Does vaping count for the stop-smoking rule before a sleeve? My unit says yes and I was banking on it not

I gave up cigarettes two years ago and swapped to a vape, and in my head that was the box ticked. Non-smoker. Done. Very pleased with myself about it, actually.

Then at my pre-op assessment last week the nurse asked "do you smoke or vape" as one question, wrote down my answer, and told me they'd want me off the vape as well, eight weeks before surgery, and that they may test. I sat there nodding and internally screaming. Nobody at any earlier appointment had mentioned the vape at all, I'd assumed it was a non-issue, and now I'm being asked to give up the thing I used to give up the other thing, in the run-up to the most stressful few months of my life, WHILE also doing the liver diet apparently.

So: is this a real clinical thing or is it a blanket policy that some units have and others don't? Has anyone actually been tested? And has anyone been honest with their team about still vaping, and what happened? I'm not looking for permission to cheat, I'd just like to understand what I'm actually being asked and why, because right now it feels like a rule invented to punish me.

Mine asked the exact same combined question. Smoke or vape, one line on the form. So it's not just your unit being awkward.

I wasn't a vaper so I dodged this, but a woman in my group was, and she was told the same eight weeks. She did it with patches, hated every minute, and got her date on time.

Twenty a day for years, stopped four months before mine because I was frankly terrified of the leak talk in my consent appointment.

What I'd say is that the honesty part matters more than the rule. I know two blokes who told their teams they'd stopped when they hadn't. Both got through it fine as it happens, but they both spent the whole pre-op period lying to the people who were about to operate on them, and one of them then didn't mention it when he had a rough time with his chest afterwards. Just tell them. They've heard it before and they'd rather plan for the truth than be surprised by it.

Tracey, your annoyance is completely reasonable and the rule is also real. Both things at once. Let me separate out what's clinical from what's policy, because they get muddled and that's why it feels arbitrary.

The clinical part everyone agrees on: smoking before bariatric surgery raises the risk of chest infections, poor wound healing, and blood clots, and it's linked to a higher chance of ulcers afterwards, which is why teams want you smoke-free for weeks rather than days. That's in the site's preparing for surgery guide and it isn't controversial. The part that's genuinely more varied between units is nicotine from a vape. Some units treat nicotine as nicotine and apply the same window; others focus on smoking specifically and are relaxed about vaping. That variation is why your earlier appointments said nothing and this one said eight weeks, and it's why you'll find people in this section who were told completely different things. When there's a spread of practice like that, the version that applies to you is the one on your own unit's sheet, because they're the ones assessing your risk and booking your theatre slot.

On testing: some services do test, usually a simple test for cotinine, which is what nicotine breaks down into, and it doesn't distinguish between a cigarette and a vape. So "they may test" is worth taking at face value rather than as a bluff. What I'd actually do in your position is book a call with your specialist nurse and ask three specific things: is the eight weeks about smoking or about nicotine, is nicotine replacement such as patches or gum acceptable during that window, and does a positive test cancel the date or trigger a conversation. Those answers change your plan completely and you can't get them from us.

One honest thing from my own run-up, for what it's worth. I dreaded stacking the giving-up on top of the liver diet, and the people I've seen do best did the opposite of stacking: they dealt with the nicotine first, well before the diet started, so the two miseries didn't collide in the same fortnight. If your date is far enough out to do that, do that.

Claire Maddox said:

the two miseries didn't collide in the same fortnight

That's the sentence I needed, thank you. My date is likely January so I've got room to do the vape now and the diet after Christmas rather than both at once in the same horrible December.

Ringing the nurse tomorrow with your three questions written down. Still cross, but productively cross.

Promised an update. Nurse confirmed it's nicotine they care about, not just tobacco, patches ARE allowed in the window because they're a stepping stone off it rather than a habit they're worried about, and a positive test means a conversation and possibly a delay rather than an automatic cancellation.

Six weeks off the vape as of Tuesday. Genuinely the hardest part of this whole process so far, harder than I expected the diet to be, and I haven't even started the diet. Sleeve booked for January.

Reading this six months late while working through my own pre-op list. I'm not a vaper but the "don't stack the miseries" point is going straight into my planning, because I was about to do my stop-drinking bit and the liver diet in the same two weeks like some sort of idiot.