Smoking...

Is anyone here a smoker? I've been a smoker for about 7 years now, and my doc mentioned that while it's actually good for UC, it's bad for Crohn's. I'm on Pentasa for the intestinal inflammation and that's totally under control (except if I forget a few doses, then yay cramping!). Currently exploring options for perianal symptoms (going to see my surgeon next week) but that's not even very bad. My dilemma is this: my job is super-high-stress (just finishing a 13-hour day) I'm naturally a high-stress person, and I find that having that cigarette is the only thing I've got to relax me sometimes. I'll quit when I get pregnant (sometime in the next 5-8 years, depending on when the boyfriend decides to propose ) and likely will be done at that point, so I can't really see the benefit to quitting right now if it'll only take away my one solid way of relaxing. Any advice?

Still smoking also.  I smoke about a 1/3 to 1/2 pack a day.  It is tough to quit, and even tougher to think about while dealing with the added stress of this DD.  I know it is a crutch, but am worried about the more stress from quitting that not.  My GI is on my *** everytime I see him to quit.  But I have managed to cut way back.  I smoke enought to relieve the stress and tension and knock the cherry off and come back for more later.  When you have pneumonia, they say if you have to smoke, you only need the first 3-6 hits to satisfy the nicotene need.  That is the principle I am trying to operate on.

Im on/off smoker too.
Sometimes i feel smoking help and sometimes make it worse. My doc are very against smoking saying this is the worse thing you can do.

But when i got a bit of a blockage smoking help and when im stressed smoking helps. I can go from smoking 10 a day to 10 in 2 weeks.
I think best thing you can do is try cut down as best as you can.

Good luck with gettin the bf to propose x

I smoked for 29 years and quit on December 31, 1999 at 11:55 pm. Smoking is really bad for Crohns. It can cause the disease to flare. But....I like some of the above really enjoyed smoking. But I had my first flare after a nearly 20 year remission and thats where I learned that is was really bad for Crohns.

So I quit smoking. I did have a some minor issues with Crohns after I quit, but now its all good.

I do understand about the stress issue, but in reality thats just a crutch we use to make it acceptable to us to smoke. JMHO

I was a smoker...high stress job...a lot of driving time...and I quit 14.5 years ago:) Not an easy job but well worth it!

I was a smoker when diagnosed and smoked for about 7 years after (expect when pregnant) and even though my hubby smokes...I still don't:D

Either way, it really isn't good for you, but it has to be your decision to quit. It's certainly a personal struggle...I wish you luck!

I used to smoke. In fact I quite a couple of times and then restarted.

A couple of things that were very very important for  me.

1) Recognizing before I quite that the hard part is not the first 2 to 3 days but after a week or even 2

2) This is the big one for me "When you want a smoke do not say to your self "should I have a smoke". say to your self "Do I want to start smoking full time again?". I know that I do not have enough will power to have 1 or 2.

3) I started to ride my bike pretty hard. Once I quit,  when I really wanted a smoke I could get on the bike and go hard and I could leave the smoking demons in my dust. I had to do this for a few months. I would get on the bike ready to kill someone for a smoke and get off the bike all good and not wanting one

4) Eat well. Eat healthy but treat yourself with top shelf of what you like. I normally would not pay $20 a lb for fish but during the time I was quiting I said I deserve it and I took the money I was spending on smoking and bought the good stuff (but not the fattening stuff)

I guess you can read everything I wrote anywhere, but the above worked for me. I like calling myself a non smoker for a bunch of reasons.

In the last 3 years I stopped smoking, started biking, was diagnosed with CD, went from 200 to 150lbs, did SCD for a year, and am in remmission.

One thing I hate is feeling this DD is in control. Quiting smoking and doing other things like SCD gives me a sense of control over this DD.

Sorry for the ramble but my intention was good 

Dave

 

Thanks for all the opinions/thoughts!

I have a total newb question though: What does DD mean? And SCD? I see a lot of those thrown around, and I have no clue what most of them mean!

I smoked for 45 years. I quit the day I was taken to emergency by ambulance and diagnosed with CD. I realized, at my age, I would most likely be hospitalized again, I would at some point need assisted living etc. and every time something happened I would not be allowed to smoke and would go nuts. So I stopped smoking cold turkey so that whereever I was, I wouldn't have the urge to smoke all the time. That was 9 months ago, and so far so good. I had tried to quit before and was never successful. I think the crohn's disease diagnosis gave me a reason to want to have some control over something and helped me to quit.

I'm with Nanners on this. In addition I've been told by the doc to quit. The smoking may not effect you were it's noticed on a daily basis but it's doing something. I suspect the maintenance drugs are put to the test and perhaps even reduced in there effectiveness. I recently had surgery and they said that the quickest way to a return visit was to start smoking again. The experience I went thru was enough to stop smoking. Right now it's easy to not even think about it since I'm still recovering. I hope that I can keep up the fight and the thought of lighting up really makes me want to punch myself since, I believe it was directly related to the escalation of the disease, surgery, suffering, etc. If that's the trade off then I don't want any part of it. If quitting adds a few years of remission, that time is priceless. On top of it the smoking isn't doing your other body parts any favors. Sry if my response is a bit heated but smoking is a terrible addiction. Think about all those people that have the same stressful job but never light up. It's the addiction that rationalizes the necessity. The mind is powerful and Ive said time and time again that we are our own worst enemies. When I feel good the mind says eat that spicy food or drink that beer or have that cig. Then flare, recover and repeat. Endless until you tell your brain to stfu. Ok done ranting but that felt kind of good. Thanks for the free therapy. ; )

Post Edited (JAB) : 3/31/2011 3:33:08 AM (GMT-6)

This deserves to be bumped for us smokers, well, hopefully non-smoker.

I'm into my third day into quitting my beloved cigarettes. I know how bad they are in general, but smokers tend to think "Ah, lung cancer? It'll take 30-40 years to get something like that"

And we all know it isn't true.

I'm constantly been advised to quit and recently my IBD nurse told me "It's the worst thing someone with Crohn's can do". Everytime I crave a smoke, I'll remember her words.

By no means am I encouraging smoking and yes smoking CAN be bad for crohn's....I too have crohn's colitis, I quit smoking for 3 yrs and had the worst flare ever, I started again (I smoke 6 cigs/day) and what an improvement and still no CD affecting my small intestines....I guarantee I have CD and not UC as I have had CD affect my small intestine and there is still crohn's on my anus in the form of perianal crohn's skin tags....

We're all different and smoking does not necessarily affect EVERY crohnie in a negative "crohn's way". Keeping in mind the obviouse dangers of smoking in general crohn's or not...also, smoking doesn't necessarily help every UCer either.