Thank you so much everyone for your overwhelming kindness and support on my 600 days and my fellow quitters milestones too. You are all so amazing.
Bit of an update...
Having been diagnosed with throat cancer last January and undergoing radical radiotherapy that finished in March, I was finally proclaimed cured. It was a gruelling time and the side effects were quite severe but at long last I feel I am able to eat a bit more and actually enjoy it!! You wouldn't believe the "eating dreams" I've been having, makes a change from "smoking dreams" The food on the train made me dribble, tee-hee!
The other thing is the artheosclerosis that was caused by smoking is still ongoing as it involves a major operation that I want to be 100% for. Basically, it gives me cramps and pain in my legs after walking longish distances but though its a nuisance its not life threatening (yet)
All I can say to the Newbies is, don't wait until your body rebels against the abuse we inflict on ourselves by smoking and give yourself a chance to heal or at least stop the deterioration. The relief of not HAVING to smoke is a truly liberating thing. I was an avid smoker too, thought I adored it and smoked virtually non-stop. I was so scared I'd fail and feared the withdrawal but I did use patches and followed the course so when I came to finally kick out all nicotine there wasn't much to withdraw from. The second and parallel thing to do was to read, read and read more until I had all the arguments and ammo to fight the mental cravings.
I couldn't have done it without your amazing support, wonderful people, thank you.
That's the way I did it, and it certainly worked for me. Really there was nothing to be scared of and the FREEDOM is a fantastic reward.
