A little background. I'm a 40yr old male from the UK, have been smoking for 26 years. I roll my own, probably go through about 1oz of tobacco a week - roughly 200 smokes, and today is the day I'm going to stop forever.
I have some pretty powerful motivators - I watched my mother die from advanced COPD last year (she was a lifelong smoker), my wife is battling cancer atm (and I need to be strong and fit for her), and I have a 5yr old son to whom I need to set the right example.
I'm using Champix (I believe it's called Chantix in the U.S) and today is day 8 of my meds program and my designated quit day. I have smoked on days 1 through 7, but today is the acid test.
Today so far
Got up at 3:30am. (side effects of meds, not sleeping too well) and bounced out of bed full of resolve. Immediately destroyed all smoking materials - filled tobacco pouch full of water then flushed down sink - spent next 30 mins unblocking sink.
Ate breakfast and took first full-strength dose of Champix at approx 08:30. Was ready and willing to smoke at that point.
At time of writing it has been approx 16 hours since my last smoke, and I am climbing the walls, but still steadfast. I have cut up some drinking straws to 'smoke size' and am chewing the crap out of them. Helps quite a bit, dragging a huge lungful of fresh air through a drinking straw sets off all the right fireworks in my head
I am determined not to smoke today and so far have not.
More tomorrow.
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but aren't you allowed to smoke when using champix?
Yes, and I did (extensively). You are supposed to smoke for the first 7 days of champix, and then choose a quit date between day 8 and day 14 when the dosage increases.
Hang in there. Try and just get on with it. I don't mean to be mean but I found it good to just accept that the first few days were going to be crap and it almost made it easier. Deep breaths and early nights help too and sucky sweets!! Stay strong..
Yup, would have sold my first born too!! Will keep her now. Watch it with the straws; tried em for a bit and swallowed too much air; swizzle stix (coffee stirrers) work better and cinammon sticks are best. Leave a foul taste in your mouth first few times, but it gets better.
Hodges, I kept nicotene gum by my side for first month in the event that.... I only used 1 piece twice, but would use it in case of mental emergency than go back to smoking.
I shall not lie to you, the waves still come in reminding me that it's time to smoke and at least once every 3 days a tsunami comes in, but it is much easier to deal with now.
Take your champix with much water and after a meal to lessen nausea.
It will soon be day 10 smoke free Hodges - keep it up
Stick with it Hodges, and re-read your post above. It's inspiring me, so hopefully will remind you of why you're doing this.
Try and think about all that nicotine that is being expelled from your body. Rub your tongue round your teeth. Bet they feel cleaner. Go sniff a smoker YUKYUKYUK. Breathe in very hard, see no coughing, couldn't do that yesterday could you!
i would advise against that - i think it's pretty illegal
You are doing great - just keep coming on here and posting. My first 4 days were pretty rough and i wasnt expecting it, but think i am starting to turn a corner... your corner may be closer, may be further but there WILL be a corner.
Local time 15:08 - Have not smoked today, and determined not to. Glad I got rid of all my baccy this morning or I would have smoked for sure.
Went out to do grocery shopping in order to deal with midday crisis. Ran a couple of other errands too.
Got some strange looks in the bank, was puzzled as to why until I realised I was chowing down on half a drinking straw.
made it home without drooling over the cigarrette counter in supermarket too much. Feeling ok at the moment. Keep reminding myself of my reasons for quitting.
I'll be desperately disappointed if I have to report tomorrow that I caved in
If at work just play on here for a bit while pretending to be totally engrossed in that very difficult spreadsheet
Damn, and there was me thinking i invented that ruse
Your first full day (24 hours) without a ciggie will be your first major milestone, once you have that behind you then you'll just want to go on and on so stick with it, climb the walls, spin your head 360, shout "Your Mother S........." (we'll leave it at that bit :eek:).......just do whatever it takes to win!
See if you can find yourself a "crafe-away" plastic fag. Much better than straws, nicotine free and you can smoke it 24/7.
Remember that the healing starts as soon as you stop. All the 'official' quit smoking stuff will tell you how long it takes for carbon-monoxide levels to fall, blood pressure to stabilize, heart rate to normalize etc etc. They tend to forget to tell you that you often can't sleep, that you wake up bolt upright in the middle of the night, you get acne again!, bad-breath, mouth ulcers and so on.
Unfortunately it's the penalty we pay for having poisoned our bodies for so long and there isn't a quick fix.
Trust us though when we say that the benefits of quitting far outweigh the mental acrobatics we go through in the first week!
You will fight 2 battles starting now.
Nicotine withdrawal: a bit like the flu and with various symptoms depending on different people. Adds to the angst of the process but is brief.
Psychological withdrawal from tobacco: Can be easy or can make you pull your hair out with cravings for a smoke. Get your head right and it's a breeze. Fail to address it and you can battle for months and months.
Start at whyquit.com always a good springboard. Finding out why you actually smoked always makes stopping a little easier.
Phoned NHS advisor for moral support and chat only to reel in shock when she glibly told me I can smoke if I want to. Put phone down and resorted to tried and tested stress removal technique of shouting at stuff.
Shouted at Wife, Son, David Cameron, Football, BT, the Cat, the Microwave, the Lawnmower, the local Council, the streetlamp outside our house, and the Car.
Felt much better afterwards. I haven't been a nice person to be around today though.
Mouth feels like a Gorilla's armpit. The Good news - I haven't smoked today, and am pretty sure I won't. Thank you everybody for your messages of support, they helped keep me sane today. See you in the day 2 threads tomorrow
Hodges.
Note to self: Buy a treat for understanding Wife and Son tomorrow (If David Cameron want's a treat he'll just have to get in line behind the lawnmower)
Well done on getting through today, it is crap right now but it does get easier.
I remember my mouth feeling like someone had sandpapered (is that even a word) my tongue, it was so sore for about a week. I also had the most vivid dreams, but I actually quite miss those.
Your wife and son will forgive you eventually, buy them stuff with the money you will save from not smoking.
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Another Diary of a Champix Quitter!
