USMB Coffee Shop IV

[Clinton Baptiste]

Today I’m having dreadlocks fitted to my work vehicle, it’s been broken into 3 times, my employer replaced everything that was stolen each time.

Hmmm. Dreadlocks are a hair style here. What are they there?

Damn auto speller.. dead locks

 

[Gracie]

I know you mean well, FF, but after reading all that, I am now stressed about even trying to quit. But, I won't let that temp fear stop me from trying.
You must have had it really bad. MrG stopped in a week. My sister in law in a few days. Both have smoked for over 45 years. I have 45 years under my belt too, but...if they can do it..so can I. At least, that's what I tell myself.

MrG is sober now too. He refused to go to AA meetings because he said them talking about it all the time made him want to leave and go get drunk. Same with cigs. I want to quit. Gonna try to quit. But I don't care about money saved/better tasting food/no more stink/ etc. I just want to beat this nasty habit and not stress over the other stuff cuz right now...none of that matters. The only thing that does matter is succeeding this time. This will be my 7th try. Wish me luck, but I won't talk about it further cuz if I fail..that will just make me feel worse, and embarrassed I did in front of my CS friends. So....shhhhhhhhhh. I will not speak of it further.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Today I’m having dreadlocks fitted to my work vehicle, it’s been broken into 3 times, my employer replaced everything that was stolen each time.

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

Today I’m having dreadlocks fitted to my work vehicle, it’s been broken into 3 times, my employer replaced everything that was stolen each time.

 

[Montrovant]

I know you mean well, FF, but after reading all that, I am now stressed about even trying to quit. But, I won't let that temp fear stop me from trying.
You must have had it really bad. MrG stopped in a week. My sister in law in a few days. Both have smoked for over 45 years. I have 45 years under my belt too, but...if they can do it..so can I. At least, that's what I tell myself.

MrG is sober now too. He refused to go to AA meetings because he said them talking about it all the time made him want to leave and go get drunk. Same with cigs. I want to quit. Gonna try to quit. But I don't care about money saved/better tasting food/no more stink/ etc. I just want to beat this nasty habit and not stress over the other stuff cuz right now...none of that matters. The only thing that does matter is succeeding this time. This will be my 7th try. Wish me luck, but I won't talk about it further cuz if I fail..that will just make me feel worse, and embarrassed I did in front of my CS friends. So....shhhhhhhhhh. I will not speak of it further.

You have no reason to be embarrassed. Many, many people have difficulty trying to quit smoking. I don't think anyone here would be judging you, just hoping for you.

 

[Foxfyre]

I know you mean well, FF, but after reading all that, I am now stressed about even trying to quit. But, I won't let that temp fear stop me from trying.
You must have had it really bad. MrG stopped in a week. My sister in law in a few days. Both have smoked for over 45 years. I have 45 years under my belt too, but...if they can do it..so can I. At least, that's what I tell myself.

MrG is sober now too. He refused to go to AA meetings because he said them talking about it all the time made him want to leave and go get drunk. Same with cigs. I want to quit. Gonna try to quit. But I don't care about money saved/better tasting food/no more stink/ etc. I just want to beat this nasty habit and not stress over the other stuff cuz right now...none of that matters. The only thing that does matter is succeeding this time. This will be my 7th try. Wish me luck, but I won't talk about it further cuz if I fail..that will just make me feel worse, and embarrassed I did in front of my CS friends. So....shhhhhhhhhh. I will not speak of it further.

There's no shame in failure. There is shame in not at least trying to do it if we want to do it and it is worth while.

And I didn't want to discourage anybody. Just putting it out there as it is for most people. And to understand the worst that it will be so that we know in our hearts that it isn't permanent and we can tough through it if we choose to. And it is worth it.

 

[Foxfyre]

Maybe the CS should be renamed Colonoscopy Shop? lol
Seems all of us are being ass reamed lately.

Saw my regular doc today. He said the hospital was having a cow because while I was under, my BP went from 213/81 to 226/96. Unfortunately, there isn't much more they can do about my high BP cuz I have a slow heartbeat. Usually, its supposed to 60 beats per minutes or thereabouts. MIne is usually 50. So the meds I take will just make is slower and that won't be good, he said. So...he upped my HZTZ to 25 instead of the 12.5 I am taking now. And, once I quit smoking, that should help too. He ordered me some Wellburtin (zyban) to take along with wearing my patches and that outta do the trick of getting me smoke free. We hope.

