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SMOKERS
PRAYER
(CLICK OFF ON CIGARETTE BUTTS)
"Addiction is
any compulsive, habitual behavior
that limits the freedom of human
desire"
-- Gerald G. May.
LISTED BELOW ARE SOME WAYS THAT
OTHER NEAT PEOPLE QUIT SMOKING.
They would like to share the
ways they quit in hopes it will help you quit.....
PLEASE USE CAUTION AND
ACCEPTANCE OF RESPONSIBILITY
Controlling and Quitting Smoking
with self-help methods will change the body
and a change in habitual patterns
can be expected to have a direct and
noticeable affect. Quitting
Smoking has many benefits, both physical and psychological.
Many people, perhaps most, who
smoke can correct the problem by learning
new techniques taught on this
site. (This is my theory, anyway)
It is impossible to foresee all
the various conditions which viewers might have and be a
complication or cause for concern.
Anyone using the self-help methods suggested in
these pages must assume full
responsibility for him or herself.
I cannot be and am not responsible
for the correct diagnosis, application, appropriate use,
complications, outcome or unforeseen
consequences which might result from the use of the
methods, advice or materials
described in these pages.
(AS IN EVERYTHING IN LIFE, USE YOUR OWN BEST
JUDGMENT.)
A CONTROLLING FORCE
By J. Goodman
I've killed before
You know I'll kill again.
You played with me
I made you think you could win.
I've embedded myself
far into your you.
Remembering how
You gorged on me too.
Feeling like a movie star
Such a gay affair.
As you watched my dance
Making castles in the air.
Oh but what I've taken
The people I've slain.
I count up my riches
And laugh at your pain.
I got your mother
I may get your child.
You all start out thinking
That I'm friendly but wild.
And now I will take you
Real fast or maybe slow.
I have you completely.
I summon you low.
Unto me come now.
You owe me a debt.
You'll remember me my love
Light just one more cigarette.
"WINNERS LIST"
WE ARE NICOTINE FREE !!!
READ HOW WE DID IT.
.
(If you are nicotine free and have kicked
the smoking habit, then friend YOU ARE A WINNER!!!
Your story belongs here to hopefully help
others see how YOU did it and to give them HOPE,
to try to get smoke free also. Please
click on uncool camel below to email me your story)
1. Olivija's..................................................................Quit
Smoking Story
2. Ron
Peterso ...I
would like all the people in my life who have helped me to leave cigarettes
behind for the
Jan. 9, 1999............past
3 years. On January 9, 1996 (1095 days ago), I stopped smoking because
I coughed
St. Louis, Mo.........so
much every time I took just one hit of the mildest cigarette I could find
that I thought I
would die if I took just one more drag.
I was as severely addicted as anyone I have ever heard
of. I can honestly say that I tried
to quit all of my adult life. I remember the first time I tried
to quit at age 15. When I quit at age
51 it was 36 years later. During this time, I tried every
method known to man and made up a few of my
own. Many will tell us in the lung disease
community that there is no getting back lost
lung function taken away by smoking. I am here to
tell those still trying to quit that this
is not true and I offer objective proof of this by looking at
my peak flow meter average readings for the
past 11 years. I was diagnosed with emphysema
12 years ago and currently have an FEV1 level
of 18%.
Each of these average readings represent thousands
of individual recordings that I made during
each of the testing years. Please note
that the average continued to decrease for a full after
I stopped smoking and then went back up and
have stayed up for the second year after stopping
smoking. The corresponding average for an
individual of my age without lung disease is about 600
lpm. year years since stopping smoking
yearly peak flow average (lpm)
1998 3 341
1997 2 344
1996 1 303
1995 - 305
1994 - 345
1993 - 357
1991 - 368
I have also seen a similar stabilization of
my FEV1 readings over this same time period
Here are the numbers:
year years since stopping smoking FEV1 level
(%)
1998 2 18
1997 1 19
1996 0 18
1996 0 21
1994 - 24
1993 - 24
1991 - 27
1990 - 31
1987 - 41
You should also be aware that I have recently
voluntarily deactivated from a lung transplant list because
I am doing so well. My doctors at Barnes
Hospital in St Louis agreed with my decision.
Please visit my web site at:
http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/spa/7154/
You will find additional evidence there that
my health continues to improve as well as:
many helpful hints for living well with lung
disease. Links to locations that aid in stopping smoking
are also included.
If you are one of the millions still trying
to quit, take heart in these numbers and know
that there is hope for improvement in your
ability to breathe after quitting smoking.
I replaced smoking with exercise in my life.
Perhaps that will work for you also.
RON
PETERSON WEBSITE
You should also be aware that I have recently
voluntarily deactivated from a lung transplant
list because I am doing so well. My
doctors at Barnes Hospital
in St Louis agreed with my decision.
Please visit my web site at:
http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/spa/7154/
You will find additional evidence there that
my health continues to improve as well
as many helpful hints for living well with
lung disease. Links to locations
that aid in stopping smoking are also included.
If you are one of the millions still trying
to quit, take heart in these numbers and know
that there is hope for improvement in your
ability to breathe after quitting smoking.
