[Ninjaturtle]

Yeah it is. Pneumonia took my dad in 2003.

[andrat2000]

Yeah I smoke.

Quit it. I know for some people it is easy for others not. My father in law was a heavy smoker, up to 2-3 packages a day. He tried for 30 years to quit - like 10-15 times in that timeframe and failed. Well at last he was down to 1 package a day. Then he went into hospital because of prostate gland cancer. After surgery he immeditely quit smoking and he still didn't start it again since 3 years now.

It is possible.

[Ninjaturtle]

I'm still smoking. I go to my doctor next week though and this time I *am* going to ask him for cessation help. I think I need it.

[Robin_K2]

Perhaps we should ask the mods to make or merge this into a quit-smoking thread?

I smoke a pipe. Only marginally better than cigarettes. I'm a writer, and I confess that I enjoy all the fussiness -- the pipe tools and such. It keeps my conscious mind occupied when I work.

When I started in the business, in a newsroom, the air was blue from all the chain-smokers. Gum-chewing was also big.

I find that Nicorette is a very useful substitute, but probably because, like pipe smoke, the nicotine is absorbed through the lining of the mouth. And the chewing helps occupy my conscious mind. I hope Nicorette is as useful to cigarette smokers, but I doubt it.

I really should quit, but my physician suggests that I do not do so at this time. (Long story related to other health problems.) Also, I  . . . enjoy smoking.

TIME magazine reported the simple fact some years ago: the worst thing about smoking is that it works. Nicotine relaxes the body and invigorates the mind. No wonder it's so addictive.

Oh -- and also, it kills you.

[Robin_K2]

He told me to go for a good jog in the morning and before my evening meal to help me lose weight, **82** better and quit smoking. He said it's a miracle quit plan. So once I'm recovered I'm gonna do it.

I do find that on days when I jog, I smoke much, much less. Like, freaky less. I just don't even think of it.

[Ninjaturtle]

Yeah I found that as well. Any time I go swimming or to the gym I kind of just don't want to smoke. However, when I'm working (I'm a writer as well. It must come with the job.) all I want to do is smoke and drink coffee. In fact, I think I get the most work done around sunrise when the air outside is still crispy, and the light is just still blue from the night. I look forward to that cup billowing steam alongside the smoke of my cigarette.

[Zorro]

Since it appears that this thread has gradually changed topics to smoking I guess I will throw in my information on the subject.

I started smoking at the age of 8 years old.

I realize that this is impossible to believe, but at that time during the early 60's all the "cool kids" were doing it and my neighborhood in the West End of Pittsburgh was no different. At that time both of my parents smoked so it was quite easy to steal a cigarette from them now and then. Granted I had to be careful since my mother would check my dresser when she would put my clean clothes in them, but I was very clever in hiding the cigarettes.

By the time I was 16 I was smoking in front of my folks and this was because I was working and could buy my own.

During my boot-camp days in the Navy I stopped smoking because I was pretty much out of shape and the time we could smoke was limited.
Later on I smoked about a half a pack a day until I found myself aboard my first ship and headed for Vietnam.

This was when my smoking went out of control as I was smoking 3 to 4 packs a day. Cigarettes were 25 cents a pack or $2.50 a carton. I would buy 10 cartons a payday. By the time I was transferred to my 2nd ship I found myself having shortness of breath and coughing up blood and tar.

This was when it finally hit me that I probably would not make it to my 25th birthday so I quit smoking, cold turkey. My hands shook and I went through dozens of the coffee stirrers (they looked like small tongue depressors). It took about 3 weeks for my hands to stop shaking and I started to gain some weight.

Of course during all years I smoked I had tried to quit dozens of times always failing to do so. It is not easy to quit and my incentive was the death of my uncle at the age of 48 riddled with cancer. He too was a 3 to 4 packs of cigs a day man.

Well here I am today heading for my 64th birthday and in somewhat good health.

[gonZo]

I smoked 20 to 30 cigarettes a day from age 15 until age 45. My doctor finally said I would develop circulatory problems unless I quit. After that, it took me 9 months to taper off until I could stop altogether. It was too late to avoid trouble, though: back at the beginning of this year, I had to have a couple of surgeries to fix blocked arteries that didn't open back up after I quit smoking.

The surgeon told me that if I started smoking again after the surgeries, it would only take a year or two for the arteries to get blocked again.

It's all fun and games until somebody has a stroke.

[pedonbio]

   I have spent some time reflecting on a plumbing fixture smoking.

