I’m so relieved I feel like I have a new life.
To make a long story short there were some concerns about my lungs that had me scared out of my wits over the last few days.
What I DO have is the beginnings of COPD. Not good, but not so far gone that I can’t arrest the progress and live a long, free-breathing, life.
So, the big news is I’ve finally quit smoking after 36 years. No playing this time.
Today is day 2. I know that’s not much yet but it’s the longest I’ve gone in a long long time. It’s been interesting to observe but each hour is another step to breathing well and discovering what the non-addicted Flydood is really like. Probably a bigger ass than ever LOL
I can’t wait to start smelling and tasting things again!!!
Of course the beer has to go by the wayside for awhile until I get well past this initial stage but I figure beer will taste a lot better in the long run.
Glad to hear no lung cancer. Not so glad to hear about the COPD.
A bloke I used to work with had tried to give up smoking two or three times. His boss, who was a charismatic individual, told him “Smoking is not addictive”. This was the fundamental thing for him. Once he had his head around it, he gave up and never even bothered worrying about it.
I’ve no idea why that made a difference to him, but it did.
Olfactory warning. Not all smells are nice smells.
I smoked for 20 years. Start buying yourself presents right now with at least part of the money that you would have spent on smokes. Things get easier.
I have been a non-smoker now for almost two years. My sense of smell and taste has not come back in any way. In fact, things like radishes that used to be too hot don’t even have a taste for me any more, and things like grapefruit that used to be too sour I can now eat without any sugar on them. In fact, I now have a whole grapefruit every day.
If you find yourself getting the shakes etc. that from withdrawal, just let it happen. Don’t use that as an excuse to go back to smoking. Let it play out for a few days. It will gradually go away.
I used to work with one of our best “off flavorists” in the company (we got stuff when it went “bad” and we had to figure out why). For YEARS, Mike would have to go out and smoke a cigarette before he would “sniff” (which involved standing for about an hour at the end of an instrument called a gas chromatograph and smelling the vaporized effluent that would elude off the end of the column while the column heated up).
He wound up having angioplasty done, was put on beta blockers, and was told in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS he had to quit smoking.
He only worked about a year after that - he completely lost whatever it was that had “calibrated” his nose (he was close to being able to retire anyway). Even the most common (and most volatile and stinky) compounds he had trouble sniffing and identifying correctly.
Everyone thinks “cancer” is the only thing you get from smoking, but it isn’t. COPD, emphysema, gum disease, vascular diseases of all sorts, from coronary artery disease to peripheral arterial disease to . . . wrinkles and sagging skin . . . and to . . . not making this up here, folks! . . . impotence.
On February 21 at 8.05 p.m. I celebrated my 30th anniversary of giving up smoking with a bottle of pink Cava. . Not one scrap of tobacco product has passed my lips since that day in 1978. I was a terrible addict, not happy with fewer than 30 a day of the strongest I could get my hands on. Giving up was the best decision I ever made. Tell everyone you’re giving up. Keep busy. Giving up was acutely hurtful for a month, then I spent the next three months sighing and feeling sorry for myself, then I was free. Just think what a great summer you’re going to have!
One other thing…don’t buy too heavily into the COPD diagnosis.
I quit in 2004, while in the throws of a terrible infection that included bronchitis. I went to the emergency room, they took a chest X-ray, and told me in no uncertain terms that I had COPD. Turns out that’s a stock diagnosis for ANY smoker who’s experiencing respiratory problems. A non-smoker might get “acute bronchitis” written in their charts, but the smoker will ALWAYS get “COPD” even if there’s no indication that the problem is chronic.
I don’t have COPD. Never did.
People talk a lot about “taste” and “smell” “returning”…but I’m four years after quitting, and, to be honest, there’s not much difference.
There are lots of good reasons to quit…don’t get me wrong. They’re expensive (mainly because the anti-smoking lobby have chosen to make them that way), and there IS an increased risk of lung cancer and heart attacks (though that’s another thing I think the anti-smoking lobby has overstated), and it’s really nice to not be addicted to something (though I still LOVE the smell, and occasionally bum a hit from smoking friends). Just don’t let the doctors convince you (and, more importantly, your insurance company) that you have a chronic disease when that may well not be the case. If you ever have to buy your own insurance, that may well come back to haunt you. Give it a few years and ask for another X-ray…chances are good that that “COPD” will have magically disappeared.
Don’t take any notice of anyone who says giving up didn’t do 'em any good (taste and smell no better, etc.) By giving up you shuffle off chains that stopped you having a positive outlook on life and health. Next time you catch a cold it’ll go within days instead of lingering for weeks! I’m 56 now and I can charge over the coastal cliff paths round here faster than anyone I know half my age. Had I continued to smoke I’d have been long dead instead. Think long-term quality of life! Adelante!
Congratulations on quitting. To build a little on what Steve said, I’d recommend you take up (or ramp up) some sort of aerobic activity. It will accelerate the cleaning out of your lungs as well as help your general state of mind and specifically help keep your mind off the smokes you’re missing.
I think the first day and a half my system was just kicking back waiting for the next puff. Then last night it realized a puff wasn’t coming and started to protest. We’re currently fighting quite a battle but I’m winning.
I’ve been a little cranky.
You can do it, flydood! Way better to be pushed to quit now. My Grandmother
only quit because she could no longer light matches around her oxygen tank.
It’s interesting to hear about differing taste-returning experiences. I wonder
if it has to do with length of time spent as a smoker? Before my sister-in-law
got married, she convinced her fiance to quit. He’d been smoking probably
about 4 years (he was 20 when they were married!) He had a habit of drinking
Chai tea lattes every morning, until a few months after he quit smoking, when
he said to himself, “Wait a minute, this stuff tastes awful!” Voilà, two expensive
habits gone.
. Not one scrap of tobacco product has passed my lips since that day in 1978. I was a terrible addict, not happy with fewer than 30 a day of the strongest I could get my hands on. Giving up was the best decision I ever made. Tell everyone you’re giving up. Keep busy. Giving up was acutely hurtful for a month, then I spent the next three months sighing and feeling sorry for myself, then I was free. Just think what a great summer you’re going to have!