April 10, 2005
On April 1st (the most appropriate day I could think of) I quit smoking after nearly sixteen years of entertaining the habit. When I mentioned this to Nathan he suggested documenting the process so here goes a day-by-day account as best as memory serves:
April 1st
Day one was awful. Fuzzy headedness and irritability made up most of the day. The nicotine gum took some of the edge off but it was still a miserable day. Couldn’t wait to go to bed so that I wouldn’t have to deal with the cravings.
April 2nd and 3rd
I was expecting these days to be worse than the first day: not only would I be at home and responsible for occupying my own time, I’d be doing so in the company of Kristen who still smokes. I was relieved that neither day was as bad as I expected. Experiencing strong chocolate cravings.
April 4th through April 8th
Each day was easier than the proceeding day. I’ve read that the sense of smell will return and it did during this time period. What I hadn’t seen mentioned is that when it does return you’re going to be assailed with bad smelling odors. That was (and is) interesting. My sense of smell returned to the point where I could smell smoke on people who were smokers and the odor makes me nauseous. You’ll want to launder coats and what not of your own that you wear only occasionally so that you’re not dealing with the smell should you wear one of them.
Kristen decided to join me and phoned our doctor for a prescription of Wellbutrin. She’ll be taking that for three weeks before she’s ready for her official quit date.
April 9th
Given how much easier it is to breathe and how nice the weather was I decided to go on a nice, leisurely bicycle ride. On the way to the park (which has eight miles of bicycle and running paths) I managed to get hit by a suburbanite cow who wasn’t paying attention as she made an illegal turn on red. The front wheel of my bike was destroyed and my left knee is banged up pretty good. I had to carry my bike back home and when I arrived, I promptly had half a cigarette. Fuck it. How many times can I expect to get hit by a car that’ll break my smoking cessation?
Kristen started taking her Wellbutrin today. She’s also cut her cigarette consumption down to around a half a pack a day over the past week.
April 10th
I’m going to go to the bicycle shop and get my front wheel replaced. I’m also going to price the cost of a cheap car carrier for my bike so that I can drive my bike to the park and be on equal footing with the idiot car drivers when I’m on the road with them. The smoking cessation continues.
Here are some tips that I recommend if you decide to quit:
- Use the gum. It’s much better than patches for me in that I can control the rate and the time that I’m introducing nicotine. I prefer to take a piece of gum first thing in the morning and then head for the shower. After the shower, I toss the gum and enjoy my morning coffee (I haven’t changed my coffee consumption much at all and don’t see any bad effects from doing so).
- Avoid smokers as much as possible for the first couple of days. After that, the smell of the cigarettes are enough deterrent for me to avoid them on the off chance that I wander too near.
- Do let people know that you’re quitting. They can provide support if you begin to waiver.
- Pop a piece of gum at the first sign of a craving.
- Avoid getting hit by cars while on a bicycle. That can totally ruin your cessation focus and put you in a frame of mind where a cig is really needed.
- Listening to Bob Marley helps. But doesn’t it always?
Just quit 20 days ago and used the gum as well. I have had almost exactly the same experince you had, with the exception of the car hitting me (thank god). It is comforting to see how similar our experencies have been. I hope you stuck with it.
Posted by Riley Dee at August 29, 2006 02:01 PM