Wow. thanks for THAT warning. And I had a couple of glasses of wine the other night, too. WHEW.
Well, I survived it.
There is some talk that this product being useful in fighting alcohol addiction, but I suspect that has more to do with people avoiding the places where they smoke.
I don't even know what day I'm on anymore. Spent last week at a convention in Chicago (there was no "me" time, so forgive me for not telling anyone I was there). Lots of temptation, but I didn't give in a single time.
So let's see... It has now been 18 days since my last cigarette.
Think I'll celebrate by taking the $90 I've saved and spending it on my wife. :)
As most of you know, I quit smoking for a few months to try to please an ex boyfriend back in around 1994. After a couple of weeks I started getting bad gut pain and it got worse and worse each year, until I would pass out from the pain, then fall off the toilet and lay on the floor till I came around a half hour to an hour later, or until someone would find me there. I went thru many doctors over the years, they are were the same, no insurance, no help. Most would accuse me of being a liar, a drug seeker, or ask me if I'd like the name of a good shrink. Not one of them ever ran any tests on me. They patted me on my head and sent me on my way with nothing.
I finally found a resident doctor willing to listen to me and who believed me when I said I hurt. He put me on pain killers and ordered a barium gulp, Iodine push CT scan. That found the Crohn's Disease and vindicated me. I really wasn't a drug seeker, a crazy lady who needed a shrink, a liar and all the many other of things the 'nice' doctors called me for so many years. The test was done in at the end of 1998 and I had the surgery to remove a little over a foot of my small bowel a short time later after the 1st of the new year.
Going back to smoking not long after the pain started in '94 is probably the one thing that kept me alive they tell me. Some people who quit smoking, find out at that point in time they have either Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's Disease. Their first flare is after they try to quit. The longer they stay off the smokes, the worse they get. *sigh* I stayed off for many months, then couldn't handle it and got rid of the guy and bought a carton of cigs. Hah!
Today I'm a pain patient with many other auto immune related diseases or symptoms .. again most starting in or after '94. The difference now is once I was vindicated by that wonderful doctor, I'm now treated with respect by my doctors and I never get the lecture about smoking. When I mentioned to my family doc I had cut down on the smoking recently, purely without trying to, all he said was 'if you start hurting more than normal, light up'. I just laughed and said I'd be careful.
I had my adoption records opened back in 1991 and found my birth mom, dad, and 11 brothers and sisters. 5 siblings from my bdad and 6 from my bmom. I've met most, but I'm closest to my older sister on Mom's side. Like me she had smoked since she was young. She decided this past year she wanted to quit. In a day her pain level went from having to take a Tylenol to having to get Vicodin or Percocet from her doctor. She knew my history of course, so she quickly made the connection. She went out and bought a pack of cigarettes. The pain went back to only needing Tylenol to stop it. She has Ulcerative Colitis. The difference is she knew she had the Disease, but didn't know it could get much worse for smokers if they quit until I told her what happened to me. I am so happy for her. It was only a week before she realized she needed to start smoking again, so she didn't end up like me. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.
As far as buying cigarettes .. buy online Raf. I'm paying 11.50 a carton and they are shipped COD or they can do a withdrawal from your checking account and save you the COD charge. The website is www.allnativesmokeship.com and their 800 number is on the site. I prefer calling over using their site. We order a month's worth at a time and since we smoke different kinds, I prefer dealing with a live person so I'm sure they get it right. We've been buying from them for 5 or 6 years now and only one time had a problem. The post office lost the box. LOL. I called All Native and talked to someone in the office after being transferred there from the sales person. The lady I spoke with set up the same order again and made sure it went out the same day. It was at our door 3 days later. Crisis solved. Over a week later the original order finally showed up and we just had it returned to sender as they asked me to do. We are low income. There is no way we could afford to pay all the taxes Arizona has added on to local cigarattes. The kind I'm buying from All Native are just as good as any name brand I've smoked in the past. Check them out if you want to save some money. They are owned and operated by Indians on a reservation up north, so they are tax exempt. When buying online you MUST buy from the Indians. If you buy from one of the 'cheap smokes' websites that aren't run by Indians, then your state can and will find you responsible for taxes owed and send you a very large bill in the thousands of dollars you must pay. I've read of many people who made that expensive mistake.