Talked to GI doc too. He won't get the results from the biopsies he sent in, for at least another week. So..I wait. Again. But..at least what needed done got done and now it's up to God on whether I have something horrible..or not. Hey, can't live forever!!!

Like Roy I quit cold turkey after many many attempts to quit. The first time I managed to stay off the cigs long enough that the American Cancer Society trained me to be a mentor to help others quit. (I was exec drtr of a large social agency at that time so had the space and ability to run stop smoking clinics. They were pretty good but I found their methods at that time to have very limited success rates. That was back in the 1970's.)

And then I went through a particularly stressful time, was at a conference in Colorado and my assigned roomie was a smoker and had left her opened pack in the room when I checked in and for whatever stupid reason, I took a cig and left her a dime. Then bought a pack. . .

And I was hooked again. Bad hooked. In no time I was up to two/three packs a day.

Quit many times after that.

The last time and final time roughly going on 30 years ago now, I read Francis Hunter's book God is Fabulous that devotes a chapter to how she quit chain smoking. My experience was considerably different from hers--most everybody is a little different. But she persuaded me to put it in God's hands and asked him to help me quit. I threw out all the remaining cigs in the house.

The pattern--what to expect when quitting cold turkey:

The first 72 hours are the toughest and the cravings begin quick and come hard and fairly close together.

Each initial craving is powerful enough to take you to your knees and you think you can't stand it. But if you lean into it and try to make it feel as bad as possible it will subside. Until the next one. Try to stay physically active/busy during those times and it is easier than when sitting, doing computer stuff, reading, or doing other activities in which we normally smoke.

After 48 hours you will notice the cravings are still terrible but not quite so intense and are of shorter duration. And there will be somewhat longer intervals between them. Treat each one the same way though--lean into it, fully experience it. Feel noble that you can take it.

Though most is gone in that first 72 hours, it will take up to 21 days for the nicotine to fully metabolize and no longer be in your body. By that time the craving are still powerful but coming less frequently.

Once the nicotine is gone and the addiction itself is broken, we are dealing with doing without a psychological habit that was comforting and pleasurable for us--still real and still stressful, but different. What feels like cravings still occur but they are our mind messing with us instead of our body demanding. There's nothing to do with our hands when we feel stressed or are working out problems in our head. Nothing to do while thinking of what to say next or what to do next. We miss smoking for anger management. But It is far easier to distract ourselves from these intermittent false cravings and they too subside, usually fairly quickly.

And one day we realize we have gone several hours without thinking about smoking. And we get to the point that we go several days without a craving.

I'll be honest. It took years before I reached the point that I no longer had any desire to smoke at all. That I didn't miss it. That the smell of cigarette smoke became unpleasant to me. I was one who enjoyed smoking very much.

But it was worth it.

--Overall general health does improve and your risk of a lot of debilitating, even deadly, diseases is much lessened.
--Some folks say food tastes a lot better. (I honestly don't know that it did for me but it sure didn't taste any worse.)
--There is no more discomfort when in no smoking environments.
--We smell a lot better to non smokers. Our breath is much sweeter. (In all honesty though, I hate being around cigarette smoke now, but don't mind being around smokers and have many in my life.)
--We save a ton of money. (These days a pack of cigs runs close to $6 pack so a pack a day smoker will save more than $2,000/year and infinite time by quitting.)
--And for me the greatest blessing was enjoying smoke free environments instead of planning a short duration in them. Not having to find some place I could have a smoke.

Yes, it was not easy. Breaking any substance addiction may be one of the hardest things we will ever have to do on a long term basis. But it's worth it.

I quit three years ago with Chantix. I cannot say I am a non smoker because I would love to have one right now. I'm "quitting..." I have advanced COPD, on oxygen and my pulmonologist says I should get my things in order, but don't call in the family yet...Sounds like a time for a cigarette to me!
or Maybe Not.

My Uncle Ed quit cold turkey when he got that same diagnosis from his doctor. So far as I know he never picked up another cigarette. Had advanced stage COPD and eventually died from it at age 90, three years ago. He was 65 when he was diagnosed and most of those 25 years that followed were good, happy, years.

So no, not a good time for you to have a cigarette.

(After three years of abstinence I was still wanting to have a cigarette now and then. But now I don't want one at all.)