I replaced smoking with exercise in my life.
Perhaps that will work for you also.
3. Sharon
Hanna I
quit smoking by using a self-hypnosis tape. It was 2 sided.
One side was
S.L. Ca.
the hypnosis part, about 20 minutes. The second side was a lecture
about
cigarettes and all the bad stuff they
do to you. The only part I really
remember was:
"Cigarettes are not your friends, they are
not your little buddies"
Anyway, every time I had the urge for
a smoke, I laid on the couch with a
blindfold over my eyes, head phones over my
ears, and played that tape. Over
and over and over, until I felt able to go
another little while without a
cigarette.
My husband says he thought that I was
more hooked on that tape than I ever
was on cigarettes. I used the tape less
and less over time until after about a
year I was able to lend it to my sister-in-law.
Sad to say, it didn't work
for her.
I think you have to have a strong desire
to quit and then use whatever method
you can find that works for you.
I hope this helps someone to quit.
Oh yes, I stopped on Mother's
Day. It was my gift to myself.
4. Sheila
Shiel I
smoked from the age of 12 until the age of 56 plus. I started with Lucky
Strikes
Va Beach, Va.
went to Camels, Kools, right down the line. I tried stopping and always
went
back. In 1996, about a year after
transporting to VA Beach from NYC, I
became quite ill. Went to the Emergency
Room at VA Beach Hosp. They
admitted me and I remained in Intensive Care
Cardiac Unit for about 6
days. My last cigarette was at around
12:00 Noon on Saturday, Aug. 24,
1996. It tasted awful and I coughed
and spit up a lot on the way to the
E.R. Of course, I could not smoke for
the duration of my hospital stay.
When I was discharged, I pretended that my
cigarettes had died: I read my
'Grief Counseling' book and "How to Deal with
Loss" book over and over. I
cried. My mood wasn't the best; recovering
from the exacerbation of COPD,
withdrawal symptoms from nicotine, and Prednisone!
My doctor told me I
would die if I smoked again; I knew this was
true, I had been told this
many times before. At first, I ate a lot,
I used hard candy to chew on,
whatever substitute I could. When I
thought of cigarettes, I cried; they
had died and I was in mourning. At first,
I did gain weight, but have now
stabilized and begun losing, a little at a
time, despite the Prednisone.
The desire for cigarettes had gone away but
there are times when I can
actually smell and taste that cigarette!
I take a deep breath and reside
the Serenity Prayer, I say it three times
daily "God grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change; Courage
to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to now the difference." I also
say it when I get that rare
craving for a cigarette. It has been
2 years and 2 months now. I still have
COPD/Emphysema, Chronic Bronchitis, and Asthma.
However, my asthma
attacks are less frequent. My condition
has not gotten better, but it
hasn't gotten that much worse either.
There are good days and bad days,
but if you pray hard, learn to control maybe
you can stop, with the help of
God. I hope this will help someone.
Think Rainbows!
5. Henry
Hardegree
I'm sure you have the Zyban
formula for quitting. I'm also pretty sure that
you know that this is triple strength
Wellbutrin, an antidepressant drug,
and was accidentally and incidentally found
to be effective for quitting
smoking. Apparently the medical community
began to note with such frequency
as to attract attention that patients for
whom Wellbutrin was prescribed
were also quitting smoking, and so the pharmaceutical
company (Glaxo, I
think) ran controlled group tests, found it
to be effective for quitting
smoking in larger than normal doses, and tripled
the strength of Wellbutrin
and markets it as Zyban. The MD's that
I know who have anything to do this
(internists, even physicians, and pulmonologists)
are quite high on the
efficacy of this drug which apparently somehow
work on the addictive centers
of the brain to reduce "craving." The
manufacturer's instructions carefully
tell users not to try to quit immediately
but to wait at least eight days
after beginning the regimen. It does
urge users to select a "quit date" and
stick to it.
I tried it this summer but could not bring
myself to select a quit date, and
so I dropped the Zyban regimen. Then
about four weeks ago I was diagnosed
with Emphysema through having been sent by
my rheumatologist for a CAT Scan
of my chest. I asked him whether he
should refer me to a pulmonologist,
and he said that that would be a good idea
but that a pulmonologist wouldn't
help me as long as I was a smoker.
So I restarted the Zyban procedure, except
I picked a quit date five days
out from my start of the regimen (2 a day
for the first three days and one a
day thereafter). Needless to say my
appetite for cigarettes was fairly well
curtailed by the knowledge that I actually
had Emphysema (as opposed to the
possibility that I might get it), and I was
only smoking about 7 or 8
cigarettes a day. I haven't smoked at
all now for over three weeks and I
feel very convinced that this IS permanent.
Therefore the formula:
Zyban plus reminders at each cigarette urge
that I now know that each
cigarette makes it more difficult to breathe
and shortens my life. It's
amazing how quickly and effortlessly the desire
for cigarette evaporates
like smoke (pun intended).
