I QUIT!
Some time ago it dawned on me that at the ripe old age of 36, I have been smoking for more than half my life. Not just half my adult life, nope… Half my life! Maybe it is time to do something about that. I quit a couple of times before, without much success. Once my friends bet me a 100 dollars because none of them believed I could make it a month. I did and when they paid me I bought a pack of cigarettes and on the rest of the money we got stumbling drunk. Hey I was just a kid!
My most recent attempt was a few years ago. When a friend of mine passed away after a heart attack at the age of 50, I promised his wife (he smoked three packs a day) that I would quit. That lasted 3 weeks and then my wife’s favorite aunt died. Having to deal with a death in the family is one thing. Having to deal with a death in the family after a friend just passed AND having to deal with cocky in-laws is quite another. That’s enough for anyone to take up cigarettes!
So now I am trying again. I realize that the success of any attempt to quit anything is peer pressure. Ask the guys at the AA, they built a whole program around it! So in order to give myself some peer pressure, to build my own 12-step program if you will, I am coming out of the closet! I am going to quit… Or at least (this much I know for fact) die trying.
The Chantix Experience
(Standard Disclaimer: I do not get paid by the manufacturer of this stuff. )
Through my wife, she works in the medical field, I came to know about Chantix, a drug made by Pfizer. It does this:
Varenicline binds with high affinity and selectivity at α4β2 neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. The efficacy of CHANTIX in smoking cessation is believed to be the result of varenicline’s activity at a sub-type of the nicotinic receptor where its binding produces agonist activity, while simultaneously preventing nicotine binding to α4β2 receptors.
Whatever that means! According to literature I could find it blocks the ability of nicotine to bind to certain receptors and therefore stops the reward experience a smoker gets from using nicotine. So Chantix is NOT nicotine replacement, which is why (or so the manufacturer says) it’s so effective. We’ll see!
DAY ONE:
One pill in the morning. My doctor told me to not quit smoking right away. To set a date, but not quit now. It takes about a week, or so, after starting this drug, to become effective. I guess I’ll quit 7 days from today. I did have something funny happen to me. This MUST be psychosomatic (spelling?). At least three times today I lit a cigarette and didn’t finish them because… mwah, I didn’t feel like smoking. That hasn’t happened to me in YEARS! I got very, very tired around 6 PM. Don’t know if that was the Chantix or me staying up all hours of the night editing audio files and web pages.
DAY TWO:
(it’s 11/29/2006 just in case you were wondering) My new morning routine, instead of coffee and a cigarette, now consists of coffee, cigarette and tiny tablet. How weird is it to be quitting without actually (as of yet) quitting? Very weird! I guess I am glad that the day I have to actually be off cigarettes is a Tuesday… I don’t think I can handle my first smoke-free day to be a Monday.
DAY FOUR:
I only remember it’s day four because the pill-box tells me so. It is also telling me to up the dose. Mister White Boy, it’s time for your medication Mr. White Boy! It snowed like a “you-know-what” yesterday. Luckily I had enough smokes. There is still at least a foot of snow on the ground and I am very close to being out of cigarettes… Ouch! Is drinking yourself silly so you can’t remember you are craving a cigarette an option?
DAY SEVEN:
(12/04/2006) Last day as a smoker. Really dreading tomorrow! Meanwhile some interesting things happened. This weekend, we (the missus and myself) were out shopping. We left at 10 AM and didn’t return until three PM. I had smoked one before we left and upon returning home I realized I hadn’t smoked in FIVE hours. The weird thing, it didn’t even cross my mind. The meds must be working, because for a chain smoker like myself, that’s pretty unheard of. I like to keep reminding myself of that. Maybe there is life after cigarettes after all…
DAY EIGHT:
First day without cigarettes. So far so good! Drank far more coffee then I ever did in a week, but hey… Had some small cravings, but that must be the habbit and not so much the addiction. Chantix seems to be doing it’s work rather well as this is much more pleasant then the other agonizing attempts I remember. I must say that my entire routine is shot to oblivion. I really have to think about what to do during the day…
UPDATE: After 23 hours without, three cigarettes, small crisis. I feel dirty! If it wasn’t for teenagers living in my house giving me hell… I know, excuses, excuses. I guess tomorrow is another day! This does show one very strange thing about smoking. If the Chantix is taking away the physical cravings then where does the desire come from? It shows that you have to keep your guards up. God! I can’t even go one day? I am so weak! HELP!
