I was a seasoned smoker for around 28 yrs, before i finally managed to quit i was smokeing 50 ciggerettes a day.
I had made several attempts over the last ten yrs to quit by purchaseing the stop smoking patches from the chemist, i mean come on, buying the patches was cheaper than buying the ciggerettes so it was definately worth a try.
On my first attempt i thought i did pretty well, i managed to stay off the ciggies for 12 weeks, a whole 3 months was brilliant i thought, until my husband drove me insane taunting me because he was trying to do it without anything.
I snapped and told him to go get ciggies before i killed him and that my friend was that.
My second attempt, i managed 8 weeks, my son went into hospital and the pressure simply became too much , my ciggies had become my dummy, so back i went to them again.
My third and final attempt with the patches was a few years ago,i had gone to bed with a pain in my side and had woke up feeling as if i couldnt breathe, like a cheasty cold had come on me during the night.
I asked my hubby to make me an appointment to get some antibiotics, only to discover when i got there that my lung had deflated.
Now if that wasnt reason to pack in smokeing for good, id eat my hat, so this time i made an appointment with the nurse and decided to use the patches but with her monitoring my progress.
Id already gone a week in the hospital without ciggies or the patches, but i wasnt sure my will power would hold up so off to the nurse i went.
She was a great support, gave me extra lozengers when things got tough in party situations ect, but alas it was again only to last 8 weeks, when bang, my son ended up in hospital again.
At that moment i really gave up on the idea of ever being able to quit smokeing, lordy if a burst lung couldnt force me to quit, nothing would.
Unfortunatetly, i noticed after each failed attempt, i actually smoked more than i had before, and up until 7 months ago i was smokeing 50 ciggerettes a day.
Well around june time this yr, our circumstances changed drastically finacially, as my disabbled son was now going to be claimimg his money in his own right, so our money was being slashed by half.
Very begrudgingly, around april , my hubby and i agreed that we needed to quit smokeing, simply because we couldnt afford to keep it up, it was going to be real tough as it was a stressful time but we had to try.
I was telling a dear friend whom i hadnt seen in a couple of months about our circumstances and i was amazed to hear that both her and her hubby had been non smokers for about 6 weeks at the time.
She told me that she had gone to an N.H.S stop smokieing program and had been useing a tablet called CHAMPIX to help them quit.
I was so excited for her, i wanted to know the ins and outs of this wonderful drug that had made her smoke free for 6 weeks, so i could rush back and tell my hubby bill.
Let me explain to those who might be interested in trying this product, how it works.
You go to the clinic every week, they take your details because you need to be monitered and the prescriptions are written up by your doctor.
So no show, no tablets, simple as that.
Im not sure if this is a good thing or not, but you actually get to still smoke for up to two weeks whilst taking your first pack of tablets, you pick a quit date and try your best to stick with it.
You get your first pack of tablets and inside they have the days of the week on, much like a pill packet would, now the first colum of tablets are only a sml dosage, only one tabletto be taken a day so that your body doesnt go into too much shock from the changes.
The second and final week of your still smoking, the tabblet dosage goes up by taking one tabblet in the morning and one at night.
Trust me, these things work, in my first week on the low doasge, i dropped from 50 ciggerettes a day to 30, then two days later i was on 18, i was estatic, the need for nicotine was getting less and less.
The great thing is ,that you actually start to dicipline yourself right away, if i can only smoke this today, wel try that tommorow, and it works.
I was doing really well on my 18 a day for a couple of days when i started my second lot of tablets at the higher dose, i got overly cocky and had my friends round for a drink, i was so excited that i actually ended up smokeing 30 ciggerettes that night, and only two days away from my quit date.
I was absaloutely broken hearted and dissapointed in myself that i cried, i had two choices right there and then, carry on smokeing, or quit, right here and right now.
I have never touched another ciggerette from that day.
You continue to take the tablets for up to 12 weeks, so they actually numb the receptors in the brain that crave the nicotine,infact you will find rather quickly that the taste of a ciggerette becomes awful and the smell of a lit ciggerette can make you feel sick.
As far as side effects go, it may be different for everyone, but my husbband went through a bout of bad mood swings that lasted about two weeks, two weeks into the course, it was monitored and if it hadnt let up they were going to take the tablets off him, lucky for him it passed, it was just anxiety.
For me, i struggled to take the two tabblets every day as they were starting to make me feel sick, so on my own head i cut it down to one a day in the evening and that worked just as well for me.In the first two weeks i suffered some head aches but it was just my body adjusting and i would certainly reccommend this treatment for even the hardened smokers.
Other than that, we have had no problems.
My hubby and i worried that come the end of the course that we might crave the tablets or the need for nicotine might return, neither is true, your last box of tablets is similar to your first, only it goes high dose, followed by low dose, then gone, 3 months smoke free :)
You are never on your own as far as support goes, they give you support numbers to call if needed and they can change your drop in centre if you cant make a certain day or time, also you recieve letters after 6 months to see how your doing and again after a year. The support is on going for as long as you need it.
The way i conqoured my anxiety was to take the money i was spending on the smokes and buy paint for every room in the house, my hubby and i spent the whole summer redecorating every room in the house to get rid of the smell, we re-washed all of our clothing, curtains, bedding, rugs, you name it, we cleaned it, it was amazeing.
Now we have a beautiful, clean ,healthy enviroment that we call home, and we have had some real hard knocks in the past 6 months that would have definately made me return to smoking had i tried another route other than champix.
My son has had two operations and is in hospital for the forth week running with an illness they cant put there finger on as i write this, so i thank god for the N.H.S smokeing helpline and for champix, long may i remain a non smoker :) xxx