That's sort of a locking-the-barn-door-after-the-cows-have-gone
approach,
but it may at least be helpful to those who
suffer from Emphysema but
have not yet been able to quit. I had
smoked for 49 years and really
enjoyed it, so none of these "lungers" can
plead a harder addiction than
mine. It may be helpful to those who
are in "pre-emphysema" stages if the
methodology is put in the terms described
above with the addendum as
follows: I had always heard that only
20% of smokers got emphysema and that
the other 80% did not (although they may get
some other ailment such as
heart disease or cancer as a result of smoking).
After I lost the gamble, I
thought to myself that those odds were only
slightly better the odds against
playing Russian Roulette with a six shot revolver
(20% vs. 16-2/3%) and I
would never have even considered the foolish
chance of playing Russian
Roulette. Pretty damned stupid.
But, I realized too late.
6. Bill
Potter After
many times of trying to quit smoking I think I may have it beat this
Benld, Illinois
time. I haven't smoked since June 4th, 98. I was put on Bupropion
which is just
about the same as zyban except cheaper.
I started taking it in Feb. 98
until june but it didn't stop me so I got
the patch and used 9 of them and
haven't had a cig. since. I smoked 2
packs of lucky strikes a day.
I hope this helps you out.
7. Arlene
Rothenberg
"how I stopped smoking"
New Jersey
I'd like to share my story. Because I was a little paranoid about
gaining weight, I decided to 'taper' off
the damn weed. I used the clock,
because I realized that I sometimes 'chain'
smoked. I forced myself to wait
one-half hour before I could light another
butt. Boy, did I clock-watch!
After a few days, I added another 15 minutes
and a few days later, I went a
full hour between those coffin nails.
After that, I added increments of 15 or
30 minutes and later on, a full hour, between
smokes. It took me roughly 3
weeks and 3 cartons of cigarettes and I had
my last (very stale) cigarette
mid-afternoon, Labor Day, 1984. BTW,
I gained 8 pounds within a week, but at
least the nicotine withdrawn was fairly painless.
8. Suzi
Reed
I went to Smokers Anonymous. I'm not sure I could have done it without
Ca.
that group. It was wonderful to find out others let that d... weed rule
their lives for year after year.
I stood up at one meeting and said I had
walked around my back yard screaming and crying
in the middle of the
night and several heads bobbed up and
down. Wow..What a relief to know
even if I was nuts I had company. The
one thing that really helped me
was knowing that the actual craving for nicotine
only lasts a minute and
you can beat anything for a minute.
( Those first weeks it was one
minute at a time for me.) Also the realization
that the little white wand
is your best friend and best friends are hard
to give up. I found that
ice cold water and sucking on ice chips also
helped. And then of source
I kept Frito Lay in business for 6 months.
I craved salt and fritos were
the saltiest thing I could find. I must
have eaten barrels of those
things. If you can use any of this be
my guest and feel free to use my
name and email to write me if you need
help.
9.
Tim Moran I would hazard
a guess that most of us with COPD, are or have been smoking.
Southern Ca.
In my family alone smoking and the big E have claimed the life of my Mother
at 76, is taking my Father, now 84, and
has crippled Two of my Sister's and
me. I have one younger brother that has lung
damage and never smoked. We do
not have Alpha 1.
I smoked for 35 years, the last 10 I smoked
three packs a day. In January of
97 I was hospitalized for COPD. The week before
on a Friday I spent 8 hours
in the ER with a COPD attack. I bought a pack
of smokes on the way home.
The next day I threw away what remained on
the pack. I put on the nicoderm
patch at 3:15 PM. Five days later I was back
in the hospital this time for 8
days. Even in the hospital the doctors kept
the patch on. They just ordered
them with my normal morning meds.
I can still remember wanting to smoke even
while attached to all the tubes
and IV's.
It is now 21 months later. I have for the
most part become a non smoker.
There are time when the old "pang" hits, but
it passes quickly. Stopping
really help my SOB. I have also been actively
exercising. My insurance would
not pay for rehab but I have gotten info from
various sources and done my
own work.
I am not saying that stopping smoking is easy.
It is by far the hardest
thing I have ever done. It is the worst drug
known to man to break from.
Worse even than heroin.
I used the three step patch. I had started
the process before my major COPD
attack that left me hospitalized for 8 days.
During that time I "crashed"
and had to be brought back due to infection
in my lungs. Even during all
this the hospital kept the patch on me. Even
dispensed it with my other
drugs. After 3 weeks or so I lost the "habit
pattern" of reaching for a
smoke. After two months I started to lose
the addictive pattern with the
help of the patches. After 4 months I started
to BELIEVE that I was a non
smoker.
I attended Smokers Anonymous which helped
a great deal. It has helped not to
do this alone.
Its now 21 months. I have become a non-smoker
in thinking and action. I am
one who believes this is a serious addition,
not a habit.
I have (I hope) not turned into a preacher.
Some of my friends still smoke
but the longer I am smoke free the more I
am separated from these friends.
Today I have a way of life that works. Although
my COPD has worsened it has
not deterred me from living today as healthy
as I can. I guess I could write
this up in a technical sense, but I believe
that this addition can only be
overcome in a personal way for each individual.
