42 Days

[ralphh11]

Well... I haven't been on in a few days. Wanted to take a break from all the blogging and complaining. 🙂

I am going on day #7 with no real side effects or imaginary side effects - save for the extreme tiredness and occasional tightness in my chest. No real coughing happening the last few days. I'm sleeping okay (waking up still, but going back to sleep). Dealing with sick kids now (it's the most wonderful time of the year! Haha!).

If I had only one complaint, it would be that I just want to feel like I've had good sleep and start to get my energy back. I'm a usually high-energy person, but haven't felt it in like 7 weeks. My journey into this previously un-charted "QUIT" territory started 8 weeks ago... (my how time flies when you're having fun!).

[bonniebee]

I must have missed something .....what do you mea by "going on day #7 ?

Congrats for sticking with your quit Day 42 is awesome !

[TerrieQuit]

You are doing great Ralph! All the things you are feeling come with the territory! You are in NML! Congratulations on 42 days free! Keep moving forward!

I Won't Quit on my Quit!

[ralphh11]

Bonnie - I mean day # 7 with no real side effects or weirdness. 🙂

[Christine13]

Keep up the good, hard work Ralph!  Congrats on 42 days.  Sorry about your sick kids.

[YoungAtHeart]

You have a bit to go before your body will be back to your old normal.  Get patient!  Revel in the good things that are happening.  Haven't your taste and smell improved?  Haven't you stopped coughing at the end of every good laugh?  Isn't it nice you don't smell like an ashtray?  Don't you have some extra jingle in your pocket?

Keep at it!  It gets better and better!

Nancy

[Giulia]

Have you tried exercising?  That can sometimes help to  jump start the body and get rid of tiredness.  Also can help promote sleep.  Of course if you're not sleeping, you're going  be tired.  And cranky.  You may need to see a doc about getting a sleeping aid.  Lack of sleep over long periods of time is really detrimental.  And of course there could be other contributory factors for the reason you're not sleeping.  Maybe go have it checked out if it persists.

Glad you've over the majority of the rest of the weirdness.  Chin up!

[ralphh11]

Yes... I exercise and drink a ton of water. Perhaps, as I've read on many blogs, there are people whose sleep patterns are disrupted for awhile after quitting - mine is one of them. Getting significantly better over time and I AM sleeping (if you read carefully, I am now going BACK to sleep), just waking up (whereas before I would not go back to sleep).

[Dotgirl_1-28-16]

Woohoo Ralphh11 you're doing awesome! Congrats on precious 42 days of freedom! WTG

[Jennifer-Quit]

Big congratulations on 6 weeks!  And also on 7 days of feeling more normal!  You are doing great!

[elvan]

Congratulations on your 42 days, please trust us that it will get better.  We all struggled early on and we made it through, it's a journey, Ralph, sorry the kids are sick, that's rough but they will get better faster with a nonsmoking Dad who is not exposing them to 3rd hand smoke!  You are making progress, it is one day at a time!

[ralphh11]

That was one thing I never did.. smoke around or even close to my children or in the car (even when they weren't in it). Loving the journey... though the journey sometimes feels like you're taking it on a rollercoaster. 🙂

[Starlite]

I agree with the roller coaster ride, but what a great ride when we stick to our quit - you are doing great. Your children must be so happy, I have no children, but my brothers two daughters were bugging  me to quit for a few years - now they cheer me on. Stay strong, you can do this.

[djmurray]

I smoked for 53 years, claimed to love it, quit unsuccessfully a few times, and thought I would always smoke.  But about a year after being diagnosed with COPD (which I immediately denied, by the way) I saw an x-ray of my lungs, and I was suddenly struck by how badly I have treated those poor parts of my body.  It was a very startling revelation.and while I didn't immediately quit, it was about a month later when I smoked my last cigarette.  I haven't had a puff since, and now I realize what an addict I was.  What I love is NOT smoking.  Not smelling like a stale ashtryay, or having to scope out the places where I could sneak off to smoke, of having to dress to the outdoor weather for standing out in i for probably a total of an hour on a given winter day.   We relearn life without cigarettes and we find it's so much better. Your body and your brain are adjusting to a huge change.  Even if you smoked only a pack a day, that ws 20 cigarettes you made sure you had.  (sometimes at the expense of other things like food if money was tight) if it took 5 minutes to smoke each of those 20 cigarettes, that's almost 2 actual hours spent smoking, but that doesn't count the time you spent anticipating the cigarette and possibly tuning out from whatever you were doing to plot out your plan for getting a smoke in the next few minutes.  It doesn't count the time when you have only two left and you decide you need to go to the store.   And I can give you a million more ways that smoking took over so much of our lives.  I'm sure you can, too.  But what we're doing now is learning life without cigarettes, and that isn't easy.  Our addition has been intertwined into every single life event - rejoicing?  Smoke.  Grieving? Smoke.  Hungry?  Smoke.  Stuffed? Smoke. Nervous?  Smoke.  confident?  Smoke.  et cetera, et cetera. 

So it's unpleasant, I know.  I had my strongest crave on Day 44 when the pulmonologist said my COPD was mild.  My addict brain heard that as "Cool, you've been smoking all these years and you hardly have any problems -- you can SMOKE!!"  It took hours to work through that one and while I worked it out I got on here and typed HELP in the subject line and my wonderful wise EX friends were right there for me.

You're getting through the most challenging point and it sounds like you're doing it very well.  Just know how valuable this community is -  you will get support any time of the day, any mood you're in, and pretty much anything you need to keep that day a non-smoking day,

You're doing a great job.  (And by the way, the Day 44 crave was my last one i could even remotely call a crave.).