Quit smokin Karma

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Welcome to the club! I quit a 3 pack a day habit in 1996 and the patches were a big help. I was cheap and patches were expensive so I weaned myself off quickly by taking scissors and cutting the patch down about 25% every 4 or 5 days. One box is all I used but I've known some that quit using the gum and they were still chewing it years later. :eek:

Best thing (and one of the hardest) I ever did was give up cigs. I never think about them and my lungs are remarkably clear. It took me a full year before I was confident I'd won the battle and I wouldn't touch nicotine today in any form with a 10 ft pole.

Not interested in the generous karma, I'm just here to offer encouragement. :)
 
When I was 17 I joined the Air Force and started smoking because it was
the cool thing to do. Lucky Strikes. When I was 35 I decided I had to
quit because I had a chronic cough. The 7th Day Adventists sponsored
a 5 day quit smoking class, so I signed up. First night a doctor showed
a full color lung cancer operation. After watching that I went home and
threw the cigarettes away. About 2 months later I got a physical and
my chest x-ray was crystal clear. Happy Day.
Now, 50 years later, I don't have any urges to smoke, but I must say
that during the first ten years or so there were frequent urges, especially
when drinking booze of any kind. That is when you have to be cautious.
The first five days are the hardest. That is why the class was 5 days, but
I only needed the first one.
 
Quit cold turkey in 2011..... After trying unsuccessfully a half dozen times over the years prior.

What finally did it for me was I needed an adrenal gland removed and doc said he would not operate unless I stopped smoking six weeks prior. (He believed general anesthesia is too dangerous for smokers.)

Sure am glad I did. Congrats to all who have, and best wishes to all who have not yet.
 
Rule3 said:
Glad to hear it! Best thing I ever did (and the hardest!)


Just remember. You only stopped smoking. It can come back to haunt you many years later. Nicotine is sneaky!
You are a recovering Niocoholic.
Click to expand...

I know, I quit for 10 years from jan 2000 to jan 2009. Wife died and I lost it. Took another 10 years to get stopped again. Don't wan't to do it again. Just can't

Somebody has taken me up on this.
 
Congratulations to you all. What an accomplishment!!

My twin brother had to have 2/3's of his right lung removed before he would quit. He wasn't given a very good chance of survival but he is now a 7 year survivor. Divine Intervention.
 
Rule3 said:
Glad to hear it! Best thing I ever did (and the hardest!)


Just remember. You only stopped smoking. It can come back to haunt you many years later. Nicotine is sneaky!
You are a recovering Niocoholic.
Click to expand...

I never felt like I had a nicotine addiction.

It was the habit that was hard to break. The reaching for a cigarette at particular times during the day.

Like after dinner, starting up the car, with a cup of coffee and so on.

I never did the gum, tootsie pops or anything else.

They would have been a constant reminder that I was quitting and only become another addiction.

I decided I was going to quit and set my quitting date 6 months down the road. That gave me six months to mentally convince myself that I was quitting and gave me time to cut back gradually over a period of time. When I quit I was down to less than a half a pack a day. 10 is easier to give up than 20+.

After I quit and I had the desire for a cigarette I would just tell myself, "oh ya, I don't smoke anymore" and just continue doing what ever it was that I was doing.

DON'T DWELL ON QUITTING!!! Move on.

Didn't discuss quitting with friends and family. That helped keep it out of my thoughts.

Not having constant reminders like friends asking how you're doing since you quit made it easier.

You need to get it out of your mind that you are quitting and miss smoking and replace it with, "yep I quit smoking and its awesome".
 
41 Roadmaster said:
Congratulations to you all. What an accomplishment!!

My twin brother had to have 2/3's of his right lung removed before he would quit. He wasn't given a very good chance of survival but he is now a 7 year survivor. Divine Intervention.
Click to expand...

Today's Divine Interventions come to us via doctors, nurses and researchers.

I am a cancer survivor and I know this to be true.
 
I don't think there is any one way or what works for one guy will work for another. Both times I tried various ways, patches, gum, welbutin cold turkey. I would make it a while then some how convince myself I could have 1 cigarette. Ya, right, one became 5 then 20 and away I wnt. Main thing is just keep trying. I kept thinking about coughing my guts out, being out of air. how bad the last smoke of a bunch was. etc etc. Its a brain thing alright.

Last time I used a vaporizer for a while and that helped, then right after I quit that went camping at high altitude and it was go hard to do anything, went tto the Doc. He ordered chest Xrays, Came back abnormal. Scared the **** outta me. Mom died of lung cancer. Not pretty. Cat scans showed a couple spots and COPD, specialist said spots were probably not cancer and had me get another scan in 3 months. Spots stayed the same. Going again a year for last scan. That all gave me lots of motivation
 
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steelslaver said:
Well, it has been over a year since I finally quit smoking,
I have a 6 or 7 boxes of the nicotine patches thanks to the VA. Can't give them back. But, I can give them to someone who is wanting to give quitting a shot. Be good to yourself.

Give me a shout out and they are yours.
Click to expand...

Like all smokers I know I need to quit. It's been over two decades since I even made an attempt to quit smoking.

I would love to take you up on the offer and try some patches. I won't take pills and am afraid of what the gum would do to my teeth. Cold turkey or patches seem to be about my only options.
 
steelslayer's post reminded me of long ago. I worked on the railroad
section gang in the summer while going to college. The old Section
Foreman would just sit on the motor car and roll his cigarettes. Every
now and then he would have a coughing fit, cough his guts up, turn blue,
and when over it he would roll another one. The way he quit was he
died from emphysema.
 
Good for you steelslaver - both for quitting and for your offer to help someone else quit.
I quit 6-1/2 years ago after a 35 year habit.
I chewed the gum for almost a full year to wean myself from nicotine.
Never want to go through that again, but I am SO GLAD to be tobacco free.
Especially with the respiratory illnesses going around these days.
 
steelslaver said:
Well, it has been over a year since I finally quit smoking,
I have a 6 or 7 boxes of the nicotine patches thanks to the VA. Can't give them back. But, I can give them to someone who is wanting to give quitting a shot. Be good to yourself.
Click to expand...

I don't need them. I just wanted to congratulate you for quitting.
 
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