By the way, I have read much of what you have
put into the mail list and on
your web site. Until now I have been busy
closing my business and not had
the time to thank you for your "work" and
sharing. Good luck with getting
smoke cessation information. If I can be of
assistance drop me a line
anytime.
10.
Darelene Reitz
I was a 1 1/2 pack smoker for about 16 years or more when I start
Burgaw, NC.
developing the symptoms of my lung disease. The doctors could not
figure out for 6 months what was wrong
with me. I continued to get
worse and knew that I needed to quit smoking
because it was getting
harder and harder to breath. I had kept on
trying and trying but could
never seem to make it. My family doctor one
day had told me about the
Nicoderm patches just coming out. So I decided
to give them a try. He
gave me a 2 week sample supply of them which
included a book with very
helpful hints in dealing with not smoking
anymore. One thing that
helped me is that after he gave me the patches
I decided that I would
pick a day to quit smoking. My last
cigarette was January 22, 1992 at
11:00 p.m. After that one I went to the garbage
can and tore up and
threw away the rest then I cleaned up all
the ash trays and stored
them up. After that I went to bed. The next
morning I put on my first
patch and started that day on in quitting.
I went right by the book. I
drank things with a straw. I gave up coffee
for months because it was
always the thing to have a cigarette with
a cup of coffee. I put
helpful little notes all over the house to
remind me not to smoke and
why. I also put notes in my car on top of
the ash tray.
I went through the whole program and quit
and did not have anymore
cigarettes. My doctor told me that I was the
first patient in his
office to use the patches. I really do recommend
them. My lung disease
was primary pulmonary hypertension. I would
have had the disease
weather I smoked or not.
I had a double lung transplant July 9th, 1994.
11. Allan
Shuford I smoked for
22 years. My wife and kids did not know for the largest part of
New Orleans, LA.
this time. I was brought up on a tobacco farm, not actually but my
grandfather owned one, and I helped harvest
the crop annually. I obviously
grew up around cigarettes. Both of my
parents smoked as does my sister.
When I finally quit, on Christmas Day 1996,
I was ill. I had not been
diagnosed but I knew something was wrong.
I did not go to the doctor for
another 7 months and when I did I could not
breath and was told I was a year
to two away from death.
I was disabled and referred to Ochsner for
possible transplant. That
eventually led to my being tx'd 10 months
having first going to the doctor in
July 1997.
To be perfectly honest, there are times, even
now, that I smell a cigarette
and would kill for one. There are other
times that I almost have to throw up
when I smell one. Can' t explain the
difference but so far I have refrained
and plan to continue to do so.
I might add that the doctors told me that smoking
did not cause my illness or
disease but it did not help, either.
I hope this is beneficial to your efforts.
For the record, I live in New
Orleans, LA but was raised in the mountains
of NC and in northwest FL.
Allan Shuford
tx'd 5/8/97
Ochsner #63
12. JudithAmerman
I'm hardly the model for Smoke Stoppers but I don't mind sharing my
Terre Haute, In. story. Altogether I suppose
I smoked an average of two packs a day for
37 years. Started at 16 thinking
it was "cool" and the only people in my
life who didn't smoke where my two grandmothers.
I was diagnosed in 1990
with asthma and in 1988 with COPD. I
quit smoking every night, just to
light a cigarette first thing in the morning.
I quit so many times it's
ridiculous to even talk about it. Did
the whole bit. Seminars, Smoke
Stoppers, my doctor even put me on a Catapress
patch (for blood pressure)
before the nicotine patches came out.
I fell in love with the Nicorette
gum and chewed it so fast I got hiccoughs.
Got real good at smoking and
chewing at the same time, too. Been
there, done that. Cold turkey
stressed me out to the point that I would
wind up in ER in respiratory
distress. Finally, I just simply couldn't
smoke and breathe too and I
refused to be one of these people on oxygen
who shut their oxygen off to
have a cigarette. I did it the way everyone
says you can't. I would go
just as long as I possibly could (until the
eyes crossed, vision blurred
and focusing was out of the question) then
I would light a cigarette -
not smoke all of it, just enough to stop the
symptoms. I kept doing that
until I got down to 3 cigarettes a day, then
stopped. That was 5 years
ago and I haven't had one since. Can't
say there haven't been times when
I didn't or don't want one but I wouldn't
go through that again for
anything. Several factors lead to my
disease - living on a farm (dust,
mold, pollen) my mother raised chickens (good
source, ammonia, dust,
dander, feathers) my grandfather, father,
my sister and I all have (had)
the same problem but all doctors unanimously
agree that smoking was the
largest contributor and had I quit earlier
I may not have had to have the
transplant. Maybe, maybe not but I'm
sure glad I don't smoke anymore.
Judy in Terre Haute
13. Sally
streight
Some things one can do to help are really quite simple--even silly.
Some are expensive and useful only to
a few people. I tried hypnosis but it didn't
work for either me or my husband. Aversion
techniques were popular at the time
(1985), but seemed too gross to us. There
were no patches or gum at the time.