 

[beautress]

I know you mean well, FF, but after reading all that, I am now stressed about even trying to quit. But, I won't let that temp fear stop me from trying.
You must have had it really bad. MrG stopped in a week. My sister in law in a few days. Both have smoked for over 45 years. I have 45 years under my belt too, but...if they can do it..so can I. At least, that's what I tell myself.

MrG is sober now too. He refused to go to AA meetings because he said them talking about it all the time made him want to leave and go get drunk. Same with cigs. I want to quit. Gonna try to quit. But I don't care about money saved/better tasting food/no more stink/ etc. I just want to beat this nasty habit and not stress over the other stuff cuz right now...none of that matters. The only thing that does matter is succeeding this time. This will be my 7th try. Wish me luck, but I won't talk about it further cuz if I fail..that will just make me feel worse, and embarrassed I did in front of my CS friends. So....shhhhhhhhhh. I will not speak of it further.

Good luck, Gracie. The life you extend may be your own.

 

[Gracie]

Meanwhile...MrG said "lets go to the thrift store". So, I says, "ok". We came home with an ol el cheapo desk for my windows 10 laptop (I refuse to dump my Win 7, so I have them both hooked up until I HAVE to let the Win 7 sleep permanently)...and...a 2003 trailblazer Chevy for MrG. Wasn't planning on doing that, but...he wanted it and my van is making even worse noises. I don't want to maybe wind up homeless again AND be without wheels. So..its a nice backup vehicle. Damn thing looks GOOD, too. Whomever owned it took very good care of it. Engine looks like it was never driven. Only has 63K miles on it too. MrG checked it out thoroughly, then said "yep. Tis mine"..which in essence means OURS, but, I digress.

 

[Gracie]

I'll take a pic of it tomorrow.

 

[beautress]

Maybe the CS should be renamed Colonoscopy Shop? lol
Seems all of us are being ass reamed lately.

Saw my regular doc today. He said the hospital was having a cow because while I was under, my BP went from 213/81 to 226/96. Unfortunately, there isn't much more they can do about my high BP cuz I have a slow heartbeat. Usually, its supposed to 60 beats per minutes or thereabouts. MIne is usually 50. So the meds I take will just make is slower and that won't be good, he said. So...he upped my HZTZ to 25 instead of the 12.5 I am taking now. And, once I quit smoking, that should help too. He ordered me some Wellburtin (zyban) to take along with wearing my patches and that outta do the trick of getting me smoke free. We hope.

Talked to GI doc too. He won't get the results from the biopsies he sent in, for at least another week. So..I wait. Again. But..at least what needed done got done and now it's up to God on whether I have something horrible..or not. Hey, can't live forever!!!

Like Roy I quit cold turkey after many many attempts to quit. The first time I managed to stay off the cigs long enough that the American Cancer Society trained me to be a mentor to help others quit. (I was exec drtr of a large social agency at that time so had the space and ability to run stop smoking clinics. They were pretty good but I found their methods at that time to have very limited success rates. That was back in the 1970's.)

And then I went through a particularly stressful time, was at a conference in Colorado and my assigned roomie was a smoker and had left her opened pack in the room when I checked in and for whatever stupid reason, I took a cig and left her a dime. Then bought a pack. . .

And I was hooked again. Bad hooked. In no time I was up to two/three packs a day.

Quit many times after that.

The last time and final time roughly going on 30 years ago now, I read Francis Hunter's book God is Fabulous that devotes a chapter to how she quit chain smoking. My experience was considerably different from hers--most everybody is a little different. But she persuaded me to put it in God's hands and asked him to help me quit. I threw out all the remaining cigs in the house.

The pattern--what to expect when quitting cold turkey:

The first 72 hours are the toughest and the cravings begin quick and come hard and fairly close together.

Each initial craving is powerful enough to take you to your knees and you think you can't stand it. But if you lean into it and try to make it feel as bad as possible it will subside. Until the next one. Try to stay physically active/busy during those times and it is easier than when sitting, doing computer stuff, reading, or doing other activities in which we normally smoke.

After 48 hours you will notice the cravings are still terrible but not quite so intense and are of shorter duration. And there will be somewhat longer intervals between them. Treat each one the same way though--lean into it, fully experience it. Feel noble that you can take it.

Though most is gone in that first 72 hours, it will take up to 21 days for the nicotine to fully metabolize and no longer be in your body. By that time the craving are still powerful but coming less frequently.

