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Author Topic: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.  (Read 3311 times)

Larry Ashcraft

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Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« on: July 19, 2009, 10:23:46 PM »
I smoked my last cigarette on April 6th, after almost 40 years of smoking two packs a day.

I used Chantix, but I'm not sure I would recommend it to anyone else.
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Nick1911

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2009, 10:25:18 PM »
Congratulations!

I'm impressed.   :cool:  Are you holding up alright?
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Larry Ashcraft

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2009, 10:37:03 PM »
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Are you holding up alright?

Not worth a damn.  But I'm doing it without smoking.

It can be done.  I'm proof.
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Standing Wolf

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2009, 10:42:21 PM »
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Not worth a damn.

You're doing fine, Larry. I've heard the socialists in Denver miss your dollars, but that's not your problem.
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Monkeyleg

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2009, 10:53:20 PM »
It gets easier, Larry. When you start to get the urge, think of the cost, the smell, the damage to your body...every negative you can think of. Make the very thought of a cigarette unpleasant.
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seeker_two

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2009, 06:20:08 AM »
Congratulations!

Quote from: Larry Ashcraft on July 19, 2009, 10:23:46 PM

I used Chantix, but I'm not sure I would recommend it to anyone else.

Doesn't matter what you take....it's the willpower and committment that is the effective ingredient...
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Jamisjockey

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2009, 08:59:48 AM »
Be proud, you won't be paying for socialized health care!!!!
 :laugh:
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Doggy Daddy

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2009, 01:39:10 PM »
Most Excellent!

If I can do it, you can do it.  It'll be 1,000 smoke-free days for me next Tuesday.  I still occasionally get a bit of a desire for one, but if I ignore it, it passes in a moment.

I do NOT miss having ashtrays spread about the house.  I do NOT miss cig butts in my lawn.  I do NOT miss standing in the shower each morning coughing up a lung.  I could go on and on.

Hang tough.

DD
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BryanP

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2009, 01:44:12 PM »
I know several people who have quit with the help of Chantix.  The stuff works.  Congrats.
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AJ Dual

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #9 on: July 20, 2009, 02:02:13 PM »
Not a smoker, but have talked pharmacology with many who quit.

Do you get the crazy dreams on Chantix like those on Zyban get?

I had one co-worker who had the same dream for two weeks straight. He was paralyzed sitting on his couch, watching the "Scream" killer in mask & robe running across a field to his paitio door, crash through it, and stab him, where he'd wake up, calm down, fall asleep, then be paralyzed on his couch, watching the "Scream" killer...
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Doggy Daddy

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #10 on: July 20, 2009, 02:16:00 PM »
Quote
Do you get the crazy dreams on Chantix like those on Zyban get?

OOOOO!  I got the dreams with the patch!  Thought I was back in the 70s.  I've considered buying some patches just for the side effects.   =D

DD
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Would you exchange
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Larry Ashcraft

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #11 on: July 20, 2009, 04:14:20 PM »
I had the vivid dreams for the first few nights, then they went away.

The Chantix messed up my system, though, and my senses of smell and taste were all screwed up too.  I've been off it for three weeks now and things are just getting back to normal

It helped out, but I think cold turkey would have been better, at least after the first few days.
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vaskidmark

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #12 on: July 20, 2009, 06:06:32 PM »
I have been told that quitting smoking was difficult.  I never found it to be that hard - why I quit every night when I went to sleep.  ;/  I was only smoking 3 packs a day back then.

I first quit after heart attack #1.  That lasted for a couple of years, then I went back to it for some reason.  Counting the lit ones in ashtrays while I was working on the one in my hand, I was going through 5 packs a day.

Quit again when I came back from a trip into the Rockies that resulted in altitude sickness (too far up too fast and then too far down too fast).  I guess you could call both times I stopped smoking "quitting" but as far as I'm concerned it was enforced abstinance each time.  Hard to smoke when you are on O2 and being monitored by nurses 24/7 for 6 months.  Also hard to smoke when you have one lung hanging out your mouth and the other trying to become the other half of a matching set (at least that's what it felt like).

I can now even sit next to a smoker and not be bothered or tempted.

Just remember - there's nothing worse than a reformed (_____).  Let the fact of your change be your personal victory, but for Gia's sake do not go out and try to convert the remaining smokers.  They have it rough enough now what with having to go outside and in alleys just to get their fix.

