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Anthony Youn, M.D., is a plastic surgeon in Metro Detroit. He is the author of "In Stitches," a humorous memoir about growing up Asian American and becoming a doctor.
I cringe every time I see a patient for a breast lift who is a smoker. I'm deathly afraid that despite my warnings, she will smoke before or after surgery and cause her nipples to turn black and fall off.
Can anyone find statistics indicating just how many people have had their nipples fall off because of smoking? How about it?
(note: The book is described as "humorous"...not that it'll make any difference to the anti-smoking crowd)
Reading comprehension....
There is no "humorous book" referenced....this isn't a joke.
The context is after breast surgery, smoking can lead to wound complications and loss of the nipple....that is a FACT and I have seen it.
I've seen patient's lose fingers, toes and legs directly attributable to smoking complicating their wound healing as well.
I have also seen patients, young patients, lose fingers and other extremities even without having it happen as a complication of surgery due to smoking
Look up Buerger's Disease. It is real and I have seen several cases over the years...
There is no "humorous book" referenced....this isn't a joke.
The context is after breast surgery, smoking can lead to wound complications and loss of the nipple....that is a FACT and I have seen it.
I've seen patient's lose fingers, toes and legs directly attributable to smoking complicating their wound healing as well.
I have also seen patients, young patients, lose fingers and other extremities even without having it happen as a complication of surgery due to smoking
Look up Buerger's Disease. It is real and I have seen several cases over the years...
"Anthony Youn, M.D., is a plastic surgeon in Metro Detroit. He is the author of "In Stitches," a humorous memoir about growing up Asian American and becoming a doctor."
Of course smoking can lead to complications after surgery because of restricted blood flow. But, so can many things, including Atherosclerosis. Anything which reduces blood flow to a wound retards healing and doctor's must account for it after just about any surgery, especially when it involves older people. There are numerous tools in the doctor's bag to deal with it.
The point is that to just blandly and incorrectly assert that smoking will cause your nipples to fall off without any context is dishonest. Picking a single, exceptional possibility, and implying it's caused only by smoking, is engaging in the worst kind of hyperbole.
Moreover, it feeds the anti-smoking hysteria which is already sweeping away individual freedoms in the name of "health." It gives the smoke-Nazi's one more round of false ammunition to fire at smokers who are already dealing with the kinds of prejudice, intolerance and bigotry not seen in this country since the days of Jim Crow, a bigotry now being transferred off onto overweight people as well.
Posting such half-truths only feeds the flame. For instance, Google the phrase "Smoking makes your nipples fall off," and see how it's already spread throughout the blogosphere and been accepted as an established fact.
"Anthony Youn, M.D., is a plastic surgeon in Metro Detroit. He is the author of "In Stitches," a humorous memoir about growing up Asian American and becoming a doctor."
Of course smoking can lead to complications after surgery because of restricted blood flow. But, so can many things, including Atherosclerosis. Anything which reduces blood flow to a wound retards healing and doctor's must account for it after just about any surgery, especially when it involves older people. There are numerous tools in the doctor's bag to deal with it.
The point is that to just blandly and incorrectly assert that smoking will cause your nipples to fall off without any context is dishonest. Picking a single, exceptional possibility, and implying it's caused only by smoking, is engaging in the worst kind of hyperbole.
Moreover, it feeds the anti-smoking hysteria which is already sweeping away individual freedoms in the name of "health." It gives the smoke-Nazi's one more round of false ammunition to fire at smokers who are already dealing with the kinds of prejudice, intolerance and bigotry not seen in this country since the days of Jim Crow, a bigotry now being transferred off onto overweight people as well.
Posting such half-truths only feeds the flame. For instance, Google the phrase "Smoking makes your nipples fall off," and see how it's already spread throughout the blogosphere and been accepted as an established fact.
The reference wasn't to the "humorous memoir" this plastic surgeon wrote, it was to the FACT he had seen this happen....nipples fall off after breast surgery.
Nicotine restricts blood flow and most definitely causes wound healing complications....and NOT just in older people.....FACT.
Atherosclerosis does NOT complicate wound healing.
There are NOT "numerous tools in the doctors bag" to deal with complications from wound healing difficulties caused by smoking....only a scalpel to cut off more tissue, fingers, toes, arms, legs etc....
The ONLY way to deal with the complications caused by smoking and wound healing is not to smoke....period.
The plastic surgeons I refer patient's too won't even perform complicated elective procedures on patient's that smoke....they will have to prove they haven't smoked before by having a cotinine level tested.
No one "blandly or incorrectly posted half truths without context" if you had even bothered to read the TITLE of this thread you would have noticed the "context" of "Smoking AFTER BREAST SURGERY can make your nipples fall off....that is a FACT....deny it if you will but spare us the nonsense and aggrieved rhetoric.
The reference wasn't to the "humorous memoir" this plastic surgeon wrote, it was to the FACT he had seen this happen....nipples fall off after breast surgery.
Nicotine restricts blood flow and most definitely causes wound healing complications....and NOT just in older people.....FACT.
Atherosclerosis does NOT complicate wound healing.
There are NOT "numerous tools in the doctors bag" to deal with complications from wound healing difficulties caused by smoking....only a scalpel to cut off more tissue, fingers, toes, arms, legs etc....
The ONLY way to deal with the complications caused by smoking and wound healing is not to smoke....period.
The plastic surgeons I refer patient's too won't even perform complicated elective procedures on patient's that smoke....they will have to prove they haven't smoked before by having a cotinine level tested.
No one "blandly or incorrectly posted half truths without context" if you had even bothered to read the TITLE of this thread you would have noticed the "context" of "Smoking AFTER BREAST SURGERY can make your nipples fall off....that is a FACT....deny it if you will but spare us the nonsense and aggrieved rhetoric.
What you see now is not the original thread title. It's been changed by a moderator.
So, reduced blood flow due to hardening of the arteries is NOT a complicating factor in surgery? Why not? Reduced blood flow is reduced blood flow, is it not?
Is smoking the ONLY thing which can lead to such complications?
It's not a joke.
Many surgeons will not reattached severed limbs if people smoke because of the compromised blood flow to the affected organ. This will threaten the viability of the newly attached limb.
This is about microvasculature being compromised by smoking.
It's not a joke.
Many surgeons will not reattached severed limbs if people smoke because of the compromised blood flow to the affected organ. This will threaten the viability of the newly attached limb.
This is about microvasculature being compromised by smoking.
Is smoking the only thing which might prevent a limb reattachment?
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