Moral Support Needed

[junquecol]

Tracy, you ask for moral support from a group who have no morals when it comes to buying shop equiptment. To help you ease your pain, just think about all the new tools you can buy with you smoking money. I never was a smoker after the fourth grade. My mother caught me with a pack in my pocket. She made me smoke in a place that God didn't intend for me to smoke. Once was enough. My dad quit cold turkey from three packs a day of Lucky Strikes. My brother quit when his first child was born. This was after twenty plus years in service to Uncle Sam. It can be done, but it isn't easy. To steal a line from Cathy- START NOW!

[toolman]

Originally Posted by JackLeg

Take the pack and a half you have left, and drop them in the trash can NOW! NOT TOMORROW, NOT AFTER 2 MORE SMOKES, NOW!!! BUT BEFORE YOU DO, TEAR THEM INTO LITTLE PIECES!

Originally Posted by Tarhead

It's hard and you have to want to stop.

Tracy,

I smoked for about 25 years (3 + packs a day), my LOML has never smoked. This was a plus for me! I did set a date to stop. got up the next day, put a patch on put my pack of cigarettes in my pocket and went to work. One week later I drop them in the trash, and quite using the patch.
I can not stand the smell of cigarettes now. 5+ non-smoking years!!!

JackLeg and Tarhead have very good points!

YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!

[bitbight]

Tracy,

More power to you. Quitting is not easy and the only way I did it was cold turkey. As a younger man I liked to party, I was still in the military then. Woke up one morning after a night out and my lungs burned. After a six mile run I was in agony. Knew there had to be a better way and tossed that last pack into the trash. Never looked back and am much happier for it. Hang in there and you will be better for it. As all the others have said, think of the tools you can buy, the tools, the tools, the tools, the tools, see now the cravings are for more tools. Not sure if WGD is better than lung cancer, but I know which one I would choose.

[Mike Davis]

I lost my favorite great uncle and the only man I ever looked up to as anything near a dad when I was 7 years old.

I lost a very good friend last year.

I lost a good neighbor this week.

I almost lost my Mother a couple years ago.

And I was very worried about our own b4man recently.

The common thread?

Cigarettes.

I never smoked, I am allergic to the stuff. It shuts my bronchia down and I can't breath after a few wiffs of the smoke. But I was addicted to things far worse and I quit. Cold turkey. Just lay it down and NEVER look back.

When I cut the tip of my finger off the first thing the surgeon asked me was if I smoke. He said the skin won't heal very well if you smoke. My finger looks perfectly normal except for the finger nail is only about half as long as it should be. You have to look really close to see a scar. It was hanging by a thread and if I had been a smoker the surgeon would have snipped it off and thrown it in the trash.

You can make all the excuses you want, rationalize it away, say it is your right to do what you want, say you enjoy smoking, but I can't be any more serious than what I am about to say right now.

For your own good, for your family and friends, for your health and the health of the people around you, for GOD's sake quit smoking now.

I don't want to lose another friend to cigarettes.

[norm932]

Tracy,

I'm also a 30 yr smoker who is giving it up Sunday. I'm going to have a renal stint installed mid April. The good thing there's a real good chance this will cure my high blood pressure. Bad thing doc says if I don't quit smoking the artery will close again. So it's time get control of this. I started my chantix this week and sunday is the day. I wish you lots of luck and a speedy recovery.

Norm

[Will Goodwin]

Lost my Dad's mom to cancer due to cigarettes.
Lost my Dad's dad due to complications around his smoking everything (pipe, cigars, cigarettes).
Lost my Mom's dad due to smoking.
Lost my Mom's mom due to smoking.
My dad is in bad shape - still smoking. (He is down to 1 pk a day, but was 3 when I was a kid). You could walk into our house and there was a cloud of smoke from about 4 foot off the floor to the ceiling. Move a picture and there was a ring on the wall from the smoke. The doctors tell me much of my allergy issues come from being around a smoker most of my life. I don't smoke.

Do it for you, cause that will be the only reason that will work, but if you need motivation - My father in law almost didn't get to give my wife away at our wedding because he was dying due to cigarettes. He lived with us the first year of our marriage. I cherish the time because I got to take care of him and get to know him before he died. He died 6 months later. Every time you want a cigarette - call your kids over for a hug.

Will

[tom hintz]

I quit smoking about a year ago (after smoking heavily for a bit over 40 years) using the Nicoderm patch system and it worked very well. they tell you to pick a date to quit which would fit with your pack, and half left. I did exactly as they prescribed and it worked like a champ. No noticeable withdrawls other than a temporary addiction to jelly beans.... Got over that now as well and feel a ton better.
So far I am very luckiy in that my cough went away and there appears to be no further health problems but I know I am far from out of that woods yet. I feel better and have no desire to go back on the cigarettes.

Good luck on quitting and your surgery!

[TracyP]

I knew when I posted the title of this thread the support would be there, but the care and concern you are showing is beyond my imagination. Several of the posts have brought tears to my eyes. This is my last day smoking as of midnight tonight I am throwing them down, may even do it sooner. I will post the ultimate gloat today at some point. Can't wait to sleep without wheezing.
Thanks for all of the support and keep the posts rolling as several of us go through this together, the support of this group is awesome!!

