My next big milestone will be, five months and 5 days! On that day my final quit becomes my longest quit! Since the early eighties, I have stopped smoking thousands of times for a few days or a week! I only stopped for any extended period of time in 2007 when I quit for 5 months and some days! I’m not sure exactly how many days because I wasn’t counting! I know when I quit and I know the week that I was sitting at a beach bar on St. Kitts and everyone (literally), except my husband, was smoking! A friendly British gent offered and I obliged. I bummed a couple more from a variety of people and then bought a pack! My husband raised an eyebrow but didn’t say a word!
When I think about it now, the first 3 weeks of that quit probably shouldn’t even count since I was really, really sick! I mean practically in a coma! I had some kind of very scary and unidentifiable bronchial episode that put me on my back for over a month and my cough was so violent that I fractured four ribs. Plain and simple, I quit because I couldn’t smoke! No plan, no education just deathly ill! I was also quite terrified because I just don’t ever get sick!! I didn’t before that episode and I haven’t since. (I think that’s part of the reason all the quit symptoms made me so… grumpy during this quit!?!) The good news, bad news of the 2007 scenario was that chest x-rays showed nothing of consequence. Also had a DEXA scan because of the fractured ribs and no osteoporosis. Some might ask, “Why is that bad news?”. Well, because I got completely better and when I was sitting in that bar on St. Kitts, watching the sun go down, I wasn’t the least bit grateful for my good health! I didn’t think for one second about how sick I had been or what the future might bring if I started smoking again! Before we left the bar that night, I had smoked a pack and bought another for the stumble home! Of course you know, I was in Duty Free buying carton(s) for when I got home! I went from being five months plus smoke free back to over a pack a day in less than an hour! I never made another attempt to quit until I came here! I had done a lot of preparation before finding this site but you guys got me through the worst of it!!! So…
A most Gigantic Thank You to everyone here for the encouragement and support! Thank you for deep breathing reminders, stretches, quit kits and even lemons! Thank you for convincing me I was worthy of being here and saving me from my own self-doubt! Thank you for the 130 day challenge, it kept me quit long enough to gain the education about addiction that I so desperately needed! Thank you for all the wonderful graphics and PM’s that say “I care”. Thank you to the ‘newbies’ for reminding me how difficult those early days were! Thank you for introducing me to a world of smoke free friends who know what NOPE means! I am so glad you are all here!