Once the nicotine is gone and the addiction itself is broken, we are dealing with doing without a psychological habit that was comforting and pleasurable for us--still real and still stressful, but different. What feels like cravings still occur but they are our mind messing with us instead of our body demanding. There's nothing to do with our hands when we feel stressed or are working out problems in our head. Nothing to do while thinking of what to say next or what to do next. We miss smoking for anger management. But It is far easier to distract ourselves from these intermittent false cravings and they too subside, usually fairly quickly.

And one day we realize we have gone several hours without thinking about smoking. And we get to the point that we go several days without a craving.

I'll be honest. It took years before I reached the point that I no longer had any desire to smoke at all. That I didn't miss it. That the smell of cigarette smoke became unpleasant to me. I was one who enjoyed smoking very much.

But it was worth it.

--Overall general health does improve and your risk of a lot of debilitating, even deadly, diseases is much lessened.
--Some folks say food tastes a lot better. (I honestly don't know that it did for me but it sure didn't taste any worse.)
--There is no more discomfort when in no smoking environments.
--We smell a lot better to non smokers. Our breath is much sweeter. (In all honesty though, I hate being around cigarette smoke now, but don't mind being around smokers and have many in my life.)
--We save a ton of money. (These days a pack of cigs runs close to $6 pack so a pack a day smoker will save more than $2,000/year and infinite time by quitting.)
--And for me the greatest blessing was enjoying smoke free environments instead of planning a short duration in them. Not having to find some place I could have a smoke.

Yes, it was not easy. Breaking any substance addiction may be one of the hardest things we will ever have to do on a long term basis. But it's worth it.

I quit three years ago with Chantix. I cannot say I am a non smoker because I would love to have one right now. I'm "quitting..." I have advanced COPD, on oxygen and my pulmonologist says I should get my things in order, but don't call in the family yet...Sounds like a time for a cigarette to me!
or Maybe Not.

You can kick it with a recipe I discovered when I was trying to get rid of pneumonia. It said it was for lung cancer but was also effective for asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia. You need a food processor or a cup of distilled water in a large blender: 3 sticks celery cut in 2" logs; two beets quartered; 2 carrots, cut in 2" intervals; 4 radishes; 2 cloves garlic; one apple, core and seeds removed, quartered. blend until in liquid form. Add distilled water if too thick. Use drink for one meal. Drink it all. I hate it, so I hold my nose while I am drinking and blocking air that makes you able to taste the #@&%* stuff. (insert expletive of your choice). You have to do it every day for 45 days. It's supposed to make you hear your doctor say, "What th' ???" when he examines your next clear chest ex-ray. For some reason, my pneumonia went away, but a few weeks later, I unwisely didn't cover my face when mowing the fallow fields out front that had the wild weeds (not grass) turned black, probably with mold which I am allergic to since forever and ago. I also found some equally disgusting health drinks that have beet juice in them and they taste like #@&%* too, except they're sweeter. The carrot juice is really good, and the one I got said it had 900% of your vitamin A requirement in it, which is also antagonistic to chest and breathing issues. Right now, my lungs are clear of all garbage that was wheezed up and down the pipes at night, and I'm pretty happy about not wheezing. I'm also changing from milk-soaked cereal in the morning to an egg omelette with cut up garlic, green onion, and mild packaged peppers minced fine in the mix with a few beef smokies. That's probably bad, but it's better than trying to hold my breath, chew food, and not get it down the offended pipes which would make me say more #@&^* words.

Love ya! Get well, girls and guys with testy chesty issues.

 

[beautress]

Oh, yes, and I had to lay off karaoke this week after last Saturday morning's asthma episode, but I made up for it by working on log cabin squares and have been upstairs manning the sewing machine for hours on end from the time I get up till the time I come here to practice karaoke by listening to songs online I posted with lyrics written out sometimes, and look at quilt pictures I brought from others online since I'm all thumbs with a camera and can't find one anyway (they're there somewhere...) and am certifiably the worst photographer on the planet.

