinate or have seizures. Finally, delirium tremens (DTs) may occur 2- 3 days after the last drink. These are severe symptoms that include hallucinations or delusions and sometimes:

• Very fast or irregular heart rate
• Confusion
• Fever

Anxious before your Surgery? We call that normal.

Treating anxiety, though, can improve your surgical outcomes and get you out of the hospital faster. We recommend you practice mindfulness.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment and let any thoughts that enter your mind, pass through without judgement. Easier said than done, right? As with most things in life, though, practice really does help. 

Here are three techniques to practice mindfulness:

Deep Breathing

• Sit or stand quietly
• Breath in to a count of 3 or 4 then breath out to a count of 3 or 4
• Pay close attention to the sensation of filling and emptying your lungs; consciously relax your fingers, toes shoulder and face
• With every exhalation, repeat a word – such a health, wellness, strength or calm (whatever works for you)
• Repeat 10 times

Five Senses

• This is a more “active” method of mindfulness.
• Sit quietly and focus on each of your 5 senses:
• Sight: Name 5 things in your vision
• Smell: Name 5 different smells
• Hearing: Listen for 5 different sounds
• Taste: Name 5 different tastes on your tongue
• Touch: Name 5 different things that you can feel

Full Body Relaxation

• Start in a lying down or sitting position
• Focus on your toes, tightly curl your toes and then with close attention to the sensation, relax your toes
• Move on to your feet, pull your feet up towards your nose and then relax
• Move up your body calves, thighs, stomach, hands, wrists, arms, neck and face
• Focus deeply on each body part

Our skin is covered with bacteria or germs; this is normal. Unfortunately, skin bacteria is the most common reason people get infections in their surgical wound.

Extra Cleaning of Your Skin Before Surgery

Cleaning your skin extra well with Chlorhexidine (given to you by your surgeon) or antibacterial soap or even a cup of bleach in a bathtub, may lessen your chance of having a wound infection after surgery