I quit smoking after I gave my life to Jesus.
I understood that He would give me
the stength to quit if I asked "..ask
and you shall receive," our Savior promised. I
chewed gum and talked a lot and put signs
around the house remindingmyself that I
was no longer 'a smoker,' and I enjoyed thinking
of myself as a nonsmoker--it made
me feel like one of the smarter people. The
last thing I ever wanted to be thought of
was dim or not-too-bright or (God forbid)
stupid. I indulged myself with fancy coffees
(lived in Seattle at the time) and took long
walks and bike rides as often as possible.
I have never been diagnosed with COPD, but
I found that I could barely swim the
short distance from our dock to the bouy where
we moored our sailboat, whereas
I had once been a very strong swimmer. It
scared me that I couldn't swim the length
of the YMCA pool. I had taken up SCUBA diving
and learned a lot about breathing
and atmospheric pressure, etc. It made me
tired to carry all my gear down the beach
to he water's edge.
Mostly, though, I didn't want to disappoint
Jesus, who had given His life for me.
I prayed wherever I went and hung around with
nonsmokers more than smokers.
I got my teeth cleaned. I had all the drapes
in the house cleaned and either washed
or sent to the cleaners all my clothes.
I took an exercise class in the neighborhood
pool and scrubbed the overhead and
all the interior surfaces in our boat. I painted
all the rooms in the house and washed
windows, knicknacks, and the chandelier in
the dining room. And I prayed everywhere
I went and 'as needed.' I won!
My husband, on the other hand, refused to quit
and is now on 24 hr oxygen, etc., etc.
However, one day his doc told him not to bother
to come in again unless he quit
smoking, so he finished the last cigarette
in his package and quit. He was so sick,
I think it was not too hard.
But I helped. I put a star sticker on each
day of a large wall calendar for each day he
didn't smoke (used a heart sticker on Valentines)
until we had 6 months filled with
stars of all colors. Every single day had
a star on it. He never had another cigarette
after the last one in January 1991. He is
still alive only because he was able to stop
smoking and has now written 6 books, experienced
the love of 3 grandchildren, and
discovered the peace of Christ. He is 80 years
old now and I am 59.
Love keeps us going.
The list has helped us a lot. People are so
creative and hopeful, it makes me proud of
them. Someday there will be a way to
reverse all this damage. In the meantime,
prayer is the best and most powerful medicine
we have. We can lift each other up
with prayer. I have committed to pray for
all who wish to quit smoking.
Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing.
14. Carol
M.
I had made up my mind that at the time my husband got the transplant I
would
QUIT.
I waited for 5 days and then used the patch.
It was not easy by any means. I
had to travel each week driving alone from
tx. ctr. to home and work for 10
weeks. When I had done it the first
time I was amazed. After a couple of
weeks I had broken out in a rash in various
areas of the body. I had recalled
reading if a rash broke don't put patch on.
So four days later I realized
what I read had meant if the rash was where
the patch was not just a rash like
I had. I attribute the rash to nerves
and it wasn't where the patch was.
So I figured if I could go 4 days without
the patch - let's see what happens.
I put the 1st patch on February 20, 1997.
So far so good. That is not to say
I wouldn't about kill for one some days.
I still deep breath and remind
myself daily "I can DO IT".
My health doesn't seem to have changed any
except I cough no more. I have
gained about 22 lbs. My primary care
doctor says that's ok because I am still
not smoking. He claims the crave will
probably not go completely away.
I find sometimes that I am dragging on a cigarette
and I'll look around (like
even a car in the next lane) and the other
person is lighting up. I sure
can't smell it if I am in one car with windows
up and the a/c running. Must
be a reminder for me. Absolutely not
smoking. I still marvel that I have
made it this far. I marvel daily that
it has worked for me. It gives me the
courage to say to others that they can do
it because if I could they can.
I had smoked 41 years and average 2 packs per
day.
15. Bob
Beardon
When I stopped, I went to a non smoking meeting. It was probably
hypnosis, but after the meeting
I would look at that weed and say
"Who is bigger and smarter, me or you?"
I answered and said "me."
And that was it! That's over ten years
ago. BUT STILL, 44 YEARS
TO LATE. BUT, I HAD A GOOD TIME GETTING
IN THIS
CONDITION, SO NOW I HAVE TO PAY THE PIPER.
I have not smoked since.
16. Ethel
Malvik At Smokenders, we were told that we were about to
lose our best friends.
Cigarettes were there for me at
times when I felt deserted by everyone and
everything else. They were there at
the worst times. All it took was a
little money and you could transport
your comfort with you, like a baby's
bottle. You could buy them just about
anywhere and, if that failed, there
was always someone you could grub from.
The friendliest people on planes
were in the smoking section and the
friendliest people in restaurants
were sitting at the bar, smoking.