[Trog777]

Get mad at em.

I was up to 3 packs a day back in the late eighties, early nineties working 16 hour days at a high stress job. It was nuts. I actually burned my hand once trying to light one, with another half gone hanging from my lips. It was a hectic time.

Anyway, my son was born and a close fried was diagnosed soon after. The day I heard I was thinking about him on the drive home, looked down, and I had one half gone. Didn't even remember cracking the window. I got as mad at that cigarette as I had ever been at anything or anybody. Chunked it out the window, reached in my pocket and threw the rest of the pack away. Had an unopened pack laying on the console that I carried around for two months. Every time I wanted to light up I'd pull that pack out and think "%$%& YOU! You can't beat me!" I know, sounds corny, but it's what worked for me.

It was January 26 1995 when I threw them out the window. Haven't had a taste since. What sucks is I still crave on occasionally after a good meal when someone else lights up.

[Terry]

Tracy,
As a former smoker I quit 18 years ago after having surgery on my throat. The doctors told me if I kept smoking I would be carrying an oxygen bottle every where I would go. When I left the hospital LOML had my smokes on the dash of the car and I threw them out the window and have never touched one again. But I do want to share a something with you that can happen not only to you but anyone who smokes. It's called COPD! I just retired at age 62 with all hopes of doing things together with LOML. Sadly she is 52 and still smokes and has COPD and is on oxygen 24/7. I have watched a pretty woman struggle to catch her breath to walk across the floor. Her breathing Medicines run over $500.00 a month every month. She has congestive heart failure, a diabetic, and many other complications associated with breathing. Tracy, I am watching my wife dying because those smokes mean more than the next breath she takes, that's how addicted she is and tells everyone she will NOT quit! I check every morning in her room to see if she is still breathing because I expect some morning I will have lost her. I am not trying to scare you or tell you how to run your life, but if I can suggest you stop NOW before you make the LOYL cry, then so be it in a friendly way. I wish you all the best Tracy and support you with all I can wish anyone. For many people smoking is very hard to quit, I was one of a very few who stopped and never looked back, but I am watching a person dear to my life dying because she elects to smoke rather than try. Good Luck Tracy, I stand with you! Terry

[ScottM]

Tracy, another former smoker here. I've been smoke free 20 years. Wish I had quit even sooner. My mom stoped smoking the day they told her she had cancer. You don't want that. I'll be glad to help in any way. My advise is stay as busy as possible. Focus on getting back into the shop. Drink lots of ICE cold water. And for the time being stay away from other smokers.

		You can do this.....

[McRabbet]

Tracy,

First, you've made the correct decision that you must stop -- that's usually the hardest one to make. Everyone here has posted strong words of support for your decision and so will I.

I'm 65 and have been smoke-free for more than 35 years. I had been a 1-1/2 to 2 pack-a-day Marlboro man from my macho-man days of high school in the late fifties until I realized one day that I couldn't run 100 yards or walk up two flights of stairs without huffing and puffing. I had a bad case of bronchitis and after two days in bed and feeling better, I reached over to my nightstand and picked up that red and white box. I took one puff and my body told me "STOP!!". I put that butt out immediately and stopped Cold Turkey. I never lit another cigarette, pipe, cigar or whatever after that and I don't regret it. I was 32 and had smoked since I was 16.

After having watched my 6'-2" grandfather as a kid wither away from 225 lbs to about 100 lbs as lung cancer destroyed his body and killed him over a 14 month period, I should have gotten the message. So please, for your sake and all of your loved ones,

JUST QUIT NOW!

You'll survive the withdrawl, but you won't if you don't stop.

[Pokey]

Tracy
As a former smoker, I know that quitting is hard. I find that I needed/need something to do with my hands because they still reach for that cigarrett after nearly 17 years of not smoking. I found that the urge for a short Camel came often when I first quit. But that nearly unbearable urge lasted only a few minutes. Each day, these urges came less often. After a week or two, I really did not crave the smoke, but I still missed my Camel friends. I knew then and know now that if I ever smoked/smoke one, I would/will be hooked again. I think that the catch is not to try "just one" cigarrett after you quit. Just so that you do not think that I was one who just a casual smoker, my brother and I would smoke a cigarrett on the way to meet the bus when I was in the first grade in 1955. When I quit in 1991, I was opening 3 packs a day.

Good luck and once you quit, never try one again. The urge will soon leave if you do not smoke.

[LeftyTom]

I am a non-smoker. I lost my father to a combination of lung cancer and tuberculosis. The only thing I can offer is a swift kick in the pants as encouragement (apply as needed).

Just think of all the cash that will leave in your wallet for tools, wood, and fun (urban myth: there is fun besides woodworking).

[TBone]

Tracy,

I was lucky, I started smoking when I was about 17. At 19, I had viral pneaumonia. It showed as a spot on both lungs and the doctor thought it was TB for TB. Luckily it wasn't but the doctor talked about 2 years in the hospital. It was enough to make me stop. I know it's easy after 2 years, but I know you can do it. We're pulling for you.

Good Luck