4 years since my last cigarette

[Xaiver]

I switched to Vaping not long after we found out that we were expecting our first born. 

He's almost 4 now too... I'mstarting to understand 'time Flys' 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Good start! Now wean yourself off of the vape, and you will be good to go. Many of my coworkers have gone this route to quit smoking. 

Edited October 10, 2015 by BIGGUNDOCTOR

[Charles R. Stevens]

Besides the expense, kids are expensive! Problem is, you just can't just give them up as an expensive habit.

[Frosty]

Besides the expense, kids are expensive! Problem is, you just can't just give them up as an expensive habit.

And that's another big plus to raising goats. If your kids are too much trouble you can sell or eat them without getting in trouble.

I fought to quit smoking for a good five years before the tree cured me for good. Quitting is a really good idea but I discommend the tree cure highly. 

Keep at it, were pulling for you.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Pancho07]

Good on ya, apart from the occasional cigar or pipe I smoke only when the wife buys a pack when we go to the tavern. Always feel like spit the morning after. I dip Copenhagen all day and everyday curse the first one i took. Keep at it and do the seeming that works for you. 

[Steve Sells]

Playing games with an occasional smoke isnt doing you any favours.  I quit for 4 months in the 90's until a friend had their baby, he was passing out these Cuban cigars, that got me started again.   I finally did quit again, that only took a case of near Pneumonia last Oct.  It has been a year for me now.  not a puff since, it safer that way.

[notownkid]

I luckily never started smoking, my last drink was Nov. 8th 1971 day I was discharged from the Army.  Never drank before or since.  I love life too much to put bad stuff in me.

 

 

[Charles R. Stevens]

If your lucky enugh to get out of one of the sevices not an alcoholic...

I have seen the prostetics for folks that have had oral cancers, think you might want to give your wife a shock collar (or the remote anyway) to use every tome you dip. 

[ThomasPowers]

There is no problem quitting smoking; both my Grandfather and my Mother-in-Law quite cold turkey after smoking most of their lives and neither one reported any issues whatsoever.  They also stopped breathing at the same time due to smoking related diseases; but they never smoked---or breathed---again.

Keep quitting!!!!  Please!  Put your smoking money towards a triphammer or a Nimba anvil or your kid's college fund or ????.

As for Frosty---didn't Goya paint that? "Saturn Devouring his kids....?"

[Frosty]

Boy did you send me off looking to figure out what you meant Thomas. I think Goya had some disturbing issues but I get it. Wouldn't it be "Goatya Kids being Devoured?"

When I made my first serious quit attempt it made the payments on a new car. It still took me a good 4 years at a greatly reduced rate that appeared to be slowing down more when the tree got me.

According to the Lifeflight medic, I flat lined twice on the flight to the hospital in Anchorage. So I guess your Grandfather and Mother in law and I have that in common, I quit smoking and breathing the same day. I just didn't start smoking again when I started breathing again.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BattleBoar]

Good job. I'm just over a month smoke free now after 13 years and 1.5 packs a day. The smokes I smoked were up to $16.95 a pack so it was a terribly expensive hobby. I have already started feeling was better and I don't miss the cough in the morning.

Hope I can keep it up and best wishes to anyone else trying to quit.

[LawnJockey]

I quit smoking cigarettes 33 years ago when we were expecting our daughter.  I did the American Cancer Society group that quits on November 15th each year.  I will have a cigar when I am on a fishing trip with the guys but not a single cigarette.  I never smoke cigars at home that way I keep it limited to special times.  I have never had any cravings for cigs.  It works for me.

[Frank Turley]

Drinking alcohol and smoking contributed to a first marriage breakup, a wake up call. I quit both in 1981, never looked back.

[jumbojak]

I need to quit. Been smoking since I was twelve and my goodness does it have a grip on me. I'm down a lot from my worst of about four packs a day and have switched to a cheaper brand but shortness of breath still gets me. 

Tried the gum and my mouth tasted like an ashtray all day. Tried the patches but shaving new application points was too much of a pain - I'm a freakishly hairy guy so shaving body hair leaves bloodstains in t-shirts when the hair starts to grow back! Vaping doesn't do anything for me, puffing on an ecig just makes me want the real thing even more.

Saving the money I'd spend on a pack or two of cigarettes a day is a really attractive proposition. I just haven't found a way to stop smoking that leaves me a decent human being. Maybe I should move to a small island for a few months and break off all contact with other homo sapiens. You do NOT want to be around me when I need nicotine!

[Frosty]

Chantix by a generic name was working great for me and may be why the tree worked. I was almost chain smoking at my worst and was as hooked as hooked gets. The gum and patches are nicotine so you stay hooked. You may finally lose the desire to smoke but you're still hooked on nicotine. Chantix was doing it for me and I wasn't the ogre I usually was when quitting.

Nasty stuff tobacco.

All the best, I'll say a word with higher for you. All of you.

Frosty The Lucky.

[notownkid]

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

Nasty stuff tobacco

Every time I see young teenagers esp. girls smoking on the street I want to stop and slap them silly.  When My kids were growing up they went to work occasionally with my X wife who worked at a major Medical School and she would show them lungs and brains of smokers and their ages, nether kid touched Cig. and made fun of those that did. 