I hope all I've written will help those who smoke still and want to save some money and those that hate smokers realize that for some of us, it's saving our lives, not killing us. The media is anti smoking, so you don't hear our side of things. There are quite a few Diseases smoking has been proven to help. I long for the day I'm not considered a horrible person who should be sent to an island somewhere away from society because I smoke.
The nannies have now completed their goal of making sure smokers can't go anywhere in public and in some states even smoking in your car while out driving is illegal. One town in California is non smoking ..everywhere. The smokers that lived there had to either quit or sell their home and move away. The fines are very high if they get caught. The nannies are now looking at alcohol drinkers and people who are overweight. If not stopped, they will have those groups standing outside in all kinds of nasty weather with us smokers. Sad state of affairs anymore when you can't indulge in a legal product.
I dunno, I've been smokefree for over 22 years now, and I can't say as I miss it a bit.
Smokers don't realize how bad they smell, and how bad everywhere they spend any time smells, their car, their house, their furniture. All of it has the ugly stale smell of smoke hanging on it. And then there's the slime that coats all of their stuff as well. It's just an ugly habit, I'm sorry.
And I can't imagine that there are wonderful health benefits that one derives from the habit that couldn't be accomplished in a more benign manner from a less destructive sort of drug. Geeze, maybe you could take nicotine tablets or somesuch.
I think you're kidding yourself BB if you believe that you'll somehow avoid the ills of smoking. Maybe you will, but I've seen too many put into an early grave making the same bet...
So far, everything's going great. It has now been 20 days since I puffed on my last cigarette. I've saved roughly $100 (not to mention the amount of money I've saved avoiding the situations that tempt me to smoke: between alcohol and cigarettes, I've probably got roughly $300 more in my bank account than I otherwise would have.
Say, if weight gain is a problem, or finding a different activity to replace places where you smoked...have you considered starting some kind of new physical regime?
Serious note: no, I have not been eating more. I've tried to be cautious about that.
It's starting to feel normal again not to smoke. That's what I enjoy: the feeling of - not feeling anything about smoking. I don't miss it. I don't crave it. I know, mentally, that it's a snare I could very easily get caught up in again, so I continue to talk about it to my friends . They need to understand that I'm serious and come down on me if I dare light up again. But so far, not much of a temptation.
It has now been 24 days since I've had a cigarette.
I've decided on my own to reduce my Chantix intake to one pill a day (it's supposed to be two). If I feel the urge to smoke coming back, I'll go back on the regular dosage, then talk to my doctor: no sense trading one expensive addiction that will screw with your body for another that may drive you crazy.
I've experienced no psychological effects on Chantix, but I have noticed my sleep is a little less restful. I'm not typically one who remembers my dreams, but lately they've been a little too real. I'm dreaming about board meetings and obligations and things like that. Then I wake up feeling like I've just lived a day in my sleep; now I have to live one in real life. The feeling dissipates within an hour, but for now: Waking Up Is Hard To Do.
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Raf
For some reason that I can't quite understand, I started smoking about 18 months ago. I had a few this morning, but then... I threw out the rest of the pack... and I threw out the lighter... and I...
Raf
Maybe too soon. But I'm counting on all of you to keep the pressure on!
Sudo
Raf, You started smoking 18 months ago? Man, that is soooooo atypical. That's not the kind of thing you're wanting to hear, I know but inquiring minds want to know... how did that happen??
Raf
!!!
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Tom Strange
...wow Raf, you sounded just like him!
I never realized (before) what a bad singer BJ was!
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Raf
Ok, no drinking and Chantix!
Wow. thanks for THAT warning. And I had a couple of glasses of wine the other night, too. WHEW.
Well, I survived it.
There is some talk that this product being useful in fighting alcohol addiction, but I suspect that has more to do with people avoiding the places where they smoke.
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Raf
Two and a half hours away from one full week without a cigarette or, really, even much of a craving. Liberating.
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Raf
11 a.m. came and went and I didn't even notice it. Woohoo!
I am now in week 2!
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Belle
Good going, Raf!
I'll bet your car and home smell real sweet now. That's one thing I loved noticing.
