Quit smoking support group

Hell, I'm still hacking shit up nearly three weeks in. Normal?

 

it was a long time for me, although i can't be exact ... although i did have asthma as a kid, which, i guess, made it worse. i think it also taps into how many years you smoked as well. i would say normal.

 

You're going to produce a lot of lung butter for about a month.

Consider it a sort of spring cleaning for the respiratory system.

 

I used the lozenges and they are easily my favorite things yet. Just don't chew them up. The only problem with them was they took a while to dissolve, so if you snack a lot you either have to spit them out or set them to the side, which can be gross. One thing I liked about them, though, was you could have them in your mouth while drinking beer, making it much easier to abstain from smoking.
I had the mint kind and got used to the taste and liked it.

 

Depends how long you smoked.

 

I wish I could tell you how long the hacking up mucus lasted. But the nicotine withdrawal reduced my working brainpower to the point that I really can't remember much about the first few weeks. I do remember being concerned that I'd be mongoloid for the rest of my life. I felt incompetent while driving, while having phone conversations, while reading restaurant menus. Fortunately, I had taken three weeks off before starting a new job. I arrived significantly disoriented in a busy large city, but essentially competent at the job.

 

Had a new one today.
Felt pretty sick to my stomach, and thought it was just the beer from last night (although I usually don't get sick to my stomach after drinking).
I ended up vomiting three times, and on the third one, I was actually throwing up tar. My guess is that in my sleep I swallowed the stuff I was hacking up. Pretty gross, although I feel a hell of a lot better.

 

Little bit of TMI there, but glad you're feeling better.

 

Me too.

 

Congrats to all doing well. I'll soon be joining the movement.

However, I've learned through several failed attempts that my will power is for shit. After talking to my wife's cousin, who is a doctor, I'm gonna go with a new pill that hit the market a while back. I think it's called Chantix, but I'm not positive.

The family doc highly recommended it, and since he won't be making a dime off my decision from a drug company, I tend to trust him. He gave me some pretty amazing stats on this drug. According to him, the gum works somewhere around 10-15 percent of the time. The patch works about the same. Welbutrin's success rate tops out around 20-25 percent. This new drug, in the clinical trials, was around 70 percent. In the most recent trials, with real smokers, it's somewhere around 60 percent.

The seriousness of the side effects from the pill have also been much lower than doctors first figured. And get this: You don't get hungry.

Talked to a guy the other day who's tried it. He was a heavy smoker for at least two decades. Said he started taking the pill, smoked through the first week, like you're supposed to, but noticed he didn't smoke nearly as much near the end of the week. Got up one day in the second week and realized around lunch that he hadn't smoked and that he didn't want one. Said he lit one the next day while having a beer and it made him sick. Couldn't get halfway through it, and it was the last he smoked. Hasn't smoked in almost a month now. He was sort of freaked out by how easy it was.

Just thought I'd toss this out there as an option for anyone seriously struggling. But hey, all of you doing this without the drugs, you're better than me.

 

fuck 'em dude. this is a thread for TMI ... hence the title.

i once broke blood vessels in my eyes hawking up tar balls about a month out. wasn't funny, and it hurt like hell ... it's just the way it is.

i'm soooo looking forward to that, again.

 

anyone who can help explain this and i'd be eternally grateful:

i quit at the start of february and have been good since then. but despite having smoked about eight years up to that point, i haven't hacked up a damn thing. on top of that, i have felt like total shit since i quit. i've had tingling and numbness in my face and scalp. i feel weak and shaky, my legs are heavy and now my hands have tremors pretty much 24-7. the only time i haven't felt like that was for a few days when i had a cold and for a few days when i had a stomach bug. other than those two instances, i've been seriously miserable (like it's hard to function day-to-day) since quitting.

could be total coincidence, but maybe not. i'm going to the doctor today, but i'm freaking out in the meantime. anyone have any ideas what the fuck is wrong with me?