I finally did it.

[Minilove]

I am finally smoke free. 30 days today. I cannot take credit for quitting, but can for staying quit. Unfortunately I had a bad COPD exasperation, and stopped breathing in the hospital. I was put in a medically induced coma, and put on a ventilator for 6 days. They had to clean my lungs twice, there was so much carbon monoxide in them, along with mucus. They kept me another 4 days in recovery. 

I will be honest and say not a day goes by that I do not think about a cigarette, that I feel like I am depriving myself. But I ask myself, exactly what are you depriving yourself of. Or I tell myself NOPE! So I want to re read Alan Carr's book, and be more active on here. 

[Chuck-2-20-2011]

How you quit isn't as important as the fact that you DID quit. Now you just have to deal with the mental part of addiction. I'm so sorry to hear of what happened to you and hope you're still on the road to recovery. There will be lot's of people along shortly to give you links and information. You're off to a great start!! Don't let your addiction get the better of you. You have a lot of good reasons to quit.

 CONGRATULATIONS both on your decision to quit and the fact that you stayed quit! Good for you! There's absolutely nothing better you can do for your future and your health!

ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!

Chuck

[Chuck-2-20-2011]

Just another thought. Perhaps you should check out the COPD group here if you haven't already. There's tons of info on COPD from our resident EXpert, thomas‌. 

 Also I wanted to mention that I have mild COPD as well. Was in the hospital once when it was first discovered it because I wasn't breathing very well. Glad you stopped in!

Chuck

[elvan]

Congratulations on your quit...I didn't get put into a coma but I had pneumonia and my COPD really flared...that was in January of 2014 and I nearly died.   I refused to be hospitalized but I really should have been.  I am a retired RN and worked ER and ICU so I felt qualified to take care of myself with the medications they prescribed me.  That was in January of 2014, I have not smoked since after 47 years of smoking with breaks for pregnancies and short lived quits.  This is the BEST plac for you, read, be active, go to JonesCarpeDiem‌'s page and read his expectations for the first 140 days.  You already have 30 WON.  YoungAtHeart‌ has a list of 100 things to do INSTEAD of smoking.  You can still make a plan and put together a tool kit...think about the times you smoked and how strong the craves were and then make a plan for what to do INSTEAD of smoking.

Welcome to EX!

[Minilove]

My tracker was off. I feel better saying it has been 41 days. Feb. 3rd was the last day I smoked ❤️

[YoungAtHeart]

Welcome to our community!

41 days is HUGE!  Congratulations!  My guess would be that you are already doing some of the things I will recommend, but I will offer them anyway, just in case!

The most important thing you can do right now is to educate yourself on what nicotine does to your body and mind. To that end, I highly recommend Allen Carr's “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.” This is an easy and entertaining read. Here is a link to a free PDF version of it:

http://media.wix.com/ugd/74fa87_2010cc5496521431188f905b7234a829.pdf

As well, read the sections on this site, and read the blogs, responses and pages of folks you think might be helpful. You might visit whyquit.com and quitsmokingonline.com for the good information contained there.

The idea is to change up your routines so the smoking associations are reduced.  Drink your coffee with your OTHER hand. If you always had that first smoke with your coffee, try putting your tennies on right out of bed, going for a quick walk, then taking your shower and THEN your coffee! Rearrange the furniture in the areas you used to smoke so the view is different.

You need to distract yourself through any craves.  You can take a bite out of a lemon (yup - rind and all), put your head in the freezer and take a deep breath of cold air, do a few jumping jacks, go for a brisk walk or march in place, play a computer game.  Don't let that smoking thought rattle around in your brain unchallenged. Sometimes you need to quit a minute or an hour at a time.  You will need to be disciplined in the early days to distract yourself when a crave hits.    Get busy!  Here is a link to a list of things to do instead of smoke if you need some fresh ideas:

100 Things to Do Instead of Smoke

The conversation in your head in response to the "I want a cigarette" thought needs to be, "Well, since I have decided not to do that anymore, what shall I do instead for the three minutes this crave will last?"  Then DO it.  You will need to put some effort into this in the early days, but it gets easier and easier to do.

Stay close to us here and ask questions when you have them and for support when you need it. We will be with you every step of the way!

Nancy

[Jennifer-Quit]

Congratulations on  41 days!  Sorry for all your health problems - the trick now is to stay quit- but I have faith in you that you can do it!

[crazymama_Lori]

well, welcome back.  I remembered you from your avatar.  Great to hear you are at 41 days.  that's great.  Stay close, blog often, knowledge is your power

[elvan]

CONGRATULATIONS on 41 GLORIOUS SMOKE FREE DAYS!

[TerrieQuit]

Hello, Minilove Huge congratulations on 41 days! You are doing great!

Here is a link to the COPD‌ group that Thomas and a few other's post articles in! Thomas3.20.2010 is very knowledgeable about COPD.  ~Terrie~

[Mandolinrain]

So glad you quit. Ditto to all the above comments. Allen Carrs book hit it out of the ball park for me. Wishing you the best. So proud of you. 30 freakin days!!!!!!AWESOMENESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!