The last night I sang Karaoke, it was all night long and only 4 of us were in the rotation of singers, so I overused my asthma-filled lungs because I forgot to take the magic pills the doctor gave me for a couple of days. I remembered the beet juice and went on a 2 day beet juice tear, also cucumber greens and carrot. I had to eat 5 consecutive radishes, because none of the juices had radish in them. And I had to cut up extra garlic in the egg and after eating one clove of garlic, I may not do that again. They say garlic is stronger and kills more germs than antibiotics prescribed by a doctor to get rid of lung infections. And scientific studies back it up with people who were helped by garlic. Go figure. The medical profession threw out the baby with the bathwater when they abandoned traditional homeopathic medicine all doctors practiced throughout all time until around the beginning of the twentieth century. Back then doctors had less control over home-bound patients' care, and the pharmaceutical companies gave them quick cures for bad diseases provided the patient took their medicine on schedule. Doctors also used to make house calls until the population in cities became overwhelming and their services were in constant demand sunrise to sunset and then some.

 

[beautress]

I'll take a pic of it tomorrow.

Gracie!

 

[Foxfyre]

Good night darlinks. I really do love you guys.
And we continue to pray and/or send good vibes and/or positive thoughts and/or keep vigil for:

Harper
Pogo’s friend Pat and special comfort for Pogo,
Montrovant for continued progress in his transition.
Seagal and Mr. Seagal.
Beautress for wellness
Kat for wellness
Mindful and her shoulder for healing
All those we love and care about who aren't on the list.
JustAnotherNut for wellness
Peach's Mr. P for wellness and successful surgery and comfort/peace for Peach.
Ringel and Ms Ringel - comfort, wellness, solutions for both.
Extra prayers/positive vibes for gallantwarrior dealing with his own health issues as well as a terribly difficult situation with Rod and increased responsibilities and also for Rod's healing in mind, body, and spirit.
Gracie for wellness, good solutions, and a conquering spirit.
Did we miss anybody? Jog my memory please.

And we leave a light on so that those who have been away can find their way back.

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

When it rains it pours.... arggggghhh!!!
Someone has drilled thru some pipe work at a job at Warwick. Flooded out and a message was sent to me to go and sort it out. Argggghhhhh!

 

[Montrovant]

Good night darlinks. I really do love you guys.
And we continue to pray and/or send good vibes and/or positive thoughts and/or keep vigil for:

Harper
Pogo’s friend Pat and special comfort for Pogo,
Montrovant for continued progress in his transition.
Seagal and Mr. Seagal.
Beautress for wellness
Kat for wellness
Mindful and her shoulder for healing
All those we love and care about who aren't on the list.
JustAnotherNut for wellness
Peach's Mr. P for wellness and successful surgery and comfort/peace for Peach.
Ringel and Ms Ringel - comfort, wellness, solutions for both.
Extra prayers/positive vibes for gallantwarrior dealing with his own health issues as well as a terribly difficult situation with Rod and increased responsibilities and also for Rod's healing in mind, body, and spirit.
Gracie for wellness, good solutions, and a conquering spirit.
Did we miss anybody? Jog my memory please.

And we leave a light on so that those who have been away can find their way back.

I always remember the mistake.

 

[beautress]

When it rains it pours.... arggggghhh!!!
Someone has drilled thru some pipe work at a job at Warwick. Flooded out and a message was sent to me to go and sort it out. Argggghhhhh!

So glad you joined us in the coffee shop, Mr. Batty. We've had our share of cold rain this season deep in the heart of Texas--well, okay, the appendix area is the lovely Piney Woods of East Texas....or are we the whiskers? lol The wet can be dreary some days out here in the sticks and floodplains that our farmland becomes this time of year, and what a wet one it is this time. May sunshine come into the hearts of all who have too much rain.

​

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

I’m about 500 yards away from the castle.



An Anglo-Saxon burh was established on the site in 914; with fortifications instigated by Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great. The burh she established was one of ten which defended Mercia against the invading Danes. Its position allowed it to dominate the Fosse Way, as well as the river valley and the crossing over the River Avon. Though the motte to the south-west of the present castle is now called "Ethelfleda's Mound" ('Ethelfleda' being an alternative form of Æthelflæd), it is in fact part of the later Norman fortifications, and not of Anglo-Saxon origin

 

[beautress]

I’m about 500 yards away from the castle.



An Anglo-Saxon burh was established on the site in 914; with fortifications instigated by Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great. The burh she established was one of ten which defended Mercia against the invading Danes. Its position allowed it to dominate the Fosse Way, as well as the river valley and the crossing over the River Avon. Though the motte to the south-west of the present castle is now called "Ethelfleda's Mound" ('Ethelfleda' being an alternative form of Æthelflæd), it is in fact part of the later Norman fortifications, and not of Anglo-Saxon origin

Wow that is an eyefull of sunshine on a beautiful piece of historic architecture and green natural turf. Thank you for sharing, Mr. Batty. It's a beautiful world over there.

