Quit Smoking Support
yourresidentdj
13 days ago
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Jupidupi
12 days agogirlnamedgalez8a
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quitting smoking
Comments (33)i just started quitting smoking. Today at 11 noon it was my second 24 hours without a cigarette. I am 39 and have been smoking since i was 13. I didnt smoke a lot as a young teenager but was almost to a pack a day by my early 20's. The last time i went 24 hours or more without a cigarette was when i was in bootcamp when i was 19, otherwise i havent been 24 hours without a cigarette for 20 years. Recently i started having a bunch of health problems after being relatively healthy - i guess it was just luck since i didnt take the best care of myself and on top of that i smoked. what happened is that back in december (it is now march 2004) i got cellulitus on my left leg. Took antibiotics and it healed. A couple of weeks later i got it again on my left buttock and also treated that with antibiotics, before that one was healed another small on started right near that one but i took another course of antibiotics and it never got really bad. A few weeks went by and then i got another on on my right side in that area below the buttocks thats not quite on your hip or thigh. That one was a bad one and i took antibitoics for it. that one had barely healed and two more flared up. one right near the one on my right side and another on my left buttock. these weren't progressing as fast as the worst ones i had and i called my dr and she begged me to not take anymore antibiotics because she said too many can cause some kind of bad thing to happen in your digestive system or your colon or something. anyway these two havent been getting much worst so i havent taken the antibiotics even tho i am scared because cellulitus can get into bone and blood and kill you or so i have heard throughout all this i have also had the flu or flu like symptoms twice when i havent had a flu in over 17 years i had an ear infection and an inflammation of the eye from something hitting it this last time i had the flu i had a fever of 101 for 4 days and right after that the 4th cellulitus started on my right hip i also developed a small cough with hardly anything coming up but lots of wet sounds when i tried to breath deep i also found out recently that my uterus is so full of fibroids that it is the same size it would be if i was 3 months pregnant and have been having a lot of pain with menstruation and mild cramps pretty much constantly i just visited a womens center last week and they want to give me a hysterectomy since i wanted a tubal ligation anyway they told me my cough was probably something called smokers cough and it can become chronic i am scared to death right now because i feel like something is really wrong with me so for many reasons i decided to give up smoking i asked my boyfriend to help me buy the 21 mg patches and slapped one on and now i have been almost 52 hours without a cig an indian healer who is a friend of a friend recommended i start drinking turmeric and applying it to the cellulitus and i went online and read about it and found out it also has awesome antioxidant properties so right now i am going to start drinking a teaspoon of powdered turmeric in a cup of milk twice a day and also have been taking hot sit baths in it i am a recovering alcoholic - 15 years sober as of this month 2004 and i just sat and thought about what i want and what i am doing - my brain says dont quit smoking now there is too much stress but when isnt there stress? yeah the patch is helping - i hardly crave at all but now and then i get hit hard with a craving anyway - well since i am wearing the patch i know its not a real chemical craving it is just my brain and habit yeah a cig would be really comforting for me right now no doubt but will it fix anything? no just like drinking never did so i havent set any goals for myself i dont even care i just want to try to quit smoking one day at a time cuz every day without a cig is a day without a cig but i can say one thing for sure my sense of smell has already improved i use my empty dry cat food bags for trash by my computer and emptied my ashtrays in it and i have sat here with it for 4 years and it never bothered me - today as i was reading these forums i had to take it outside - it smelled so bad my taste buds are already better- everything i am eating tastes richer and fuller - i dont know how to explain it even and even better i tried to take a deep breath earlier today because i still have a little gurgle in my lungs but no coughing and i was expecting a lot more stuff to be coming up then what is so i took a deep breath to try to make myself cough up and as i sucked in it kept going and going - i guess i never realized how shallow i have been breathing all these years i was almost frightened by how deep a breath i sucked in i am hoping and praying that quitting smoking will help my body have a chance to start repairing itself and for my immune system to be able to start fighting back with all these problems i also wanted to quit smoking because if i am going to have surgery to take out my uterus i want my body to be as healthy as it can be one thing i know is that i didnt really want to quit smoking and i dont think i ever would - i kept waiting and waiting and finally with all this happening i just realized that waiting any longer is going to kill me and i dont want to die i just started a new relationship with a guy who is younger then me - even tho i never liked younger men but i am convinced he is my soul mate and i dont want him to have to deal with me and a bunch of health problems or me dying young and i certainly dont want him taking in my second hand smoke then dying from lung cancer anyway pray for me if you believe and if you dont believe pray anyway cuz psychology is finding now that beleif in something greater then yourself is almost critical to emotional health i also threw away all my ashtrays cuz in the past i kept them in case i started again but screw that and i have gotten rid of anything that smells like smoking or tobacco and aired out the house because those are triggers i am also going to avoid ppl who smoke for a while also another thing thats good about the patch is in order for me to have a cig i have to take the patch off and wait a few hours so i dont have a heartattack and right now a cigarette isnt worth suffering in withdrawal for, for 4 to 5 hours so the patch helps slow you down i am planning on doing the entire step down program tho i may try the lowest patches first after the two weeks of these sorry for the long post and if you are trying to quit smoking go read about turmeric - it doesnt taste that bad and i am a real wimp when it comes to bad taste and also i think you can now get it in pill form good luck to all of you trying to quit - just do it - and use anything you need is what i say - i am eating anything i want i rather gain ten pounds then die of lung cancer or emphysema...See MoreI Quit Smoking!!
