Would it be alright if I scaled my ladder and popped in through the 3rd floor window? I have been reading on this forum and feel I may be at the plateau some of you speak of at about 3 months.
I had smoked for about 48 years. I was driven to put on a patch before a visit to the dentist on 1st June, as I knew I couldn't smoke for 24 hours after extraction. A fortnight before, I had an extraction, smoked after 24 hrs and got a very painful infection! Dentist said It may or may not have been the smoking, it was a 50/50 chance. Sooo, I decided to take no chances the 2nd time!. Then I thought that maybe, just maybe, this could be THE TIME. A 3rd extraction was scheduled for another fortnight later so I went for it.
I've always said you can't do it until you are in the right frame of mind, and it took 48 years to get to this point. What a scary thought.
I used patches for 12 weeks, 6 wks high, 2 wks med, 2 wks low. They drove my skin mad. I developed itching all over my body, for which I took antihistamines. They helped. I now use nrt gum alternated with normal sugar-free gum. I also use e-cig when I feel I may crack. I feel that this is a cop out. I also feel that after 48 years, it is an acceptable cop out. I am working towards dropping the e-cig gradually. It stays firmly in the house now, however long I am going out for, so I'll get there. First thing in the mornings is my worst time. We are talking about a lifetime of addictive poisons here. I also try to get out of the house as much as I can, leaving the prop firmly on the coffee table.
Sorry for such a long post, especially as I'll be popping up the stairs to the fourth floor soon. Despite the nrt I am using, I know I will never smoke another cigarette. I keep going because I cannot go back to day 1.
I have bought a bike! And yes, I actually ride it, I am exercising and coping with it!
toucan
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It sounds like you've been through a rough ride in getting quit, but it seems like you're on the right track now. For sure, the older we get, the more likely for a health scare which could easily be attributed to smoking, so why take the risk, right?
Doesn't matter how you do it so long as you're doind it....and you really are. No cop out about it.
I too bought a bike. Love it. I'm currently being nagged from all corners to get a helmet. So far I've refused. What about you? To helmet or not to helmet? Bearing in mind they are such ugly things.
I enjoy life, despite its ups and downs. I want more, but I want to give it the best chance of being healthy for those extra years. I feel so much better in so many ways, but it is very hard to beat the demon nicotine!
My biggest motivation should have been the hacking cough I always got after a cold. But no, I carried on. Strange that it took pain in a tooth to spark the change. (Not to mention the hefty dentist bill, I don't want to contaminate the new dental work either!)
The damage I've done over the years is done, but no reason to carry it on is there?
It doesn't matter how you stop smoking, the main thing is the stopping. In much the same way as you will be welcomed into the forum regardless of what stage you enter it at. It's always nice for us newbies to hear how others are doing and what they faced, and I'm sure it's a nice reminder for the longer serving members (see how I avoided the word oldies lol) on what they went through to get to where they are now.
Keep up the good work and be proud of what you have achieved!!!
Thank you both. I must admit Dippy Egg that I found some of your posts hilarious. I do like a sense of humour. Although if your name is because of your love of runny eggs with breakfast, then I feel we have a major problem here, as I hate them!
No I do not wear a helmet at the moment. In my (ahem) youth, I cycled on the roads, holding my position on the highway even at right turns and traffic lights etc. This was with each of my young sons in a seat on the back. Oh the confidence of youth. I then became a driver when the boys were too old for the kiddie seat. On my return to cycling now, I suppose that confidence has waned, or is it that traffic is so much more bad tempered now? I mostly whizz along cycle paths, overgrown brambles and dogs on extending leads being my biggest problem.
I think that if I was cycling on the road now I would wear a helmet. Events in the Olympic velodrome have made them look quite cool? My son and his wife live in London and negotiate central London traffic on a daily basis. They wear helmets and are very cool people. But then the joy of London is that doing your own thing is cool, whatever it is. I have a folding City bike as my aging limbs find it too much to power my heavy old bike. Ok I get to pedal much more with little wheels, but they are easier pedals!
I digress, thank you for the welcome. I shall battle on with the giving up. 12 weeks tomorrow. Dental hygienist visit next Wednesday. That will spur me on having a few years of smoking stains removed. I hope there are some teeth underneath.
Toucan. Three posts and already I love you. You and your sneaky ladder Post three is very giggle inducing for which I thank you heartily.
You and I have so much in common. Why....only yesterday I had a tooth extracted. Bleurch. I'm happy to report though that I managed to eat a small bag of jelly babies today on the other side of my mutilated face. How cool is that? Not as cool, I readily submit, as your helmet wearing london family....but cool none the less There was a superb moment amongst the gloom of tooth wrenching misery. At the end when I was handed the little sheet....you know....the bathe it in salty water etc one. The lovely little dental nurse angel asked if I smoked. For the briefest of moments I screwed my eyes up to the ceiling to think about it. Then. EUREKA! "NO. No I dont smoke. I really dont" It was brill. She was pleased and said that was really good coz it means I wont get a dry socket. Socket! In this context.....maybe in every context.....that word has just soared up to number one in my least favourite words chart.