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pawtucket
Great Raf. I just hit the one month mark. If you really want to go nuts, start a diet after two weeks
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Shellon
I just started Wellbutrin today, we'll see how that goes..............
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Raf
I don't even know what day I'm on anymore. Spent last week at a convention in Chicago (there was no "me" time, so forgive me for not telling anyone I was there). Lots of temptation, but I didn't give in a single time.
So let's see... It has now been 18 days since my last cigarette.
Think I'll celebrate by taking the $90 I've saved and spending it on my wife. :)
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pawtucket
I'm on about 45 days no smoking and almost 30 days with no food!!
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Raf
I'll take it that's an exaggeration.
No food? Bad thing!
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BikerBabe
As most of you know, I quit smoking for a few months to try to please an ex boyfriend back in around 1994. After a couple of weeks I started getting bad gut pain and it got worse and worse each year, until I would pass out from the pain, then fall off the toilet and lay on the floor till I came around a half hour to an hour later, or until someone would find me there. I went thru many doctors over the years, they are were the same, no insurance, no help. Most would accuse me of being a liar, a drug seeker, or ask me if I'd like the name of a good shrink. Not one of them ever ran any tests on me. They patted me on my head and sent me on my way with nothing.
I finally found a resident doctor willing to listen to me and who believed me when I said I hurt. He put me on pain killers and ordered a barium gulp, Iodine push CT scan. That found the Crohn's Disease and vindicated me. I really wasn't a drug seeker, a crazy lady who needed a shrink, a liar and all the many other of things the 'nice' doctors called me for so many years. The test was done in at the end of 1998 and I had the surgery to remove a little over a foot of my small bowel a short time later after the 1st of the new year.
Going back to smoking not long after the pain started in '94 is probably the one thing that kept me alive they tell me. Some people who quit smoking, find out at that point in time they have either Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's Disease. Their first flare is after they try to quit. The longer they stay off the smokes, the worse they get. *sigh* I stayed off for many months, then couldn't handle it and got rid of the guy and bought a carton of cigs. Hah!
Today I'm a pain patient with many other auto immune related diseases or symptoms .. again most starting in or after '94. The difference now is once I was vindicated by that wonderful doctor, I'm now treated with respect by my doctors and I never get the lecture about smoking. When I mentioned to my family doc I had cut down on the smoking recently, purely without trying to, all he said was 'if you start hurting more than normal, light up'. I just laughed and said I'd be careful.
I had my adoption records opened back in 1991 and found my birth mom, dad, and 11 brothers and sisters. 5 siblings from my bdad and 6 from my bmom. I've met most, but I'm closest to my older sister on Mom's side. Like me she had smoked since she was young. She decided this past year she wanted to quit. In a day her pain level went from having to take a Tylenol to having to get Vicodin or Percocet from her doctor. She knew my history of course, so she quickly made the connection. She went out and bought a pack of cigarettes. The pain went back to only needing Tylenol to stop it. She has Ulcerative Colitis. The difference is she knew she had the Disease, but didn't know it could get much worse for smokers if they quit until I told her what happened to me. I am so happy for her. It was only a week before she realized she needed to start smoking again, so she didn't end up like me. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.
As far as buying cigarettes .. buy online Raf. I'm paying 11.50 a carton and they are shipped COD or they can do a withdrawal from your checking account and save you the COD charge. The website is www.allnativesmokeship.com and their 800 number is on the site. I prefer calling over using their site. We order a month's worth at a time and since we smoke different kinds, I prefer dealing with a live person so I'm sure they get it right. We've been buying from them for 5 or 6 years now and only one time had a problem. The post office lost the box. LOL. I called All Native and talked to someone in the office after being transferred there from the sales person. The lady I spoke with set up the same order again and made sure it went out the same day. It was at our door 3 days later. Crisis solved. Over a week later the original order finally showed up and we just had it returned to sender as they asked me to do. We are low income. There is no way we could afford to pay all the taxes Arizona has added on to local cigarattes. The kind I'm buying from All Native are just as good as any name brand I've smoked in the past. Check them out if you want to save some money. They are owned and operated by Indians on a reservation up north, so they are tax exempt. When buying online you MUST buy from the Indians. If you buy from one of the 'cheap smokes' websites that aren't run by Indians, then your state can and will find you responsible for taxes owed and send you a very large bill in the thousands of dollars you must pay. I've read of many people who made that expensive mistake.
