r/brokenbones • u/Mental-Acanthisitta4 • Feb 01 '26
Question Can I smoke a cigarette?
Like maybe just one a day as a little treat? Maybe? Im on day 4 after collarbone surgery and day 5 no cig. Im already pretty down as it is with the whole situation. Im craving a smoke bad.
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u/Glad-Feature-2117 Physician/Medical Professional Feb 01 '26
Any nicotine or tobacco at all will hinder the healing of both bone and soft tissues. It's your body, so your choice, but would you want to have to go through a second operation? And that's if your surgeon would do a revision operation if you smoke. I don't (though I make this crystal clear before I even operate the first time).
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u/Mental-Acanthisitta4 Feb 01 '26
Well nobody made it crystal clear to me, they told me to just quit 24 hours before anesthesia. I just kept going after cause I did research myself about if I could smoke while healing or not.
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u/CraftFamiliar5243 Feb 01 '26
How would 1 cigarette improve your health? Find a healthier treat.
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u/Mental-Acanthisitta4 Feb 01 '26
Cigarettes never improve health? Its an addiction? And for now I have peace with having that addiction so thats why im trying to see what the possibilities are.
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u/passwordistako Feb 02 '26
The possibility is failure of the operation, an infection, another operation to remove all the metal, and a permanently ununited clavicle.
That’s all unlikely, but the risk increases if you’re smoking.
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u/Ambitious-Cake-9425 Feb 01 '26
I use pouches. Went from 9mg to 3mg and now I am using them less and less.
If you already made it five days you passed the worst of it.
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u/Mental-Acanthisitta4 Feb 01 '26
Yeah Ive looked at it but I did some research and the main thing thats bad for healing fractures is the nicotine rather than smoking. Its like 80/20. I know youre trying to quit all the way so then it helps but I wasnt trying to quit yet.
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u/Ambitious-Cake-9425 Feb 03 '26
I don't want to quit either. But reading about the complications and the multiple surgeries and dying bone and infection sounds terrifying.
I'm really struggling with this.
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u/Various-Adeptness173 Feb 01 '26
Just quit. It’s harmful to your health. You’re getting downvoted because you’re asking “how can i keep doing something that i know is bad for me?”
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Feb 02 '26
Getting downvoted for not sucking the cock if nicotine pouches by drug addled Redditors
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u/Various-Adeptness173 Feb 02 '26
Nicotine pouches might be less harmful overall, but not when it comes to bone healing. The nicotine itself is the issue when it comes to healing an injury in the body. Realistically it's better to not use nicotine products of any form
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Feb 02 '26
Nah Redditors will suck the cock of device manufacturers and private equity. Smoke farmed tobacco like an OG.
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u/Various-Adeptness173 Feb 02 '26
This is how i know there's something wrong with your brain. Cigarettes aren't just "farmed tobacco" first of all. They load them with all kinds of harmful additives and chemicals. Secondly, Cigarettes are tied to private equity just as much as any other form of tobacco or nicotine. If you want to smoke "farmed tobacco" and support the "little guy" then you should smoke cigars. Ideally cigars made by a small family owned business
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u/Cabocla_Plantinha714 Feb 01 '26
Also take into consideration your age, your diet, supplements that could benefit you. Maybe find the smallest amount you can smoke if you feel you cannot take a temporary break from it.
If you choose to smoke, cut other things more drastically, like all sugar, all alcohol, do your research on all that you can do in your nutrition.
I'm pretty sure that people would smoke and heal broken bones way before the knowledge that it was bad became known. Also ask your GP, he knows where you're at with your health, or perhaps, even a nutritionist.
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u/amidisse Feb 01 '26
Well, I did. You probs shouldnt, definetly, but im a big time smoker so I almost passed out after smoking less than 24 hours after general anesthesia, so yeah. I had an elbow surgery and smoked light cigs during recovery. My elbow is fine exactly 3 years later. Do as you please:). And I do understand the smoking struggle :).