No one ever refused you a cigarett if
you asked for it. You could linger
over a cocktail without reaching for
the bread. And you could order
coffee and sit and talk for a half hour
or more. Smokers were always
happy to sit and talk when everyone else
was in a hurry to leave. For
all these reasons, I find it hard to hate cigaretts
and smokers now. How can I hate the
people who gave me so much
pleasure over so many years? How
can I give them dirty looks or try to
legislate them out of existence?
I'm sick as a result of smoking, but not
everyone is. I HAD to give up cigarets;
not everyone has to. I cried for
the last 2 weeks of the Smokenders program.
EVERYTHING made me
cry. Why not? I was losing
my best friend and I had to say goodbye.
17. Paul
Brooks My name is Paul and I'm a EX smoker.
How did I quite is simple. (not
really) In "94" I had complete respiratory
Failure, spent 21 days in I C U
at major hospital in Tampa Fl.
Had a heart attack the following day. Was
in major trouble. Had a Dr. that the
LORD had put there for me. Had never
met the doctor before, but not is a major
part of my family. I am a very lucky
person. I'm like some other Ex smokers,
I have the urge some times but not the
desire. Smoke makes me sick. My kids and one
sister can not understand that
because I smoked for 43 years, At the end
I was 4 + pack a-day smoker.
that was for about 13 years or so. I
did not have a habit it was an
addiction. Smoking cost me my health
and life. But when your 8 years old
, your don't think about life 40years down
the road. the old saying " it
can't happen to me " is in effect at that
age
18. Elizabeth
kurowski Re: Having quit smoking!
First, I will say that I did not
want to quit,and I resented doing so because
I loved smoking cigarettes.
My husbandpushed me to try and quit,
and I must admit I didnt try very hard.
His method to quit smoking was to gradually
cut down. He got me down from
2-1/2 packs to 10 cigs a day. That's
about where I refused to quit further.
I couldnt give up my wake up cigarette and
cup of coffee. When I
wanted a cigarette, I wanted it...
When Emphysema hit me full blast and I couldnt
breathe, that is when I
finally pushed myself to give it up completely.
Because of my husband's
method, I was able to do without any more
cigarettes. Why? because his
method taught my body to slowly get away from
the nicotene and tars that
were infiltrating my body which caused me
to desire those cigarettes.
It was more important to breathe than smoke
that cigarette. This is the
only reason I quit smoking!
I dont expect my story to make or help anyone
to quit. That is their
decision to make and do.
I wish them luck!
19. Kathryn
Flynn I started smoking at the age of 13 and quickly accelerated
to two packs
of cigarettes a day. My father smoked
and two out of three of my brothers
so it wasn't very actively discouraged. I
continued to smoke through college
and through my masters in lung cancer. I tried
quitting once in graduate
school and I made it for six months or so
but used the pressures of life as
an excuse to continue. Finally, at 26, My
husband and I both decided to
quit together. I think a smoke free and supportive
environment is
neccesary. No one smoked at my work, a cancer
research lab, so that made it
easy. At 29 we both had a one month relapse
but by then I could really feel
how bad the smoking was for me, although I
thought it was just a bad cold.
About one month after this smoking relapse
I was told I needed a lung
transplant and was put on supplemental oxygen
for the next eight years
until I had a transplant. There a million
excuses not to quit smoking. We
did both put on weight and then we both took
the weight off through an
increase in moderate exercise. Smoking is
not worth the price you pay. My
mother died at 59 (she never smoked but was
exposed to secondhand smoke)
of pneumonia. She had emphysema. My father
died at 69, confined to a
wheelchair, on 5 liters of oxygen and still
puffing away between the
coughing fits that would wrack his body.
A certain amount of damage from smoking is reversible. The earlier you
quit the better. Please give yourself a chance
to live a longer and
healthier life.
You don't need any fancy devices- just a firm decision to quit. Pick a
day
and "just do it".
Good luck,
20. Ezia
Panzera On December
8 1995 I had broncho-pneumonia for the second time
Geneva
that year, wasn't feeling well and told my doctor I'd see him some other
time.
He didn't like it and said he would ask
a SOS doctor to come by in the course of
the evening (in Geneva, SOS doctors and Medecins
sans Frontières are emergency
doctors you can call any time and they will
assist you, in the absence of your own
doctor or when he isn't available). Said doctor
came and decided I should go to
hospital but I felt that things had improve
over night, if not .... December 9 wasn't
any better I felt like dying and when my godson
came for a visit (luckily) I
asked him to get me some medication so I could
make thru the day, not wanting to
go hospital. He did and while he was gone
I couldn't resist to light a cigarette
and had perhaps 3 puffs, then.... That was
between 8 and 9 a.m.on December 9,
1995. On December 14 I woke up in the ICU
of the University Hospital. What
happened was that when my godson came back
with some medication he found me
almost unconscious and immediately took care
of the situation. Apparently, the
ambulance he had called and a doctor decided
to head for the nearest clinic
where they did not have the appropriate equipment
so they rushed me off the
UH as above. In doing so the hose feeding
me 02 was torn off and my godson who
noticed shouted for help (and was banned from
the scene for noticing
carelessness.) A doctor had to proceed
with reanimation which took some 15' and
I must have arrived at the UH DOA. Not quite
because I woke up on the 14th. I
was released on December 30, without knowing
exactly what was the matter. The
following months were difficult and again
I couldn't get an accurate outline on
what happened. Then I had that pneumothorax
the following November as I said in
a previous post. Today my quality of life
... let me not complain as, had I had
more willpower, I would not be in this situation.