Comments (7)Lois I love that!! Wendy I hope you recover quickly! Someone had mentioned that smoking prevents our bodies from healing as fast. Not sure if it is true though! I know it has been a hard struggle to give it up but I feel so much better now. I won't say I am totally over all of the cravings but it is getting easier!! Wendy, I am proud you quit, it's hard but it gets easier. If you slip don't kick yourself. Believe me I have had a ton of slips since I have been working on quiting. Today is 4 weeks since my last slip. With my slips I still have managed to not smoke over 2500 cigarettes since mid june. That number is crazy! Though it helps to focus on what I didn't smoke!! Good luck on your journey and if there is anything I can do to be of support you let me know!!...See MoreBruggers who want to quit smoking
Comments (30)I quit smoking my beloved pipes and cigars in the early 80's after losing my hearing on several occasions and ending up in the hospital 5 times to get it back. Tests showed a severe allergy to tobacco. My ENT was not sure if I were losing my hearing due to the severe allergy of if I was losing it because nicotine, causing artery constriction, cut off the supply to my inner ears. I didn't know if I was going to stop, and it was very hard because smoking can be physically addictive and psychologically addictive, of course. The physical addiction property of nicotine, as you all know, has been made worse by manufacturers who have increasingly used tobacco with higher nicotine levels and psychologically addictive because smoking is a mood changer. Studiess show that to maximize your ability to stop smoking, use multiple means. Medication can be enormously helpful. But medication alone is not nearly as effective as medication and a treatment group. Even more success with medication, a treatment group, and a support group. Even much more enhanced recovery with medication, a treatment group, a support group, and exercise. Hypnosis is also beneficial 50 percent of the time, when used alone, but that is not a very high percentage, so I seldom used it in practice as an only treatment. Much more effective when used along with the other multiple strategies. If you choose to use hypnosis, please use it as only a part of the treatment and please see a person with good credentials, not a fly-by-nighter. Ask at his her office what their training is in hypnosis. When I was smoking and saw no effects on my health, I could always separate my emotional reactions and the knowledge that one day, smoking would probably kill me, as it had my family for generations on both sides. I would think, "Well, I feel pretty well, and I don't have cancer, what the hell, I'll quit another day." My brother, 15 years older than I, was my childhood hero. I flew him back from the Virgin Islands 15 years ago to get treatment for his throat cancer. He died 3 days later. Eight months ago, my beloved niece, his daughter, who had smoked for 40 years, developed COPD and emphysema. Visiting her in the hospital in Hattisburg after emergency hospitalization because she couldn't breathe, I asked her if she had been smoking just before she was rushed to the hospital. Indignantly, she said, I KNEW you were going to ask me if I still smoke?" She thought I was fussing at her, when instead I was trying to point out the link between her emergency and smoking the night before she was hospitalized. She also then developed cancer and just before she died on the way to the hospital two months ago, she had a cigarette and couldn't breathe. After the funeral, mourners including her huysband, their grown children, and her nieces and nephews talked about how it was such a tragedy for her to die at age 55. And this was said in the parking lot, as the whole family gathered to smoke in the parking lot after the funeral. I could only shake my head as I left. One of my beautiful grand nieces, as she lit her cigarette said, "Uncle Jimmy, it's hard to find people who don't smoke." I thought that I'd save for another day the fact that our state, Mississippi, has the nation's highest percentage of smokers, at 25 percent. I also saved for another day the information that with both her and her husband smoking, their close relationships among friend will be likely limited to other smokers. France puts in a country-wide smoking ban in restaurants this week, as their research shows half their smokers die os cancer and another 5,000 die each year from second-hand breathing. I well remember my dad saying that he'd rather smoke than live a few more years. Such is the power of this addiction to change normal thought. I remember how he made fun of his elderly cardiologist, who, speaking in a foreign accent, said, "Mr. Chaney, each cigarette you smoke is living driving a nail in your coffin." And we'd all laugh--my dad was a hilarious guy. When he died of his fourth heart attack, sitting and smoking at the kitchen table with my mother in 1972, we never again brought up our dad's hilarious sense of humor making fun of his heart doctor. To my mother's credit, she stopped smoking at age 65 after she developed emphysema. When she couldn't breathe right, she quit. Two successful fights with cancer had not been enough for her to stop. But she did, and she lived until nearly 80. Truly I will hope for your internal strength to go to those treatment programs and to stay with them. Fighting an addiction alone typically subverts your attempts at quitting and reduces you to using "strong will", an ineffective idea in treating addictions. As we all know. Jim...See MoreAnyone Quit Smoking? Part 2
Comments (111)I quit smoking on March 17 of this year. My husband had just been to his doctor 2 days before that and advised my husband for the umpteenth time to quit smoking. He's a diabetic with emphysema and COPD - he has told us numerous times what can happen to a diabetic smoker. So, I had been wanting to quit anyway and on the l7th I made my decision to quit that day and told my husband that it would be nice if he would try and quit too. So, he said he would give it a try and cut down on his smoking. We were just starting out on a spring road trip. From a pack and a half smoker a day, he went to smoking just a couple of cigarettes a day, with me nagging him all along. We were gone for 2 and a half weeks on that trip and he probably smoked one pack of cigarettes the whole time. Now, he still smokes but only occasionally. He's a social smoker so that makes it hard for him when we are in a social atmosphere, then he will break out the cigarettes and smoke. He started out pretty good, maybe smoking 3 cigarettes in one whole evening. But now he's got it up to maybe 10 or 12 (maybe more) and he says he's doing fine. I can see him getting drawn back into his old bad habits. Although, he doesn't smoke in the house or in our pickup, I am afraid that he will start up again. I haven't smoked since the 17th of March and to tell the truth I don't miss it a bit. I smoked for 30 years. I don't miss the stinky smell of stale butts anymore and I can truly say that I feel a whole lot better. Once in awhile I get an urge, but it quickly goes away. The benefits of NOT smoking, truly outweigh the pleasure of smoking. Now, I just need to keep working on him....See MoreLars
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