For people who have experienced surgical operation, you might feel the trauma and the anxiety since you are putting yourself in a life and death situation, especially if the surgery is considered major. For people who experienced surgery, they know the degree of seriousness in this matter.
If you’re a regular cannabis consumer, are you allowed to smoke weed after surgery? Are there contraindications or any prohibitions if you ever smoke weed before and after your surgery? There are a lot of questions, and the answer might be yes or no, but you have to understand that there are variables that are needed to be discussed by medical professionals to let you understand the pros and cons of smoking weed in this kind of medical procedure.
Yes, we all know that cannabis can soothe pain and another discomfort, and after going under the knife, you probably came up with that idea to soothe the stitches fresh from surgery. However, before you even do it, read this post first.
Does your Doctor allow you to Smoke Weed after Surgery?
According to health experts, the soothing effects that you can feel from cannabis smoking can last up to three hours, both recreational and therapeutic. For the majority of surgeries, a lot of patients arrive at the operating room or the hospital roughly three to four hours before their operation or surgery.
However, according to health experts, smoking weed before surgery increases the sputum production, which is not advisable before the surgery happens regardless if it’s a minor or a major operation. For people consuming cannabis in other ways, the effects can last up to six hours, and you are not allowed to eat the night before your surgery, so chances are, your oral cannabis intake is already flushed along with its effects before you undergo your scheduled surgery.
There are many speculations out there that cannabis can affect your heart in an adverse manner, so are there contraindications that patients who have underlying heart conditions must be aware of this?
Cannabis in recent years has made a huge resurgence and acceptance in the medical world because of its therapeutic effects for several ailments. However, there are a few that are known about the effects of cannabis that can be used to treat people who have just undergone operation or surgery? If you are scheduled to undergo an operation or surgery, probably, you want to stock a pack of your favorite cannabis strain right now, but first, here are some few important insights that can help you.
Is it Safe to Smoke Weed after Surgery?
To put it simply, there are very minimal studies that are conducted to say any conclusive evidence that cannabis can be used after surgery. A lot of health experts are not equipped or trained to fully understand the effects of smoking cannabis and the endocannabinoid system considering that this is not included during their medical school years as well as research. Only recently that cannabis has been studied more because of the widespread legalization in numerous countries.
If you devotedly follow your doctors’ instructions after your surgery, then you might not fully enjoy the effects of cannabis when you consume it after your surgery. This is because that the cannabis’s effects can wear off long enough before you prepared for the scheduled surgery unless you consume it at the hospital which hinders the scheduled operation and can piss off your doctor also.
It is best to let your surgeon and your anesthesiologist know that you consume weed regularly so that they will know what dose of anesthesia and other important procedures that perfectly fit your operation. This is to ensure that both your doctors (anesthesiologist and surgeon) know the procedure or the right anesthetic cocktail they can apply to you before they proceed with the surgery without giving you any complications. This is because people who use drugs, including cannabis, regularly puts them at risk whenever they interact with anesthesia. If you’re going under the knife for whatever reasons, the doctors attending you will give you a mixture of drugs that will affect you in different ways and puts you at risk in many ways, especially if you regularly consume substances, including weed.
However, health experts say that there are no major effects or significant effects if you consume cannabis.
According to research about this matter, there are signs of negative effects of using cannabis or marijuana as part of the cure after having surgery. The healing process of your stitches, as well as the wounds inside your body after surgery, can be affected since you cannot avoid coughing when you smoke weed.
Consume Edibles instead of Smoking Cannabis
That is why it is best advised not to smoke weed after surgery. Instead, you have to bake it or use a concentrate to soothe yourself from the pains of fresh surgical wounds and stitches. If you’re allowed to eat solid food after surgery, ask someone you know to bake you a space cake instead so that you won’t have to smoke weed.
Even though weed contains anti-inflammatory properties that help the body speed up its healing process, which is ideal for people fresh off surgery, but smoking can harm the healing or recovery process badly.
Cannabis truly has its great effects on pain and can help your recovery process to speed up; however, never smoke weed, consuming it in other ways is ideal after your surgery.
But still, before you consume cannabis edibles, make sure to consult your doctor because chances are, you might affect the potency of the medications you are taking after your surgery. Doctors will surely prescribe medicines to help speed up the healing process of your wounds from the surgery, as well as other medications for your specific medical condition.
To make sure if you’re allowed or not to consume cannabis edibles after surgery, ask your doctors first so that they can recommend a certain dose or specific cannabis product that you can safely consume without any complications or contraindications.
How about using Weed in Minor Surgeries?
One of the most common minor surgery, a person can have is tooth removal. Oftentimes, dental work can leave the patient with an inflamed gum, a sore mouth, and a painful sensation once the anesthesia’s effects have already subsided. That is why a lot of people resort to using cannabis, but smoking it won’t help.
So do not smoke cannabis even after a minor surgery unless that specific surgery is done on the other extremities of your body (specifically foot or hand) that is less likely affected by the effects of cannabis smoking.
It is best advised to consume it through its edibles such as tinctures, concentrates, or essential oils that you can mix up with anything you want so that you can benefit from its soothing effects that alleviate the pain you feel after minor surgery. Many people, even health experts, approve that cannabis can relieve the pain from minor surgeries, especially tooth removal, because of its pain-killing properties.
Before you get too excited, though, there is a downside in consuming cannabis after minor surgeries since there are people who suffer from cottonmouth after consuming cannabis right after a tooth removal procedure.
Well, there are many ways to get you high, though. Just be resourceful and use the means such as what is mentioned above, like ingesting oils, tinctures, and edibles as these will give you a lot of relief.
Is it Safe to replace Medicines with Cannabis after Surgery?
Definitely no. This is because doctors and health experts are still on the tip of the iceberg in terms of doing research and studies to further solidify the proof of cannabis’s health benefits. So, do not replace the prescribed medicine that your doctor gives you after surgery regardless if it’s major or minor. Although there are many proofs that cannabis contains therapeutic effects, you should not be complacent and reckless because you’ll be back in the hospital in just a few days because of contraindications or complications.
It is best to talk to your doctor instead of self-medicating after surgery because, for sure, they can recommend a cannabis product to aid your recovery process.
Final Word
Cannabis, no doubt, contains a lot of wonders that people can benefit from. However, you have to think twice before using it prior or after your surgery considering that undergoing this kind of medical procedure puts your life in the line.
So, is it safe to smoke weed after surgery? There is still a huge question mark that needs a concrete answer from our health experts because there are a lot of pros and cons you need to consider. Most of the time, there are more negative effects than benefits if you do this since there are still fewer studies proved about the pain-relieving effects of smoking weed after surgery. Hopefully, one-day health experts can use cannabis for this kind of medical procedure.
No rushing, you can always purchase medical weed seeds after you’re totally healed.