I hope all I've written will help those who smoke still and want to save some money and those that hate smokers realize that for some of us, it's saving our lives, not killing us. The media is anti smoking, so you don't hear our side of things. There are quite a few Diseases smoking has been proven to help. I long for the day I'm not considered a horrible person who should be sent to an island somewhere away from society because I smoke.
The nannies have now completed their goal of making sure smokers can't go anywhere in public and in some states even smoking in your car while out driving is illegal. One town in California is non smoking ..everywhere. The smokers that lived there had to either quit or sell their home and move away. The fines are very high if they get caught. The nannies are now looking at alcohol drinkers and people who are overweight. If not stopped, they will have those groups standing outside in all kinds of nasty weather with us smokers. Sad state of affairs anymore when you can't indulge in a legal product.
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George Aar
I dunno, I've been smokefree for over 22 years now, and I can't say as I miss it a bit.
Smokers don't realize how bad they smell, and how bad everywhere they spend any time smells, their car, their house, their furniture. All of it has the ugly stale smell of smoke hanging on it. And then there's the slime that coats all of their stuff as well. It's just an ugly habit, I'm sorry.
And I can't imagine that there are wonderful health benefits that one derives from the habit that couldn't be accomplished in a more benign manner from a less destructive sort of drug. Geeze, maybe you could take nicotine tablets or somesuch.
I think you're kidding yourself BB if you believe that you'll somehow avoid the ills of smoking. Maybe you will, but I've seen too many put into an early grave making the same bet...
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waysider
I've been smoke free for close to 25 years. (2 packs a day)
I must say, the urge to have a smoke subsided rather quickly for me.
After about the first 10 or 12 months, the urge subsided completely.
It doesn't phase me in the least if someone lights up.
It never occurs to me that I could be having one too.
So the point is, even the desire to have one will eventually go away if you are patient enough.
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Raf
Sometimes I forget the pill.
Don't want the cigs anyway, :)
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Raf
So far, everything's going great. It has now been 20 days since I puffed on my last cigarette. I've saved roughly $100 (not to mention the amount of money I've saved avoiding the situations that tempt me to smoke: between alcohol and cigarettes, I've probably got roughly $300 more in my bank account than I otherwise would have.
Wow.
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waysider
(Couldn't find a karaoke "smilie")
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Raf
Three full weeks.
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doojable
So has quitting cigs caused you to eat more?
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rascal
Well done Raf!
Say, if weight gain is a problem, or finding a different activity to replace places where you smoked...have you considered starting some kind of new physical regime?
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Raf
I was going to try a new physical regime, but the wife wouldn't let me bring them home. heh heh heh. KIDDING!
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Raf
Serious note: no, I have not been eating more. I've tried to be cautious about that.
It's starting to feel normal again not to smoke. That's what I enjoy: the feeling of - not feeling anything about smoking. I don't miss it. I don't crave it. I know, mentally, that it's a snare I could very easily get caught up in again, so I continue to talk about it to my friends . They need to understand that I'm serious and come down on me if I dare light up again. But so far, not much of a temptation.
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doojable
I once heard someone say that he had to stop thinking of himself as a smoker, or even an ex-smoker. He had to say he was a NON-smoker.
I never smoked but I watched both my parents quit and numerous other friends and family.
I'm glad you're doing so well.
My kids saw some photos of what the lungs of a long term smoker look like and the progression to health after quitting.
They swear they'll never start.
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Raf
It has now been 24 days since I've had a cigarette.
I've decided on my own to reduce my Chantix intake to one pill a day (it's supposed to be two). If I feel the urge to smoke coming back, I'll go back on the regular dosage, then talk to my doctor: no sense trading one expensive addiction that will screw with your body for another that may drive you crazy.
I've experienced no psychological effects on Chantix, but I have noticed my sleep is a little less restful. I'm not typically one who remembers my dreams, but lately they've been a little too real. I'm dreaming about board meetings and obligations and things like that. Then I wake up feeling like I've just lived a day in my sleep; now I have to live one in real life. The feeling dissipates within an hour, but for now: Waking Up Is Hard To Do.
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