In just an hour I will join the 6% club. I am posting this early because I have some quiet time to say what I really want about this moment.
This is only the second time in my life that I have managed to quit smoking for a year. This is also the only time that I feel like I really am a former smoker and I am not going to go back ever! It’s been a crazy year but here I am today, without a single relapse, about to dance across into day 365.
I got up on Sunday morning, day 363, to a Facebook invite from my sister to join a bunch of people in celebrating my 1 year anniversary of quitting. I was so touched and it really helped me realize how much love and support I have had in my journey, both here with my Ex Family and in my personal life with my friends and family.
The day I quit one year ago today began like any other Sunday. I was in the kitchen making coffee, after having smoked a few cigarettes already, when my heart began to race and I passed out. I ended up in an ambulance and a few weeks later had a cardiac ablation. I did come home from the ER that day and smoke the last 3 cigarettes in my pack because that’s what addicts do. I even said, “I can’t believe I’m the dumbass who rides in an ambulance with a heart issue and then smokes”, but that is what the nicodemon does!
From there my year was full of incredible stressors including my fathers decline with Alzheimer’s where he got lost and we eventually had to put him in a nursing home (I wrote a blog about getting through that day smoke free), a few more health issues of my own, selling my fathers home and moving my step-mother, other family issues and work issues and made up “most stressful day ever” issues and things I allowed to eat my serenity….. You get the point. There were so many times I could have justified smoking. But I came here, I blogged, I called friends; I cried or slept or ate chocolate. I did whatever it took to get to today. No one told me it would be easy but they did say it would get better and you know what? It did!
So if you are new, muscle through one day at a time because getting to write this blog is so worth the ride. Love to you all and thank you to everyone who helped me along the way!
Jules