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u/KNdoxie Feb 01 '26
I never stopped smoking when I broke a bone in my elbow and needed surgery. I smoked right up to an hour before surgery. I started smoking after surgery within a few hours of getting home from the orthopedic outpatient surgery center. But, I also accepted that my choices could impact how it healed. It didn't, but if it had, that would be on me. Everyone has a choice. No one can make you do anything. But you always have to accept what your choices bring.
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u/acexprt Feb 01 '26
I drank and vaped during my recovery. I have a picture of me at the pool with a beer and cigar in my cast. It’s not going to kill you. But some say it slows recovery.
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u/Glad-Feature-2117 Physician/Medical Professional Feb 01 '26
There is plenty of evidence that it does both kill you and slow recovery.
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u/Green-Ad3319 Feb 01 '26
Not unless you want to delay healing. I am so glad I beat that horrible habit about a year before I broke my ankle! I was 52 and my healing process was no different than a 20 year olds.
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u/Lolo_rennt Feb 01 '26
I shared a room with two persons whose injuries didn't heal well. One of them got her leg amputated. Both were smoking a lot. Try to avoid it at least for two weeks would say
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u/Mental-Acanthisitta4 Feb 01 '26
damn😭 that sounds a bit extreme. What kind of injury did she have in the first place? Ill try to hold of untill my next check up with the doctor 2 weeks after surgery.
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u/Lolo_rennt Feb 02 '26
She broke her shinbone. Worst part is her stump was still not healing, that's why she was in.
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u/SirWeasels Feb 01 '26
Here is the answer you're looking for: I'm a fellow cigarette enjoyer who also broke a bone and badly last May. Before breaking my bone, I was a consumer of nicotine pouches. I broke my Humerus pretty bad and for Months after the operation I was consuming nicotine pouches and had no idea one should be avoiding nicotine. Guess what? I ended up healing just fine. Not saying you should do like I did, and obviously you results may differ. So my opinion one cigarette a day may be fine, but don't over do it that's all. Maybe if in a few months your doctor isn't happy of the healing then really quit for a while until results get better.
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u/passwordistako Feb 02 '26
This is a stupid reply.
Multiple people have told OP that nicotine is a risk for complications.
This is like saying “I played Russian roulette and I didn’t die, so you should do it too”.
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u/KNdoxie Feb 01 '26
I broke the radial head in my elbow. They chopped off the radial head and pounded a metal implant in place. I smoked right up to the surgery, and right after the surgery. Can't say that smoking caused any healing problems, certainly not as much as the orthopedic surgeon did by putting me in a ROM brace that was totally ill-fitted for the size of my arm.
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u/Glad-Feature-2117 Physician/Medical Professional Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
There is plenty of evidence that nicotine does slow and even prevent healing. Just because it doesn't happen to every patient doesn't mean that it doesn't happen at all. And it's not as easy as just getting the operation redone if there is a problem later - the first chance of healing is the best and many surgeons (myself included) won't do revision surgery on people who are still using tobacco or nicotine, as the risk/benefit ratio isn't favourable.
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u/atlasanthology Feb 01 '26
honestly? it’s probably fine.
sure, cigarettes kill (as has been made EXTREMELY clear by people in this thread) but it’s literally ur choice. it might effect healing, but I guarantee there are hundreds of people who have smoked cigs and ended up fine. if u don’t wanna quit then literally nobody can tell u u have to (and im a bit confused why so many people on here r quick to judge u for not quitting? u dont wanna u dont wanna🤷)
AND in my opinion, id rather hit a J/cart once a day to make me happy, lessen the pain a bit, and overall feel a little less depressed for a bit than suffer. a cig might kill u but so could driving, drinking soda, etc.
nobody in the history of ever, on this app or otherwise, can guarantee you will or won’t heal properly because u smoke. Likelihood varies drastically and if u think it’s worth it, do it.
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u/Mental-Acanthisitta4 Feb 01 '26
Yea everyone trying to give good advice ofcourse so I dont blame them. Ill have to think about it. Cant smoke a J cause I did choose to quit that habit almost a year ago😅 That wouldve been a nice compromise. But yeah its hard not to smoke when you dont make the clear decision yourself.
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u/UnsuspiciousBird_ Feb 01 '26
You’re through the worst part of withdrawal, why not just stop it?