 

[beautress]

Maybe the CS should be renamed Colonoscopy Shop? lol
Seems all of us are being ass reamed lately.

Saw my regular doc today. He said the hospital was having a cow because while I was under, my BP went from 213/81 to 226/96. Unfortunately, there isn't much more they can do about my high BP cuz I have a slow heartbeat. Usually, its supposed to 60 beats per minutes or thereabouts. MIne is usually 50. So the meds I take will just make is slower and that won't be good, he said. So...he upped my HZTZ to 25 instead of the 12.5 I am taking now. And, once I quit smoking, that should help too. He ordered me some Wellburtin (zyban) to take along with wearing my patches and that outta do the trick of getting me smoke free. We hope.

Talked to GI doc too. He won't get the results from the biopsies he sent in, for at least another week. So..I wait. Again. But..at least what needed done got done and now it's up to God on whether I have something horrible..or not. Hey, can't live forever!!!

Like Roy I quit cold turkey after many many attempts to quit. The first time I managed to stay off the cigs long enough that the American Cancer Society trained me to be a mentor to help others quit. (I was exec drtr of a large social agency at that time so had the space and ability to run stop smoking clinics. They were pretty good but I found their methods at that time to have very limited success rates. That was back in the 1970's.)

And then I went through a particularly stressful time, was at a conference in Colorado and my assigned roomie was a smoker and had left her opened pack in the room when I checked in and for whatever stupid reason, I took a cig and left her a dime. Then bought a pack. . .

And I was hooked again. Bad hooked. In no time I was up to two/three packs a day.

Quit many times after that.

The last time and final time roughly going on 30 years ago now, I read Francis Hunter's book God is Fabulous that devotes a chapter to how she quit chain smoking. My experience was considerably different from hers--most everybody is a little different. But she persuaded me to put it in God's hands and asked him to help me quit. I threw out all the remaining cigs in the house.

The pattern--what to expect when quitting cold turkey:

The first 72 hours are the toughest and the cravings begin quick and come hard and fairly close together.

Each initial craving is powerful enough to take you to your knees and you think you can't stand it. But if you lean into it and try to make it feel as bad as possible it will subside. Until the next one. Try to stay physically active/busy during those times and it is easier than when sitting, doing computer stuff, reading, or doing other activities in which we normally smoke.

After 48 hours you will notice the cravings are still terrible but not quite so intense and are of shorter duration. And there will be somewhat longer intervals between them. Treat each one the same way though--lean into it, fully experience it. Feel noble that you can take it.

Though most is gone in that first 72 hours, it will take up to 21 days for the nicotine to fully metabolize and no longer be in your body. By that time the craving are still powerful but coming less frequently.

Once the nicotine is gone and the addiction itself is broken, we are dealing with doing without a psychological habit that was comforting and pleasurable for us--still real and still stressful, but different. What feels like cravings still occur but they are our mind messing with us instead of our body demanding. There's nothing to do with our hands when we feel stressed or are working out problems in our head. Nothing to do while thinking of what to say next or what to do next. We miss smoking for anger management. But It is far easier to distract ourselves from these intermittent false cravings and they too subside, usually fairly quickly.

And one day we realize we have gone several hours without thinking about smoking. And we get to the point that we go several days without a craving.

I'll be honest. It took years before I reached the point that I no longer had any desire to smoke at all. That I didn't miss it. That the smell of cigarette smoke became unpleasant to me. I was one who enjoyed smoking very much.

But it was worth it.

--Overall general health does improve and your risk of a lot of debilitating, even deadly, diseases is much lessened.
--Some folks say food tastes a lot better. (I honestly don't know that it did for me but it sure didn't taste any worse.)
--There is no more discomfort when in no smoking environments.
--We smell a lot better to non smokers. Our breath is much sweeter. (In all honesty though, I hate being around cigarette smoke now, but don't mind being around smokers and have many in my life.)
--We save a ton of money. (These days a pack of cigs runs close to $6 pack so a pack a day smoker will save more than $2,000/year and infinite time by quitting.)
--And for me the greatest blessing was enjoying smoke free environments instead of planning a short duration in them. Not having to find some place I could have a smoke.

Yes, it was not easy. Breaking any substance addiction may be one of the hardest things we will ever have to do on a long term basis. But it's worth it.

