Well My hacking ands coughing has cut down a hole lot, and my smoking is down to 3-6 a day. I think thats pretty good for a guy who smoked 2-3 packs a day for 38 years. My wife thinks that it should be down to 0 a day but I,m getting there. Thats not that I dont crave them, I really do and I’m on chantix to help with the craving. let me ask you all to wish my all the luck on quiting because I really need to. I’m on oxygen about all day now. Its a lot harder to breath but I keep going. It’s like everything else I just keep going at everything because I really have always hated quiting. it seems like lately that quiting has come to me alot lately but it’s not quiting its that I just can do alot that I could before. I’m going to keep going as long as I can. I’m still a young man yet and I still have a very young family, and they don’t need to be with out me, so I will keep going as lo0ng as I can to try and keep my health on. Theres some that think if I just sit back and keep resting that I will get better, but even after my first surgery back in 1990, the Dr. came oput after I got out of the recovery room and told my wife and i THAT i WAS PARRAELLIZED FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE FROM THE NECK DOWN. After a few months of being in bed I couldn’t take it any longer and me anmd my wife started my own therapy and 6 months after the surgery I walked with a cane right into my surgions office and he said that there was no way I was wealking. Well there alot to be said about ones will powers and self determination. I truley hope I have as much now as I did back then to pull through this bout, I’ve pulled myself back from alot sence Namn, and I will as long aS I can continue. Thanks to all of you for all your support so far. I will keep burning as long as I can and keep you all updated even longer. Thanks to all of you your Lumber Jack Friend Jim
-- Jim Earl http://www.myspace.com/earle5
7 comments so far
dennis mitchell
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2914 posts in 765 days
posted 58 days ago
Good luck buddy. I was at that 6 a day spot after 3 packs a day for many years and I had to just stop all the way on day because i got tired of the craving and I knew the only thing to fix it was to go back to 3 packs a day or go totally nicotine free. Quiting smoking was one of the hardest things to do for me and I hate having something have that much control over me. Screw the cigarette companies and every congressman that votes to subsidize them.
-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com
lew
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956 posts in 206 days
posted 58 days ago
YOU CAN DO IT, Jim!!!!!!!!
Keep us posted.
Lew
Napaman
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1634 posts in 528 days
posted 58 days ago
Jim—-YOU CAN DO IT BUDDY!!! I have never been a smoker besides a few cigarettes (and a few other things) at college parties here and there…so I feel blessed that I never picked this up since I definitely have an addictive personality.
I can tell you from everyone I know who has quit how many things they begin to enjoy more and more—-the things they didnt realize when they were a smoker. Tastes of food come back (without sooo much salt and pepper)...walking easier…STAIR CLIMBING easier…etc…
As a non-smoker I hope this doesnt sound dumb…I cant say I know how hard it would be to quit…but I know you can do it…I once heard a story of a guy who got so fed up with himself that one day he decided to take his last cigarette…put it in his pocket and challenged himself to see if his will power was stronger then the cigarette…each time he got the craving he would take it out of his pocket and tell himself that he was stronger then that little piece of tobaco filled paper…he never smoked again and still had the cigarette 20 years later…
Good luck…when your will power gets low…think about your kids…we will be hoping for the best…
No matter what…if you give in dont get mad…dont beat yourself up—-you are not horrible…just start a new “streak” and see if you can go longer on the next streak between cigarettes…
peace, buddy!
-- Matt, Napa, CA...177 days to sanity...
Bigbuck
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820 posts in 114 days
posted 58 days ago
Good luck, nicotine is one tuff addiction to break. I never really picked up smoking but I did pick up dipping. I have quit several times only to pick it back up after a couple of weeks. I am going to give it a try again this weekend and see if I can’t stick it out for the long run this time. Good luck
-- Glenn, New Mexico
cheller
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227 posts in 560 days
posted 55 days ago
Good luck. I know it won’t be easy but the effort will be rewarded.
-- Chelle http://artsgranddaughter.blogspot.com
MsDebbieP
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11646 posts in 611 days
posted 54 days ago
well sure sounds like you have the willpower that it takes! Wow…
I have never smoked but I can imagine how hard it must be to fight the cravings.
Best wishes. I know you can do it. You’re walking, right?
-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
EdC
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415 posts in 291 days
posted 54 days ago
Jim,
be careful with the Chantix, ther finding out that a lot of people have been going phyco from that stuff. It was actually the VA the released the info on Chantix, guys and gals were coming back from the Gulf and needing mental health treatment. Well in order to be treated they were trying to get them to quit smoking due to hospitals being non smoking now. They were giving them Chantix, but it was screwing them up worst than the Gulf did. They found it’s so bad that it is tied to a lot of suicdes. Do a google search on it, I was shocked with what I was reading. I was using it myself and had noticed the way I had been feeling strange. I quit taking the Chantix and my thoughts started coming back to normal.
It is a bitch to quit smoking no matter how you do it!!!!!!!!
-- Ed Collinge- Edmonds, WA.