In closing, I do note that you have not said a word about all the money you are saving by no longer smoking.  Is that because you are envolved in some other vice as a replacement?  Just wondering.

stay safe.

skidmark
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Larry Ashcraft

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #13 on: July 20, 2009, 06:21:56 PM »
Not going to try to convert anybody.  I enjoyed my tobacco, and it was just time for me, personally, to give it up.

I'm enjoying the freedom more than anything, and the fresh air.  More cash in my pockets too.  Before, if I wanted to take my wife out for lunch on the weekend, I had to make sure and leave myself enough money for cigarettes well into the week.

According to the Chantix support emails, I've saved about $800 so far.

Quote
Is that because you are envolved in some other vice as a replacement?  Just wondering.

Well, I treated myself to a nice Stevens 311 that I found used.  And I really didn't need another shotgun, there was just an empty place in the safe where a SXS needed to be.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2009, 09:00:53 PM by Larry Ashcraft »
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vaskidmark

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #14 on: July 20, 2009, 08:42:27 PM »
^^  Those are not vices.

Enjoy it when your tastebuds decide to return.  Strange sensation, that.

stay safe.

skidmark
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If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege.

Hey you kids!! Get off my lawn!!!

They keep making this eternal vigilance thing harder and harder.  Protecting the 2nd amendment is like playing PACMAN - there's no pause button so you can go to the bathroom.

Scout26

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #15 on: July 20, 2009, 09:54:10 PM »
Yep, if you've made it 15 weeks, then you've made it.  The physical addiction to nicotine is gone after 28 days.  The physicological is generally gone within a couple of months.

You deserved/earned the 311 for quitting.

Keep going......
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Larry Ashcraft

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #16 on: July 20, 2009, 10:08:24 PM »
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Yep, if you've made it 15 weeks, then you've made it.
Not at all.  I quit once in my 20s, and again in my forties.  My downfall was thinking that I had control of this thing and that I could enjoy a cigarette once in a while.

You never control the addiction, it always controls you.  At this point, I realize I can never smoke another cigarette.  I would like to think that eventually I could enjoy the occasional cigar, but at this point I don't trust myself around tobacco at all.
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Monkeyleg

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #17 on: July 20, 2009, 10:37:42 PM »
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My downfall was thinking that I had control of this thing and that I could enjoy a cigarette once in a while.

That's what keeps tripping up my SIL and her husband. They quit, and then go out for an evening. Once they start having a few drinks they think they can have a cigarette or two (or ten) and it's okay. By the next day they're buying a couple more packs.

An AA counselor once told me that, when a drunk falls off the wagon, he quickly goes back to drinking just as much as he was when he quit. I assume it's the same way with cigs, which is all the more reason to not tempt fate.

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French G.

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #18 on: July 20, 2009, 11:30:24 PM »
Addiction is perplexing to say the least. I take or leave coffee, probably smoke 1/2 pack a year and a few cigars, a bottle of bourbon lasts 18 months, just not tempted. Now give me a good computer game? Only way I can quit is to uninstall the damn thing and burn the disc it came on.
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erictank

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #19 on: July 21, 2009, 10:14:04 AM »
Quote from: JamisJockey on July 20, 2009, 08:59:48 AM
Be proud, you won't be paying for socialized health care!!!!
 :laugh:

Sure he will - he'll just be USING less of it!

 =|
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zahc

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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #20 on: July 21, 2009, 10:22:13 AM »
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Addiction is perplexing to say the least. I take or leave coffee, probably smoke 1/2 pack a year and a few cigars, a bottle of bourbon lasts 18 months, just not tempted. Now give me a good computer game? Only way I can quit is to uninstall the damn thing and burn the disc it came on.

I was going to post just about the exact thing. I still have 3/4 a pack sitting here in my cubicle; probably about time to throw it out. I like cigarettes but I just can't seem to get addicted. I just say no to MMORPGs, though. And Final Fantasy Tactics is still frozen in a block of ice in the freezer from last semester.
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Re: Fifteen weeks tomorrow.
« Reply #21 on: July 22, 2009, 02:51:29 AM »
Caffeine and alcohol hit you with urges.  Nicotine talks to you in complete sentences. It's a remarkable drug.
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