Just wanted you to know that I
have no merit whatsoever for having stopped
smoking. It was real horrible and
this should show you that you can stop, you
people couldn't be as stupid as I
was, that simply doesn't exist. Before you
grab another cigarette think of this.
Needless to say that I haven't smoked since
that 9th December 95.
21.
John Kurowski I smoked
almost 50 years and was smoking 2-3/4 packs a day.
Would have liked to quit but never could
get myself to do so. One day
I got dizzy and found myself on the floor.
Doctor suggested I quit and
take stress tests. Out of shape but
I decided to try.
I couldnt give it up completely and didnt want
any gimmicks. Went several
hours before and after the stress test without
a cigarette because I had
to. I decided to stretch the time between
cigs as best I could. The
morning cigarette was the hard one so I had
to work hard on that by having
it after I got out of bed and the coffee was
made. Even then I waited til
I could sit down with that cup of coffee.
I kept putting that next
cigarette off. Eventually I got down
to 3 cigs a day.
They had to be after a meal, or with a cup
of coffee.
It took a lot of will power to get down to
one a day, then every other day,
2 days, etc. It was hard, but I always
told myself I could have that
cigarette after supper with a good cup of
coffee. Eventually it got to 5
days between cigarettes. I then quit
cold. it worked!
My spacing of cigarettes allowed my body to
slowly accustom itself to less
and less of the tar and nicotine that it carved.
Funny because noone
thought I would ever quit. I was the
guy always with a cigarette in his
mouth all day long. Occasionally think
about it, but why go back! Hope
this helps someone....
22. George
Jarmon I was a smoker for 44 years and
had assumed in the last 10 years
that I had lung cancer and why quit, might
as well enjoy smoking. Only
after I continued having bronchietis did I
finally decide to consult a Dr. After
xrays determined I did Not have lung cancer,
I said I'm Quiting and havent
had a cigarette since. What I did was
put cigarettes all over the house, in
the car, in the motor home, just anyplace
I would be to see if I would be
tempted but I never picked up another
one. Now unfortunately I had
emphazema and thats what collapsed my lung
twice a couple years later.
It was also responsible for disableing me
1 1/2 years later. Now my wife
has to completely care for me. after
having to be taken to the emergency
room so many times my doctor decided to recommend
me to EMORY
University Hospital for evaluation for
transplant. I was evaluated, placed
on list and on June 9th 98 was transplanted.
breathing very good now, can't
stand smell of cigarette smoke. If smokers
knew how I suffered and what my
wife has gone thru I think there
would be less smpkers. thats my story.
23. Veneta
Clarida I didn't
write about my cigarette dying but one of my grandaughters and I
had a funeral for one I found that I hid
in the linen closet after I had
quit. I had forgotten about hiding it.
This was before I had really made
up my mind to quit ...........I used
the linen closet to rat
hole a cigerette in case I had a nicotine
fit. I made a tombstone out of a
block of wood and I dug a hole in my flower
bed in the back yard and buried
that cigarette.On the tomstone I wrote"Last
Cigarette" born:(the date) and
died(the date)BETTER IT THAN ME. We bowed
our head and my grandaughter took
a vow to God that she would never start smoking.
Just thought Iwould share
that with you all. Now I have to figure
out how to send this to everyone.
24. Jack
Peterson I smoked two packs a day
for 45 years. That's NINETY PACK-YEARS, to
use the units the pulmonologists like.
They start getting nervous when
they find out you've got ten pack-years (a
pack a day for ten years).
Hah!
Quitting was probably the hardest thing I
ever did, but I had a lot
of practice. I tried everything for
about five years before I did,
finally, QUIT! I used the Nicorette
gum, the patches, hypnosis,
acupuncture, and the Schick Shock Shack approach
(what ever happened to
them, anyway?).
The point is not only that you CAN do it,
but that you MUST do it.
No one else can do it for you, though; you've
got to do it yourself.
When you get the urge, just say to yourself,
"It's a matter of life
or breath!" because it truly is...
Good luck, because you'll need some of THAT
too.
25. David
Connelly I quit the awful habit almost
15 years ago. If I could anyone can. For years
the "smoke days" were a big laugh to me,
I was invincible, those nails will
never bother me. On a vacation in Europe,
I became ill with bronchitis in
London. MDs in London make a little
cash treating tourists at the hotels,
rather than line up in a clinic in the UK
National Health System, I asked the
Maitre de to get me a doctor
When he came and examined me he told my wife
and I that I was a "fool" to
smoke, and if I continued I would have about
8-10 years of life ahead of me,
but "what could you expect from an Irishman."
Even though I was a 8th
generation American to this London MD I was
the "Irishman."
Well, I was so angry, I said nothing and quit
that night. Even left a full
carton of my favorites for the room service
cleaners.
