Help!!!

[Gabrielli]

Hi my name is Mimi and I jumped over here from the aneurysm site. I started the new stop smoking pill Chantix on Feb.15 and this is as close as I ever came to not smoking. I've smoked for 35 years:eek:. With this pill you are suppose to smoke for the first seven day's and then stop and increase the pills to 1 mg. twice a day. The smokes don't taste good anymore with this pill either yet my body still needs that fix. The fix is getting less but I still find myself out in the garage taking a puff.Well I didn't stop smoking and have been on 4 or 3 smokes a day (use to smoke a pack or more). I feel I already failed because I didn't stop on day seven. I had two brain aneurysms in 2004 and need to stop,one Annie is coiled and I need another MRI in a few years to check it. My husband never smoked..I never smoked in the house. I feel loss like I'm suppose to be doing something...and then I realize I'm so use to smoking what do I do now?? Help...
ooxx
mimi

[jingle]

Hi Mimi - I certainly am sorry about that aneurysm trouble. That's AWFUL. There are many thousands of reasons to quit smoking and I'll bet an aneurysm is one of the top.

I had a brain tumor (less dangerous than an aneurysm but plenty scary) and I knew I was going to be eventually spending plenty of time in the hospital in complete misery and being desperate for a smoke would just make it worse. I'd been a very heavy smoker for 42 years.

Chantix hadn't been invented so I used those patches for 39 days. They worked but, like you, I still WANTED A SMOKE. What worked for me .... when I got desperate for a smoke, I just said, "Oh you poor baby, of course you can have a cigarette in a couple hours. Now just take a deep breath and relax". Later when I got desperate I'd say ,"Hey, You know you can smoke, just wait till in the morning, then you can have one".

That method worked for me for a YEAR. I never did tell myself that I could not smoke ...I just told myself to wait. And I haven't had a smoke for 16 months !!! :D Now I don't even want one.

Oh, I hope something works for you. Have you talked to your doctor? I'll bet he can help. Read some of Teddiebears posts .... she always has great advice.

[Gabrielli]

jingle,
Wow you did it!! Good for you,how are you today after your surgery? Does it take a year before this smoking craving stop??:eek: I do try to push away the I want a smoke feelings,I brush my teeth:D and eat,but after I eat of coarse I want a smoke....just hope this leaves soon. Someone told me years from now I'll still want a smoke..it that true?
thanks for all your help and just plain talking to me,just found this site today.:)
ooxx
mimi

[jingle]

Hi again :) The nicotine addiction stops within days. Yes, that is true. The stupid (that's the word for me - lol ) smoking habit is very hard to shake.... that took me forever. That's what is so hard.
Doesn't that sound stupid?
(and this is just me talking -- and I'm far from an expert or anything)
It did take me months to get over that desire to smoke .... but I did it by - like I said before - telling myself all I had to do was wait.

My sister and her husband -- also long time, heavy smokers, looked at me and said, "If she can stop anybody can". and they put out their last cigarettes. She used the patch for 2 months and he just did it cold turkey.
Both of them used sugarless candy suckers A LOT.

I did fine with brain surgery - lol. I had a malignant tumor removed on Feb. 16, 2006, breast surgery on April 3 (?) 2006 and now it looks like something is going wrong again in this brain so I go back into the hospital for more testing on March 6. I'm sure glad I won't be wild for a smoke. :p
Everything in life is easier when you don't have to look for a place to smoke.

[Gabrielli]

jingle
This is how bad smoking was for me. They did my clipping and opened my head (well you know the big c cut) and in two day's I was walking down the hall...yes I found the front door to the hosp. and begged for a cig. I had a closed black eye and yes someone gave me one.Then I asked my husband to bring my handbag next time he came to the hosp. because my smokes were in it...so at night I would walk down to the front door and smoke,can you believe it! How bad is that??? This is how I looked and got a smoke!!!
ooxx
mimi

http://img100.**********.us/img100/9775/mom1zn1.th.jpg (http://img100.**********.us/my.php?image=mom1zn1.jpg)

[jingle]

(((mimi))) well, it IS understandable. I've also done that in the past. jBut just think how much easier it is to instead press that little button and say "Nurse, bring me some nice coffee and a roll". :p

Are you facing more hospital stay and clipping? ugggghhhh I hope not!! If so ...... just think how much easier it will be if you don't need those smokes,

One more very important thing.....
A month or so before my surgery I was talking to my neurosurgeon and told him that I hadn't had a cigarette for a couple of months.
He put the folders down on the desk, tucked his chin down, was silent for a couple of seconds, then looked at me and said, "Nancy, you quitting smoking is more important for you healt than me removing this tumor". WOW

[Gabrielli]

Nancy...Just saw your picture {{{ OUCH }}} I know the hurt!! I would love to tell the NS I'm now a non smoker...but I'm thinking he'll say "you needed to stop 2 1/2 years ago after surgery!!" Well I'm still trying...I've been lighting a smoke take a puff and next puff not inhale...still three a day:( As far a surgery again...hope not! I have to have the Annie that is coiled checked with MRA in two years unless something happens before that... So each day I try..today I felt pretty good. I'll take each day and check here everyday. I enjoy talking to you.
ooxx
mimi