I quit three years ago with Chantix. I cannot say I am a non smoker because I would love to have one right now. I'm "quitting..." I have advanced COPD, on oxygen and my pulmonologist says I should get my things in order, but don't call in the family yet...Sounds like a time for a cigarette to me!
or Maybe Not.

You can kick it with a recipe I discovered when I was trying to get rid of pneumonia. It said it was for lung cancer but was also effective for asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia. You need a food processor or a cup of distilled water in a large blender: 3 sticks celery cut in 2" logs; two beets quartered; 2 carrots, cut in 2" intervals; 4 radishes; 2 cloves garlic; one apple, core and seeds removed, quartered. blend until in liquid form. Add distilled water if too thick. Use drink for one meal. Drink it all. I hate it, so I hold my nose while I am drinking and blocking air that makes you able to taste the #@&%* stuff. (insert expletive of your choice). You have to do it every day for 45 days. It's supposed to make you hear your doctor say, "What th' ???" when he examines your next clear chest ex-ray. For some reason, my pneumonia went away, but a few weeks later, I unwisely didn't cover my face when mowing the fallow fields out front that had the wild weeds (not grass) turned black, probably with mold which I am allergic to since forever and ago. I also found some equally disgusting health drinks that have beet juice in them and they taste like #@&%* too, except they're sweeter. The carrot juice is really good, and the one I got said it had 900% of your vitamin A requirement in it, which is also antagonistic to chest and breathing issues. Right now, my lungs are clear of all garbage that was wheezed up and down the pipes at night, and I'm pretty happy about not wheezing. I'm also changing from milk-soaked cereal in the morning to an egg omelette with cut up garlic, green onion, and mild packaged peppers minced fine in the mix with a few beef smokies. That's probably bad, but it's better than trying to hold my breath, chew food, and not get it down the offended pipes which would make me say more #@&^* words.

Love ya! Get well, girls and guys with testy chesty issues.

Oh I forgot to mention up there ^^^ that a friend of mine who has emphasema asked me to research anything he can do. I was pretty reluctant, because my outdated 80's health schools tended to go with the never-ending fire story about emphasema. I checked it out and nutritionists have done some discoveries about turning emphasema. Several tests that were run on thousands of people that had some other condition were taking vitamin A. Those who were known to have had emphasema didn't have it any more. Apparently the Vitamin A was thought to have influenced the emphasema fire theory as bogus as a hopeless condition, so they ran some more tests on people whose problem was emphasema, and they ran Vitamin A against a placebo. Test after test kept coming up with reduced the size of the emphasema lesions in the tests along with numerous x-rays showing reduced affliction to total absence of the disease. My doctor ran some tests on me a few years back and found me deficient in potassium, Vitamin D and Vitamin A. I took supplements for a while, but stopped when my fatigue went away. Now I'm getting leg cramps and reviewed studies in potassium, A and D. I'm going upstairs and starting over, except this time, I'm not going to quit because of Vitamin A helping people with lung problems so much. It's also the eye vitamin, and people who also take Lutein along with their regular One-a-Day vitamins have less trouble with eye pain when driving at night when combined with vitamin A. If you add Collagen and Biotin supplements, your skin clears up and you look younger. The new creams available even at walmart now can eliminate the crows feet near the eyes, puffy areas above and below the eye, and get rid of those cruddy rings that form at the base of the neck when you hit 60. When I tried it, 3 months later all those wrinkles disappeared, which was unheard of 25 years ago. Now, Hollywood actresses are still working up into their 70s with no wrinkles on their faces any more.

Oh, my, I'd be getting myself chewed out if this were a political thread and i strayed in four directions from the topic. <giggle>

Anyway, my emphasema friend called me the other day and he went and got a bottle of vitamin A. Hopefully, we'll still be pals 10 years from now instead of me having another friend who's 6 feet under.

That does it. After my cuppa coffee, I'm going straight upstairs and working on another ship quilt. I have enough squares in process to make 4 blue quilts for charity. I spent a couple of months making nothing but pink quilts for EJ's granddaughters and a whole lotta fire engines for the 5 grandsons who were EJ's heirs as well. When the roses bloom, I'm gonna take a couple of them to lay on EJ's grave, and his wife who died 10 years ago. His mother lopped off about 15 acres for a family plot years ago, so they're situated right next to the farm they held onto through the depression in the 30s and back several generations.