 

6 hours ago, jumbojak said:

Tried the patches but shaving new application points was too much of a pain 

Not as much of a pain as lugging around a oxy. bottle with plastic tubes up your nose 24/7.  No I don't have one but friends do and I've been pall bearers to a few as well.  If you can ID the person who gave you cigs. as a kid be sure to thank him or her.

[ggraham]

started when I was 12, at 26 had spot on lung that was bleeding, had this fixed, doctor said was not cancerous, but I was convinced what was coming next, 40 years later and here I am, dodging coal smoke for the past 8 years.

hope ya'll that have quit also remain in that condition.

[jumbojak]

3 hours ago, notownkid said:

Not as much of a pain as lugging around a oxy. bottle with plastic tubes up your nose 24/7.  No I don't have one but friends do and I've been pall bearers to a few as well.  If you can ID the person who gave you cigs. as a kid be sure to thank him or her.

I know that. Having to help my mom with her oxygen tanks, the oxygen concentrator, and make sure her pulse oximeter is in working order every time I stop by her house leaves me thinking hard by the time I leave. Boy, that oxygen is important stuff, isn't it?

She's another one who quit smoking when she quit breathing. I still remember driving to the hospital the night she went down. Hospital floors suck to sleep on but I imagine she had a much tougher time than I did that night. She hasn't touched a cigarette since and really doesn't want to. Still has the unopened carton she bought earlier that day.

[Frank Turley]

My mom used to repeatedly lay this one on me.

Tobacco is a filthy weed. It satisfies no human need. It drains the pockets, scents the clothes, and makes a chimney of your nose.

Food for thought: The white man gave alcohol to the Indian. The Indian gave tobacco to the white man.

[beammeupscotty]

I smoked for 30 years. 2 packs a day for most of that time,  and tried to quit at least 15 times.  In 2003 my son was 4 years old and I developed a persistent sore throat and cough.  After six weeks I was convinced I had cancer.   I finally decided I needed to know for sure so I could make plans for my son, who I was raising by myself.  5 days before my appointment with a ENT doc, I quit.  The doc told me I just had inflamed vocal cords and did not have cancer.  In 30 years I had not gone 24 hours without a cigarette and having just done 5 days without a smoke I knew I need never go back.   There were never even any close calls.  I simply knew I would never smoke again.  

Quitting was hard but without question the most difficult part of it was the dreams.  Every night I dreamed I was smoking again, frequently profusely. I would wake up with a start thinking I had lapsed and it always took several seconds before I realized it was just a dream and I had not started smoking again.  I continued to have these dreams virtually every night for two years, then intermittently for another 3 years.  For those of you have have tried to quit and failed, you know how awful that feeling of failure is.  Imagine having it night after night after night.  Man, am I glad those days are over.

[Daswulf]

4 hours ago, notownkid said:

  If you can ID the person who gave you cigs. as a kid be sure to thank him or her.

I can. I remember it and regret it and wish someone would have slapped the heck out of me. I've tried to quit a few times but always lapse back. 

[Frosty]

I grew up with cigarette adds everywhere and commercials on TV. Remember Granny Clampet telling us, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette had aughter"?

Dad smoked Camels and died of COPD related complications about 20 years after he quit.

Speaking of dreams. When I was in the hospital after the tree the Me that's writing here now was somewhere else and a different me was in control. I used to do some odd sleep walking like things almost constantly. Deb has stories. One evening the nurses were talking to Deb, they couldn't figure out what I was doing. I was smoking but I had "quit" so I was smoking on the sly. When Deb called me on it I quickly snuffed the butt and looked guilty.

I had dreams when I quit, the TBI just put them on display. Deb has some better "Frosty's not home" dream stories and the nurses started playing along with the more positive ones. After Deb told them I was cooking they'd ask what and I'd go into detail and share recipes. Funny thing TBIs. A friend in Florida recorded working at his power hammer and anvil. For quite a while that was as close to Frosty's home as I got.

Stopped smoking dreams is just the devil wanting back in.

Frosty The Lucky.

[notownkid]

Certainly don't think I'm making light of the difficulties of quitting smoking I seen friends do it and try to do it just like Alcohol it isn't easy and certainly not fun.

Best thing that can be done is don't get started just like drugs today.  I've never smoked, drank or done drugs in 70 yrs. must make me a Dull Boy!      

[Daswulf]

I'd say it makes you a Smart Boy Notownkid. I try to tell younger kids to quit early, and warn how hard it is later but i think i just come off as hypocritical.

[natenaaron]

I did as much of everything as I could get my hands on.  Ditched it all when I was in my twenties.  I loved my then girl friend more than I did the other stuff.  Married her too.  Then I hit 39. For about 5 years I was having a surgery every year or so.  Both shoulders, hand, back, Me and the opiates got along wonderfully.  First it was for the pain but in no time I was using them to get through the day, and to sleep at night etc.....You would think I would have known better but the doc prescribed them and I never even gave it a thought.  11 months without pills next week.  Kicking those were no problem compared to the cigarettes.  20 years and I still want one.