I believe it has moved me a step toward enlightenment.

[gonZo]

  I have spent some time reflecting on a plumbing fixture smoking.

There's a lot of that going around because of fracking.

[NotElvis]

A belated addition to this thread.

My dad was a light smoker.  Maybe half a pack a day at his worst. Quit in '79, if I recall correctly.

I've always been sensitive to cigarette smoke - when the smoke first hits me, I actually stop breathing as my throat tries to close off.  I've been able to detect cigarette smoke pretty easily.

Ever since my dad quit, he's become very sensitive to it as well.  Not in the he misses and craves it kind of way, but that it actually disgusts and nauseates him.  He's worse about it than I am.

He'll will be 81 this summer.  While longevity seems to run in the men in the family, I'm pretty sure that quitting paid dividends on that.


Story 2: a friend of mine is a smoker.  Picked it up in his teens, when all the cool kids were doing it, and into his 30s and 40s has struggled to quit.

Buproprion is an anti-depressant.  It is also a smoking cessation med.  If they slap on the name Wellbutrin, then it's an antidepressant, but if they slap on the name Zyban, it's a smoking-cessation aid.  Both are the exact same drug (hence the mega-warnings about not taking Zyban while on Wellbutrin, and vice versa).

For a while, while depressed, I went through a few antidepressants.  Buproprion was the only one that wasn't horrible to me.  The only side effect is that I was almost aware of it.  While the medication was going, I could tell I was sort of stepping back, and I swear, it was almost like I was narrating to myself - "I am angry/upset about something, but Im able to step back and look at myself and how I feel almost like an outside person."

The only problem with Buproprion is that even the slow release isn't that slow.  By the end of the day, I could feel myself getting edgy.  Maybe not quite irritable, but definitely something.


Eventually, I tapered off.

My friend has no money, and Medicaid is finicky about covering things sometimes.  So, in order to help him, I gave him a full bottle of Buproprion, after looking up dosages, etc., but said I wasn't sure if I could get refills anymore or not.  I also warned him of exactly the effects it had on me.

I was a bit concerned, as I thought it would take a while to start working.  Interestingly, while my friend's body seems stubbornly resistant to some meds, he told me the Buproprion started working remarkably quickly.

Within the first 3 days, he'd gone from a pack a day, to about 6 or 7 cigarettes a day.  He also experienced the emotional and stepping-outside-of-oneself symptoms I'd mentioned.  Oddly, he also had a severely reduced desire for the espresso he used to like.  He didn't dislike it as a result, but just would have it far less often.


I can't say it'd work like that for everyone.  However, if you really want to kick it, ask a doctor about it.  Just keep in mind the potential side effects given its alternate use as an anti-depressant.  Thankfully, it's not an SSRI/SNRI . . though I may be biased, as the SSRI/SNRI meds really had several downsides, and no upsides, when I took them.

[Ninjaturtle]

Really useful post! I'm currently on paroxetine (Paxil) but I could ask my doctor about Wellbutrin. My grandma took it for depression/anxiety and smoking cessation. My only concern is that Paxil really works well for my depression and anxiety (once it kicked in, before it did I had a SERIOUS bout of suicide attempts).

[pedonbio]

Generic Wellbutrin is super cheap--$3 to $6 per month at Costco.

[NotElvis]

Generic Wellbutrin is super cheap--$3 to $6 per month at Costco.

I'll have to pass that along to my friend.

Really useful post! I'm currently on paroxetine (Paxil) but I could ask my doctor about Wellbutrin. My grandma took it for depression/anxiety and smoking cessation. My only concern is that Paxil really works well for my depression and anxiety (once it kicked in, before it did I had a SERIOUS bout of suicide attempts).

It may . . MAY . .  be possible to use Paxil in combination with Wellbutrin, only because of how different Wellbutrin is compared to most other antidepressents (which usually fall into the SSRI/SNRI category, Paxil is the former).  The doctor would know best, and may have to adjust the level of Paxil, possibly.

Disclaimer:  I'm always hesitant to make any real endorsement of any medication that alters brain chemistry - the same medication may have radically different effects on different people.  But if you're struggling to quit smoking, definitely look into it.

[Ninjaturtle]

I was hospitalized again and this time they ran more tests and diagnosed me with asthma. So now I'm on a daily QVar inhaler. REALLY helps.

My oxygen saturation was dangerously low this time (even more than last time) my fingertips and lips were purple and I was seeing things.