DAY ELEVEN:
(12/08/2006) Already? Wow! That’s day THREE without a cigarette. Should have been four, but alas, see above. I did spent the last two days with pretty violent abdominal pains. The Chantix Patient Information says to not take it on an empty stomach but, I had been doing that since day one without a problem, so it didn’t even dawn on me that it would be the medication causing the stomach upset. IT IS! While the first week the dosage proably wasn’t high enough for any side effects, it is now! So I now have to “train” myself to eat in the morning. I hate that! This is where the Patient Info is lacking. Even though (I looked at the Rx leaflet that most people throw away because it’s written in Doctor Jargon) 7% of test subjects developed abdominal pain taking 2mg — A percentage, my lovely wife tells me, should be considered significant for adverse effects — it is not listed in the Patient Information, only in the literature for the prescribing physician…. Oops!!
DAY WHATEVER:
It’s the third week (I think) and I really would write a glowing review of my experience except that if you are not a smoker you would not understand how anyone can be so impressed with any “quit smoking” drug and if you ARE a smoker, I can suffice to say “No cravings! ” And then you would be going “Where do I sign up?” But the truth is, I can’t give you any indication of the long-term success of this stuff, simply because I haven’t been anywhere near the proverbial, so called (that was redundant) long term. What I do know is that so far I like the experience. Like I mentioned previously… yes there are little cravings but they are not unpleasant. More like, gosh if I was a smoker (I still consider myself one, don’t get me wrong) I would light a cigarette right now. And then I proceed not to!
DAY 24:
(12/21/2006) Had a total breakdown last night. Don’t worry, I didn’t light up — although I was more than tempted! I couldn’t sit still. Couldn’t concentrate on anything and worst of all couldn’t sleep. AGONIZING!!I made it through, but not without a struggle. I came this (places thumb and index finger less than one inch apart) close to jumping in my car and driving to the store for some smokes…. Aaaaaaarrrrgh! It was horrible! But like I said, I didn’t. Not being able to sleep, I am however operating on exactly 2 hours of shuteye.
Because I feel so sorry for me, I treated me to an early Xmas present. Funny, I collect Batman “stuff”, but I did not know Lego makes several Batman related sets. After careful deliberation I decided on the 1045 piece batmobile. I gotten as far as putting 6 pieces together. See I didn’t grow up on Lego’s like so many of my computer-programming peers. We was poor folks! Lego was extravagant. I looked for a Lego cigarette set, but couldn’t find one. The Batman set doesn’t have enough white pieces. It does however have soooo many black pieces that I could easily do a “your lungs on cigarettes” except of course that it would be a “your lungs on Lego”. Meanwhile, I have something to do when my hands go idle, which (or so the professionals say) is important when trying to quit.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING…
Completely different. I don’t think I’ll ever be (nor will anyone else for that matter) an ex-smoker. More accurately, anyone that has ever smoked will be a recovering nicotine addict for the rest of their lives!
Another thing: I may have brought the crazy uncontrolable cravings one myself by missing a dose of the meds. I can’t really imagine, because this drug is not “fast acting”, and I should be (physically anyway) rid of the addiction, so it seems strange this would be the case. However, I did accidentally miss a dose. I don’t know when exactly because the pill boxes aren’t dated but it could very well be the one night I went crazy. It’s Christmas, James Brown died… I could use a smoke! Instead I’ll just sleep, it’s late enough.
I QUIT!
Oh I already said that huh? What I mean is, I’ve been off cigarettes for a little over 6 weeks. But now, after taking the drug for 5 and a half weeks, I am also off Chantix. Woooooo Hooooo! The nay-sayers over here, can kiss my ass! Tell me again why I am not going to be successful? Because I am using medicine to help me quit? Sodd off!