A few years later I wrote the London Dr a
letter and told him I had quit and
thanked him for the advise delivered
to impress. He wrote back and said that
he had to shock some people into quitting,
he was glad I took his advice.
We can all quit, keep trying everyone.
26. Arlene
Rothenberg I couldn't resist your call
for our "how I stopped smoking"
NJ
stories, so I'd like to share mine. Because I was a little paranoid
about
gaining weight, I decided to 'taper' off
the damn weed. I used the clock,
because I realized that I sometimes 'chain'
smoked. I forced myself to wait
one-half hour before I could light another
butt. Boy, did I clock-watch!
After a few days, I added another 15 minutes
and a few days later, I went a
full hour between those coffin nails.
After that, I added increments of 15 or
30 minutes and later on, a full hour, between
smokes. It took me roughly 3
weeks and 3 cartons of cigarettes and I had
my last (very stale) cigarette
mid-afternoon, Labor Day, 1984. BTW,
I gained 8 pounds within a week, but at
least the nicotine withdrawn was fairly painless.
27. Harold
Sweeny I am 62
(yesterday) was a 4 to 5 pack a day smoker. Had 12 heart
attacks-quintuple bypass twice- prostate
cancer- lung cancer resulting from
asbestos , wood dust, etc. Even after heart
surgery I still smoked. Finally
quit 3 1/2 years ago when the lung cancer
was found.
I can verify that quitting smoking is more difficult than stopping Heroin
or cocaine addiction. It finally came down
to my asking myself "what would
I give up to improve my life". Secondary smoke
hurt my wife too.
I have suffered all the possible side effects of radiation & chemo
as
well as COPD meds and I'm still here ! My
COPD resulted from an accidental
overdose of radiation ( radiation burn) but
it still is COPD.
Since this disease is progressive anything that will enhance or prolong
the quality of your life should be explored.
When I started smoking
cigarettes were 13¢ a pack. Now they
are $1.95 a pack here on the island
where we live.
My wife is happy now that she is sure the smoking is over. She deserves
that since she is the one who will be left
with the clean up when I do go.
Right now we have 3 cancer support groups which we started. I chair two
or
more AA meeting weekly & sit with cancer
patients as they die, so I am too
busy to die at the present time.
You are in our prayers now.
Just don't quit 5 minutes before the miracle
!!
Do, or do not. There is no try
Live each day as if it were the last day of
your life, because so far, it is.
28. Charoltte
Holt My husband is the one with COPD, and that is why we
started using this support list,
but he does'nt type fast, so he calls
on me for that , mainly. However, I smoked for
about 10 yrs, and had a bad allergy attack
and they said a little asthma, while I was
in San Antonio with mydaughter at a cancer
treatment center( she died from ovarian
cancer at age 38.) also, my daddy died fron
throat cancer, at age 66, and now my husband
has severe emphysema at age 55, and has had
for over 8 yrs. Well, when I left the
emergency room that day, feeling pretty good
after a couple of breathing treatments, I
threw my cigarettes in the trash at the door
of the hospital, and have never smoked another
one. I can honestly say it was not that
hard either. My husband says it don'ttake a whole
lot to make me mad anyway, but I can guarantee
each and every one of you I cannot express
my hatred toward cigarettes enough. I do believe
if anyone can get mad enough at them,
and consider the time and quality
of their life, they can quit easier. I have never been as mad
or hated anything more than I do cigarettes,
and what they can do to people and their families.
I hate to admit that I let something 2 inches
long control as much of mylife as they did,
but they did, but when I saw the light, I
REALLY saw it bright. It was like it screamed at me,
and that was it. Over and done with!!! I know
people are different and to each their own,
but I think a lot of the "programs" out there
just continue to let you smoke for reason or another,
whether it is to cut down or taper off or
what ever. I have not smoked since that day and it has
been over 9 yrs. ago, and if anything, my
hatred get's stronger everyday. It could be because
my husband is now going through all this,
and can't quit the cigarettes, but whatever the reason,
I'm glad I hate them more and more every day!
He tapers off and then slows down, but all the time
he is still smoking, and therein lies the
problem. You either smoke or you don't. I don't believe the
speed of it has much to do with the real problem.
If this changes anyone's attitude about smoking,
and if you can just learn to hate them, as
much as you think you love them, you can quit too.
If your driving 90 miles an hour and have'nt
had a wreck yet, do you really believe you can
continue to do that, just because you like
to? I hope not. I don't want to sound ugly, but
I would do anything to help one more person
to stop the insanity! GET MAD!
Absolutely! One more thing I did'nt mention,
I have a grandson, 24 yrs. old,
with bladder cancer, and they say that's from
smoking. Already had one
surgery, and will have to have 3 mo. check
ups for the rest of his life. He
quit smoking for about a week right ater his
first surgery, but his wife
said she could'nt stand the pressure so he
started back. There are some
things that even grandmothers should'nt voice
their opinions on. At least
not very loudly, but you know what I did!
"Happiness
is a byproduct of making someone else happy."
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