My name I just plucked from the air. It matches me. Anything that made me sound grand or cool wouldnt do as I'm neither grand nor cool. I do love dippy eggs though. Love 'em. So we have a problem already. Bugger Your name. Toucan. Maybe one of the reasons i'm resisting the helmet is that I'm sure i'd look Toucanesque were I to wear one. Do YOU look Toucanesque?
Anyway.....on to matters bike. The extending dog lead. I've not encoutered it thus far but can easily see what a hazard that would be. I'll aim to dodge that as religiously as I dodge the parked car with nutter inside who suddenly opens the door at me!
Todays cycle story. I was cruising in to work today and mustve got a bit cocky with the gear shifting. Suddenly the chain came off and there I was with legs spinning round and round on loose pedals.......ooh it was very confusing and daft for a while till I realised. I reckon at this point I was about a minutes walk from work. Undeterred though....I pulled up onto the pavement....and with some perseverance and lots of oil on my fingers managed to get the chain back on and cycle the rest of the way. Maybe I am as cool as the londoners after all. heh heh.
Anyway. Back to the point of this forum. Well done on your super duper quit so far. I think Pappy H would be a good person for you to share the nitty gritty of it all with. I think he too had a sort of three month thingy....and he too used nrt. Being a cold turkey girl I just cant be much help that way. I'm very pleased for you and proud of you though. Welcome again. Massive welcome.
Erm, much as I can see the benefits of matching up like minded people in a forum, please hold off the wedding bells for a moment or two whilst I explain that I am a guinness drinking female toucan. I got the nickname because of my penchant for a drop of the black stuff! We can still be friends..right?
Oooh jelly babies. I love them. They'd be a good nibble for the non smoking thing. Although I feel I may have to visit the forum section on food related matters and weight gain soon. I don't even own a pair of scales as I threw them out when anorexia took a grip on a close family member. I always say if I fit in my size 12 jeans I'm ok. I had to lie on the bed to get them zipped up this morning. :eek: Mind you it could be all the fat turning to muscle with all the cycling, couldn't it? Alright I know, it's more likely to be all the rubbish I'm eating since ditching the fags. I seem to be addicted to stodge at the moment. I usually eat only one meal a day and no breakfast, but since giving up I have porridge every morning, snacky lunch and stodge in the evening. God, that sounds awful. Must get a grip.
Still another day done. There are times when I don't even think about a fag, but need to cut down on the nrt I'm using on the days I stay in.
Erm, much as I can see the benefits of matching up like minded people in a forum, please hold off the wedding bells for a moment or two whilst I explain that I am a guinness drinking female toucan.
Ach, not to worry. We believe in diversity around here, don't we Dippy? ;)
OK so now I've got the guilt thing about e-cigs. Even though I only have the odd puff.
The next step is to quit them altogether. I fully realise that I am still imbibing nicotine. I sort of justify them by the fact that 48 years of smoking is a whole cultural thing, not just an addiction.
First thing in the morning is going to be the worst.
We went for a drink yesterday. I don't take e-cigs out of the house. This was the first time I have been tested in a alcoholic environment, but I did it!
So therefore that is one more situation that I have conquered.
I have a dental appt on Weds, which always sends me into a state of stress, but I intend to enter room 4 next Saturday with e-cig firmly left in room 3.
Oh heck, I've said that out loud now, so I have to do it.
Hi Toucan, looks like things are going well for you at the moment. I know what you mean about it being part of your life. I smoked for nearly 40 years! I have not smoked for nearly 7 months now.Keep going and soon you will be seeing the benefits of quitting which will spur you on to give up the E cig too.Keep us posted!
You're obviously going through some fairly major dental treatment. You have all my sympathy and respect. As you know....I recently had to have a tooth out. One tooth. Ever since i've limped around the house all traumatised and self-pitying, vying for sympathy and special treatment from everyone. If I had a pound for everytime i've said "wasnt I brave"? I'd be rich......erm.....well I'd at least be able to stand us all a fish and chip supper Hope you're almost at the end of it.
As for the e-cig. You've said it out loud....but you still dont HAVE to do it. I think you will do it as clearly you want to.....but I'm firmly refusing to 'get at you' (you cant make me) on the grounds that whatever you need to keep you off smoking proper, is fine by me. (at least, and in particular, whilst you are still facing dental traumas)
Hey toucan, well congratulations for not smoking!! Nrt, e cigs, herbal cigs, all is getting you away from how you were before. I'm on e cigs, but nicotineless. I had them with nicotine days 1-3 but now I'm on matchless zero nicotine free. It's just water vapour, lol, but I've noticed I need it less and less. Ignore the feeling of cheating, some people are on 25mg patches, y know? It's about taking steps to get away from buying those fags! Which you have. You're doing amazingly for month three! X
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There was a superb moment amongst the gloom of tooth wrenching misery. At the end when I was handed the little sheet....you know....the bathe it in salty water etc one. The lovely little dental nurse angel asked if I smoked. For the briefest of moments I screwed my eyes up to the ceiling to think about it. Then. EUREKA! "NO. No I dont smoke. I really dont" It was brill. She was pleased and said that was really good coz it means I wont get a dry socket. Socket! In this context.....maybe in every context.....that word has just soared up to number one in my least favourite words chart. 
I'm new and on day 2!
I'm New and Struggling on Champix
I'm new - Morning after stopping
