Re: Stopped smoking a month ago
I stopped smoking on 9th Sept 2005 as I was 65,had been smoking since I was 15 and loved my fags.But I had just watched my ex daughter in law being diagnosed with breast cancer.She also smoked but the trauma of her treatment made her give up and I decided it was time I quit as well. I read Allen carr's Easy way to stop smoking a couple of times before it started to sink in. I also went to the chemist and bought an inhalator and a supply of nicotine cartridges,and they helped for the first couple of weeks. I joined no smoking sites and shared thoughts and progress with other people going through the same and once the craving for a fag had gone,I found it a lot easier.I am not saying it was easy,far from it,and I have had major traumas since i stopped.Moving house and the death of my mother being the 2 major ones,but being wrongly diagnosed as having had a mild heart attack was the real catalyst for staying off them.I buried my head in the sand healthwise,as smokers do,every chest infection was treated with a cough bottle cos I wouldnt go to the doctors in case they told me to stop. I used to make jokes about a bottle of benylin in one hand and a fag in the other,and that was actually true.
At the end of last year I caught a virus that was going around and ended up in an ambulance as I couldnt breath. very frightening,and all the years of smoking came back to haunt me I can assure you. While in hospital they did breathing tests and reckoned I had COPD which is commonly known as smokers lung. I went back for more tests a few
weeks ago and fortunately,cos I have stopped smoking my lung capacity is on the low side of normal which is Ok It means if I get a chest infection I have to get an antibiotic right away ,but it could have been so much worse.Please stay strong and keep off them The hardest part is nearly over now Once the craving goes it gets easier every day.
I am glad I dont have that restlessness now I can sit for hours on a train or a car without that awful craving.I never think of them nowadays till I smell someone elses smoke,and I actually used to like it,but now it makes me sneeze,and it goes for the back of my throat.
Stopping smoking was the best thing I could have done healthwise. I never realised I had copd until I stopped Think how much worse it would be if I hadn't.Until recently I put all my anxiety and stress down to the fact that I had stopped smoking,and had lost my "crutch", but now I can look back and see that it's BECAUSE I smoked I am now having anxiety attacks about my health.The heart scare,the breathing scare,all caused by smoking.
Good Luck to you You are almost there and you won't regret it Stay strong and positive and dont be tempted. The old adage for alcoholics applies to smokers too." One is too many and a hundred's not enough"
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